Category: Peterborough

Chisholm Trail showing signs of progress

07:46 Friday 5th February 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: Over the next five years £100 million is going to be spent making Cambridge an easier place to get around. It’s hoped that the money coming from the City Deal will improve roads, cycle paths and public transport. There has been criticism that these schemes aren’t happening quickly enough. One of those which has been long hoped for is the £8.4 million Chisholm Trail, the cycle and walking route that would link North and South Cambridge. Our reporter Sara Varey is on the proposed route this morning. Hi Sara.
SARA VAREY: Hello there from Budster Bicycles. I’m down by the Leper Chapel, just off Newmarket Road, which a lot of people will scoot past as they’re going towards Fen Ditton probably, just on the left-hand side. An ancient chapel right next to the railway line, and every now and again there’s likely to be a train zooming past, full of commuters I’m sure. A peaceful spot, it’s part of the Chisholm Trail as you said. This trail is going to go across Ditton Meadows by the Chapel, Coldhams Common, Mill Road bridge through the blocked arches. It’ll run alongside the railway line to Cambridge Station. There’ll be an underpass under Newmarket Road. There’s also some short sections which will be on the road, including York Street, Ainsworth Street and Brampton Road, which of course are all off Mill Road. And the green spaces that will be linked up by this include Gonville and Caius, Ditton Meadows, Cambridge Past and Present, the Leper Chapel Meadows, the Barnwell Lake area and Coldham’s Common and Stourbridge Common. So it crosses some of the most beautiful places in Cambridge actually. And the idea is keep travelling off the road. keep the cyclists off the road. Give them a safe and attractive way to actually travel to work or for pleasure. But as you say, there has been some controversy about this. Not everybody’s pleased with the progress of this. All these projects under the City Deal were supposed to have been completed within five years. This is likely to be the first one to be completed, and so far we don ‘t actually have a date, although the consultation period has just ended.
DOTTY MCLEOD: Yes. Sara. Thank you very much for that, on the route of the proposed Chisholm Trail. There was a survey carried out last year which showed that nearly 90% of people who responded said they would be in favour of the Chisholm Trail. Joining me now Lewis Herbert, who’s the Labour Leader of Cambridge City council. Morning Lewis.
LEWIS HERBERT: Morning Dotty.
DOTTY MCLEOD: Now Jim Chisholm, who was the man who had this idea for the cycle route linking North and South Cambridge, he says he first came up with it in 1998. It’s clearly now very popular. Why do these things take so long to come to fruition?
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Stewart Jackson on a British exit from the European Union

09:24 Wednesday 3rd February 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: We’re off to Europe. We’re in. We’re out. We’re shaking it all about. After months of waiting and negotiating David Cameron has returned from Brussels with a draft deal on Britain’s future in Europe. It will allow Britain to immediately impose what’s called an emergency brake on the payment of in-work benefits to EU migrants, if of course you, me and everybody else votes to stay in, whenever the referendum may be. It also includes plans for a red card system allowing national parliaments to collectively block EU proposals for new legislation. Mr Cameron described it as a ‘substantial change’.
DAVID CAMERON: I think that is a very strong and powerful package. As I’ve said, none of this is agreed yet. None of the detail is fixed. There’s more work to be done. This European Council doesn’t meet and discuss and debate all this for a couple of weeks. But I think we have secured some very important changes which go directly to the issues that we raised as a Member of the European Union.
PAUL STAINTON: However the proposals have been criticised for not going far enough. David Cameron wanted to deny benefits to EU migrants for four years, but the proposals stop short of that. Instead benefits will be withheld to start with, then gradually restored over the four years. It’s also not clear how easy it will be to pull the so-called emergency brake, or how long that might last. The Conservatives also pledged in their manifesto to stop EU migrants sending their child benefit back home. Under the new proposals the payments will continue, but they’ll be linked to local prices in the child’s country. Richard Tice is the founder of Leave.EU. Not impressed I think it’s fair to say.
RICHARD TICE: There’s absolutely nothing in this document. The Prime Minister is trying to deceive the British people by saying that there’s substantial change. There is nothing except a restatement of the existing status quo. We’ve already got a veto with other parliaments, with other nations, through the Council of Ministers, so the red card system is a complete red herring.
PAUL STAINTON: So what do you make of it? Has he got the deal that you wanted him to get? Is it enough to make you vote to stay in the Union if we get a referendum say June or July? Or has it all been a complete waste of time? We’d like to hear what you think this morning. 03459 252000. 81333 on text. Let’s get the reaction from some of our local MPs. Stewart Jackson is the MP for Peterborough. Very critical of David Cameron’s stance on Europe before. Has he brought home the bacon Stewart?
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Cambridgeshire Police Commissioner candidate warns of incipient privatisation

