Tag: Stewart Jackson

Peterborough District Hospital Site Sold For Housing

08:25 Tuesday 26th November 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: It’s been derelict for more than two years, but now the former Peterborough District Hospital site has finally been sold. Since the new PCH site opened at Bretton, Peterborough and Stamford Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust have been trying to sell the site to plug a huge shortfall in the budget. Interim Chief Executive Dr Peter Reading explained why the sale had taken so long to go through.
(TAPE)
DR PETER READING: Well two reasons really. One is the collapse of the property market caught the Trust cold several years ago. They originally were planning to develop it themselves in a joint venture, and the collapse in the property market really wiped that option out. They then went down what was a bit of a blind alley, looking at a particular deal that was put forward by a developer by an unusual route, and then eventually decided that actually the best thing to do was to go to the open market and get an open market price. The Hospital, which has been a bit of an eyesore and a bit of a risk for three years since we closed it, will now be demolished, and between 300 and 350 new homes and a school will be built on that site.
(LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Now the new owners planning that housing development are Lands Improvement Holdings. The NHS will receive £7.75 million up front from the sale of the land, which is just a fraction of the debt owed by the new Peterborough City Hospital. Joining me now is MP for Peterborough Stewart Jackson. Stewart, morning.
STEWART JACKSON: Good morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: Now you’ve called for this to be hurried up and get the sale moved on over and over and over. It’s been a long time coming, hasn’t it?
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Stewart Jackson On Political Engagement

17:07 Friday 22nd November 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[C]HRIS MANN: This hour we’re asking why do so few people vote or get involved in public life. Why are people apparently turning their backs on the idea of the Big Society? Is it apathy? And does anyone care? Is the answer that we should be able to do more on-line, like vote in referenda and elections? Yesterday there were local elections in the county, and about one in three bothered to vote. In the PCC elections a year ago fewer than 15% voted. And now the idea of neighbourhood panels has been scrapped here in East Cambs, because no-one it appeared was bothering to attend. So much for the Big vaunted Society the Prime Minister had put so much store by. Well earlier I asked Conservative MP for Peterborough Stewart Jackson what was in the theory, and what was it all supposed to be about?
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Peterborough Energy Park Debate Janine Machin Talks To Marco Cereste

18:35 Tuesday 5th November 2013
BBC Look East West

[J]ANINE MACHIN: Good evening. First tonight, “it’s full of flaws, subterfuge and a risk to the taxpayer”. What the Energy Minister has been told today about plans for a giant solar and wind farm near Peterborough. The accusation came from the city’s MP Stewart Jackson, who organised a special debate in Westminster. The Council’s plan is to turn nine hundred acres of farmland into an energy park. Emma Baugh reports.
(TAPE)
GREG BARKER: When I hear of monster projects which potentially can turn what is a popular, intuitive and increasingly affordable technology, to turn that into something that is unpopular, that is inappropriate, I become very very worried indeed.
EMMA BAUGH: Energy Minister Gregory Barker in Westminster today. And this is what he’s talking about. Peterborough City Council’s plans to turn this farmland into one of Europe’s largest solar farms. But today the city’s MP claimed this development could jeopardise the city’s finances.
STEWART JACKSON: There is a chance that this project will be a financial disaster and actually make a loss, and even bankrupt the City of Peterborough. But it’s the way they treated local people, frankly with disdain.
EMMA BAUGH: The City Council insists it is listening, and says the plan could mean fewer cuts. So while the energy farm is being planned for fields away from here, it will have a direct impact on services in the city itself. The Council wants to borrow more than £100 million to build it, and they say that will give them more than £30 million profit. And if it doesn’t go ahead, they’ll have to find that money from somewhere else.
EMMA BAUGH: In Peterborough today, the jury is still out.
(VOXPOP)
EMMA BAUGH: Meanwhile, the Government has said it could call in the plans if they’re given the go ahead locally, and may call a public inquiry. Emma Baugh BBC Look East.
(LIVE)
JANINE MACHIN: So how does Peterborough City Council feel about the MP’s public criticisms of its energy park plans? I asked the Leader earlier.
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Peterborough Council Solar Ambitions Debated At Westminster

