09:08 Tuesday 4th February 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire
[P]AUL STAINTON: Parents in Peterborough say they will not take the decision to close eight children’s centres lying down. Members of the City Council’s Cabinet yesterday approved plans for the change of use of eight centres, and to set up four new hub centres and three new outreach hubs. .. On the line now is Angela Brennan from the campaign group Save Peterborough’s Children’s Centres. Angela, morning.
ANGELA BRENNAN: Good morning.
PAUL STAINTON: Are the Council thinking about children here, or they just thinking about cash?
ANGELA BRENNAN: No they’re definitely not. In fact the decision to vote yesterday wasn’t even a vote. It was led. Basically it’s given us the impression that it was done in the pre-meeting at nine a.m. It was cold, quick, with no emotion.
PAUL STAINTON: Now we were told that there were wide-reaching consultations here. There were worries about this, and the Council said they were listening. Did they listen?
ANGELA BRENNAN: The Council haven’t listened to anything the public said. There’s 2,000 petition names saying what the public want. Scrutiny and the Full Council advised them to read that they needed to explore more options, and defer the decisions, but they still ignored them both. What does it say? It says they don’t care about the people. They care about the money.
PAUL STAINTON: Is this democracy in action?
ANGELA BRENNAN: There was no democratic action there. It was just one person leading the whole lot. It’s being bullied.
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