17:41 Wednesday 3rd June 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
TIM JONES: We support social enterprises to get going through incubation, innovation and we have something called a future business centre on Kings Hedges Road in Cambridge. That’s a new centre.
SAM EDWARDS: How’s that been going?
TIM JONES: Superb. It is full. We are bursting at the seams. It’s absolutely full. We have cohorts of people coming through the incubation programme. And we have had several hundred now people and enterprises through the doors, many of which have taken root and become enormously successful.
SAM EDWARDS: So you’ll be hoping to bring the same success then to Peterborough.
TIM JONES: Absolutely. The idea is that we can replicate what we’ve done in Cambridge, and do that in Peterborough. Peterborough as you know is a growing city. It’s growing very fast. It is a very successful dynamic city, but quite different from Cambridge, and quite different needs. So we see there being a need for us to bring our sort of social inclusion agenda to play in Peterborough as well.
SAM EDWARDS: And how many businesses Tim could you have at this future business centre at Peterborough United’s stadium?
TIM JONES: Bit of a piece of string question really, because of course it depends upon if you’re going to have one man bands, you know, start ups, an individual with a business idea or if it’s going to be an established charity that’s taking space there, or of it’s going to be a social endeavour, or a cleantech enterprise. But it’s very hard to tell how many there will be, but there will be an incubation centre as part of the Peterborough offering. And that will, if it’s like Cambridge, will probably have several hundred people, individuals, coming through, starting their idea up, and trying to get it off the ground.
SAM EDWARDS: And this originally Tim was meant to provide education facilities to younger people. Why the change now to move this into a business centre instead?
TIM JONES: I don’t know. The history of the building, the City Council’s plans for it of course are way before our time. So I can only guess that life has moved on, things have changed.
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