07:07 Tuesday 5th November 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: The MP for Peterborough is raising the row over plans for a renewable energy park for Peterborough in the House of Commons. The City Council wants to build solar and wind farms on farmland it owns near Newborough and Thorney. The project will see the Council invest over £280 million, and could create over £30 million profit, which would be income for front line services. But MP Stewart Jackson is concerned about prime farmland being used for the project, and wants the Council to look at other options. His debate comes as local councillors and residents criticise the City Council for a lack of transparency with the plans. Let’s speak to some of those who are concerned right now. Mike Greene is part of the Newborough Landscape Protection Group and he’s with me this morning. Mike, morning.
MIKE GREENE: Morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: What are your prime concerns? We know what your concerns are about the solar farm. But what are your concerns about transparency, particularly from Peterborough City Council.
MIKE GREENE: It’s increasingly frustrating when we ask for information and we get half answers back, or when the team attended a scrutiny meeting, that they had faulty systems that meant that there wasn’t a full and complete copy of public records in effect.
PAUL STAINTON: There wasn’t a copy in public record of what was said.
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Peterborough Solar Farm Setback But A Glimmer Of Hope For North Westgate

07:49 Friday 25th October 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[D]OTTY MCLEOD: Council plans to build a solar farm on tenants’ farmland in Peterborough have been thrown into doubt, after archeologists discovered a number of artefacts believed to be from the Roman and Saxon eras. The findings were made earlier this week, but have been kept under wraps by the City Council officials. The archeological digs are being undertaken after experts from English Heritage and Cambridge University warned that the three sites being earmarked for the energy project could be riddled with remains. Peterborough City Council archeologists are now conducting tests to find out how old the finds are. Joining me now is Dr Francis Pryor, the man who discovered Flag Fen. Francis, does this surprise you at all?
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Cambridge Population Estimates – A Difference Of Opinion

08:18 Tuesday 15th October 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: Is Cambridgeshire being short changed by the Government, because the official figures suggest our population is lower than it actually is? That’s the question we’ve been asking all morning on the Bigger Breakfast, and trying to come up with ways of counting people proper – better – whatever. But Cambridge MP Julian Huppert and Peterborough’s Stewart Jackson are concerned that the Office for National Statistics are not giving accurate figures for the number of people who actually live in the county. Johnnie D. can explain what that means, and what effect it might have. First of all Johnnie, who are these people at the ONS, and how do they compile these statistics?
JOHN DEVINE: Good morning Paul. Yes, it’s their job to collect all sorts of information about the population and present that to the public. And they use things like official registrations of births and deaths, as well as information about migration, to try and predict which areas will grow in the coming years, and which areas will see a decrease in the population.
PAUL STAINTON: So are they accurate? That’s the big question, isn’t it?
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Stewart Jackson Post Conservative Conference 2013

17:22 Wednesday 2nd October 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[C]HRIS MANN: What does one of our leading local MPs feel about the Conference and how it went? Stewart Jackson joined me, the Conservative MP for Peterborough.
(TAPE)
STEWART JACKSON: Well I think what it did was to throw into sharp relief the big battles ahead. Because two or three weeks ago I think the people of this country thought it was going to be a battle about who could manage the country better, in terms of you’re all the same, you promise the same, you all look the same. And I think that that’s been blown out of the water now. We now have the biggest ideological battle I think for the future of our country since 1992. Two very stark competing visions of what Britain will look like after the next General Election, between principally Labour and the Conservatives. And I think that’s good for democracy …
CHRIS MANN: (GRUNTS)
STEWART JACKSON: … and it’s given people a clear choice.
CHRIS MANN: Is it the choice between a party with compassion, that’s Labour, and one, the Conservatives, who don’t really care about people at the bottom of society?
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Lisa Forbes And Stewart Jackson On Ed Miliband

07:38 Wednesday 25th September 2013
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: We’re talking Ed Miliband as well. Full of promises in his speech at his party’s conference yesterday. He pledged to freeze gas and electricity prices until 2017, build thousands of new homes, 200,000 a year, cut taxes for smaller firms, give younger teenagers the vote, repeal the Government’s change to housing benefit. He went on and on and on. And all of that of course is if his party wins the next General Election. If. But it was his big energy freeze that grabbed the headlines. The energy companies though this morning warned such a freeze could lead to energy blackouts. Labour have rubbished those claims, and will write to the big energy companies to explain the policy in greater detail. But we can talk now to Labour’s Parliamentary Candidate for Peterborough, councillor Lisa Forbes, who’s with us and enjoying the conference. Morning Lisa.
LISA FORBES: Good morning.
PAUL STAINTON: Did you enjoy yesterday? He certainly knocked out the bullets and the guns, didn’t he? Brought the big guns out yesterday. Continue reading “Lisa Forbes And Stewart Jackson On Ed Miliband”