10:24 Monday 1st February 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: We’re also talking anti-social behaviour. Many of you getting in touch today with your stories. We heard from John earlier. Les from Cambridge says “After nine months of stone-throwing against my window amongst other things my support worker organised mediation. Any way, I think we need to join up the thinking between unemployment, anti-social behaviour and immigration.” says Les from Cambridge. Obviously I haven’t seen any studies that do link those, but maybe there is something there says Les in Cambridge. But if anti-social behaviour is making your life a misery we’d like to hear from you this morning. And how do you think we should stop it? We heard about the Arbury Estate in Cambridge earlier, where residents say drug use and poor driving were causing problems. Well now a row has broken out in Peterborough about how the city there should tackle anti-social behaviour. Some councillors say they want council staff to be able to tackle anti-social behaviour, which includes aggressive begging. But others are concerned about the scheme and want it thrown out. One of them who wants it thrown out is Labour councillor Ed Murphy. Ed, morning.
ED MURPHY: Good morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: What’s wrong with it, on the face of it, tackling anti-social behaviour?
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Bushfield Bowls Club launch new season with ‘spot the player’ competition

Bushfield Bowls Club has decided to launch the new season with a ‘spot the player’ competition. The photograph shows the club opening in May 1982, with our founding members ready for bowls. Do you recognise anyone? Can you ‘spot the player’? Can you find a relative or old colleague in the photo?

We offer discounted club membership for positive identifications and a prize for the best information. If you know anyone in the photograph, please contact Bernard Barker (01733 236241).

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Cash-strapped council raises rates and defers interest repayments

17:20 Friday 29th January 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: It looks like council tax will be going up by 4% in Peterborough next year. It’s one of the proposals in the City Council budget, announced today. Despite facing a deficit of £24 million next year, the Council is maintaining that no services will be cut. Our Political Reporter Hannah Olsson has more.
HANNAH OLSSON: It’s a legal requirement that every council must present a balanced budget, and this year hasn’t bee easy. Councils are facing a significant reduction in the amount of money they get from central government, alongside an ever-growing demand on their services. Peterborough City Council has a £24 million gap in its budget for next year. The first half of savings were announced at the end of last year, and today we found out about the second half. Many councils including Cambridgeshire say they’ll have no choice but to cut services, but Peterborough City Council say they’ve managed to pull the political rabbit out of the hat and balance their budget, and still provide the same services they are at the moment. I asked David Seaton who’s in charge of finance at the Council how they’ve done it.
DAVID SEATON: We’ve done it through things like the benefits of growth that we’ve seen, the extra income from council tax, the extra income from business rates, our innovative ways of doing things. And we’ve talked before about our customer experience programme, what that can do for us, and also the joint working we’re doing with other councils, and the income we’re getting from that.
HANNAH OLSSON: As David mentioned there, the key reason that Peterborough is in a healthier position that other councils is that it’s had so much growth in recent years. Peterborough is the third fastest growing city in the UK, and with new homes being built and new businesses opening, the Council simply gets more money.
CHRIS MANN: Yes Hannah but even with that, the Council still needs to find an extra £24 million next year. So how are they going to do that?
HANNAH OLSSON: Well one of the ways they’re saving money is through some clever refinancing of the Council’s debt. They’ve already told us in budget part one how they’ll be extending the debt on their assets from 25 to 42 years. They’ve now said they’re also going to be making these debt repayments more like mortgages, so the rate of interest is higher, but means the repayment is the same over the whole period, which in short means they won’t cost them as much now. There’s also going to be some savings in their staff costs. They’ll be closing their office between Christmas and New Year, stopping all the automatic pay increases for around 20% of council staff, and changing the way their staff are paid for travel. And of course they’re also planning to raise money by putting up council tax by 4%. Councils always have the option of increasing tax by 2%, but this year the Government also said they could add on an extra 2% as long as this money is spent on adult social care. Earlier in the week we heard that Cambridgeshire County Council isn’t planning on taking the Government up on this extra 2% offer, but Peterborough is.
CHRIS MANN: So ratepayers will want to know just how much does this extra money, this 4% rise, work out at.
HANNAH OLSSON: Well for the average Band D property, the council tax increase would work out at an extra 87p a week. Now the Band D property is a benchmark people use when we’re talking about tax rises. But it’s worth saying that the average property in Peterborough is actually Band B, so they would see an increase of 67p a week. This rise would add up to an extra £2.4 million for the Council’s coffers, although as I said half of this will have to be spent on adult social care. At the moment these are all still proposals. The final decision will be made on 9th march following a public consultation.
CHRIS MANN: Hannah Olsson there with that special report. Well let’s bring in the Leader of Peterborough City Council, John Holdich. Evening John.
JOHN HOLDICH: (DELAY) … believe me after an introduction like that. She’s really understood it.
CHRIS MANN: Good. (LAUGHS) Well glad that we’re presenting the facts.
JOHN HOLDICH: Good.
CHRIS MANN: But you’re caught between a rock and a hard place, because you say that you’re not cutting any services, but you have to save money. Are you sure nothing is going to be cut?
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Selective landlord licensing – the devil in the detail

