Category: Conversations

Bob Satchwell on Old Media, New Media and the Spread of the Metro

17:19 Friday 12th November 2010
Drivetime BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

ANDY GALL: Local newspapers could lose out following an announcement by the London freesheet The Metro to hand out fifty thousand extra copies of its daily paper to commuters travelling from the region. People from Cambridge, Peterborough, Ipswich and Bedford will be among those able to read the paper. Bob Satchwell is the Director of the Society of Editors and former editor of the Cambridge Evening News, and we should be able to speak to him now. Good afternoon Bob.
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Nick Sandford on Missed Deadlines in Consultant Inquiry

Back in January 2010 Cllr Mike Fletcher posed a number of questions to Peterborough City Council relating to the amount of money spent by the Council on consultants. In March a Committee was set up to look into the matter. They were due to report back in September. This was put back to November without notice, and now they have produced an Interim Report stating that the questions will be answered in February 2011. Liberal Democrat Cllr Nick Sandford is a Member of that Committee, and he tells the BBC what progress they have made.
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Call for Minister to Intervene on Consultant Secrecy

Back in January questions were asked by the Chairman of the Sustainable Growth Scrutiny Committee about the full extent of Council’s financial involvement with consultants, said to be twelve million pounds a year and rising. A report was promised in June, then again in September, then again in November, and now the answers to those questions have been put back to February of next year.
In the meantime the Chairman has been ousted from his post. Today he gives the BBC some more details of his cause for concern, including the fact that consultants have been paid one thousand pounds a day. The constant reluctance on Council’s part to deliver the information requested has prompted him to join with MP Stewart Jackson in writing to the Minister for Local Government to ask him to act to get to the truth about the issue.
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Pensioners Must Pay More for Allotments

As part of their programme of cuts, Peterborough City Council is ending its discount for pensioners who cultivate an allotment. A senior councillor questions the integrity of this policy, and asks how it fits with the Council’s stated aim to become Home of Environment Capital. And the councillor suspects that Peterborough Council may have a darker motive.
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Neglecting the Built Environment

Properties in Ravensthorpe are being abandoned and attracting vandalism. Council say they are prevented from dealing with the problem due to legal constraints. Some properties are reported as being empty and boarded up for ten years. Locals feel the problem is becoming a blight on the estate.
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