07:21 Thursday 21st January 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: Peterborough has been reviewing the results of a consultation on whether to charge landlords in parts of the city hundreds of pounds to license their properties. It was an attempt to crack down on anti-social behaviour and unscrupulous landlords, but it proved controversial and provoked allegations of racism when the Council carried out a consultation on the scheme back in 2013. The scheme was deferred again in September last year, only a week after it was put back on the table, and then re-introduced again a month later in October 2015. My producer Dave Webster joins me now. So Dave, how was this scheme actually going to work?
DAVE WEBSTER: Well it’s called selective landlord licensing, and initially it was only going to apply, or it wasn’t going to apply to all landlords in Peterborough, just the ones that have problems in the Gladstone, Millfield, New England and Eastfield areas. Now landlords would have to fill out a form registering the property, that’s for an initial five year period. There was going to be a fee, around about £600, but after consultation with various associations and letting agents, that was dropped to £50. Detractors claimed it was racist, unfairly targeting Asian landlords, who are prevalent in the target area. It would mean additional costs would be passed on to tenants.
DOTTY MCLEOD: And so why was it thought that a scheme like this was needed?
DAVE WEBSTER: Well in short it was designed to try to improve areas of the city to deal with anti-social behaviour, poor quality rental homes and criminal landlords. They’ve been introduced by other councils already. The Government gave the local authorities the power to introduce these licences back in 2006. For example, they’ve had a scheme running in Margate for the last five years. They’ve prosecuted twenty landlords who hadn’t applied for a licence, the maximum fine being £20,000.
DOTTY MCLEOD: And since 2013, this has been a bit of an hokey cokey of a Council policy in that it’s been in, it’s been out, it’s been suggested, it’s been deferred. What’s happened now?
DAVE WEBSTER: Yes. A highly controversial policy. For example landlords queried why the scheme was only proposed for one part of the city, and not make it pan-city wide. back in September last year we reported that councillor Peter Hiller made the decision to defer the scheme. He’s the Council’s Cabinet member for Growth, Planning, Housing and Economic Development. Now in a statement he said that a change to Government legislation in April meant that the Council now required approval from the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government to introduce selective licensing into the target area. So the story is not over yet Dotty. It needs to be signed off by the Secretary of State if the target area contains more than 20% of privately rented homes in the entire area controlled by the Council, which in this case it did. So then a month later in October last year it was put back on the table would you believe it. The aspiration is it will change the quality of life for private tenants. .. Lisa Forbes is the Chair of the Peterborough City Council’s Scrutiny Committee, which met last night to talk about these plans. Morning Lisa.
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