Category: Conversations

Rebellion in the Tory ranks – keeping order on Peterborough City Council

He never actually resigned. Let’s make that absolutely clear.

17:11 Friday 15th May 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PETER SWAN: Let’s focus on this evolving situation as regards Peterborough City Council. Now they say a week’s a long time in politics, and just seven days ago the Tories in Peterborough were opening the champagne after narrowly regaining control of the City Council. The Prime Minister even paid a visit to mark the occasion. But today it’s been a nail-biting few hours, as one of their number has been talking of resigning from the party to become an Independent. Sara who’s reading the news for you this afternoon and also producing is here to explain a little bit more about what’s been going on. Sara.
SARA VAREY: Well Peter as you say it all looked to be going so well. Here’s David Cameron in Peterborough just last week.
DAVID CAMERON: The people in Peterborough who worked so hard , who’ve done so well representing the people of this great city, that are seeing jobs being created, seeing businesses come to Peterborough, seeing great regeneration happening in Peterborough, homes being built in Peterborough, you won because you worked hard and you deserve to win. So have a celebration today, have a celebration over the weekend, and the work starts on Monday. I’ve got a small majority. John’s got a small majority. But I’m sure with the commitment and with the dedication you’ve all shown, you’re going to do great things for this great city. Thank you very much indeed.
SARA VAREY: Well the empties have barely been taken to the bottle bank and there’s trouble brewing. Tory councillor Gul Nawaz announced this morning he was thinking fo leaving the Tories.
PETER SWAN: OK. So just a few days. What’s he been thinking about?
SARA VAREY: Well summit meetings have been in progress all day. Peterborough’s MP Stewart Jackson said that he’d been in talks with Gul along with the Council Leader John Holdich.
PETER SWAN: So how then would this defection upset the balance? Clearly it’s very important.
SARA VAREY: It could be. The Tories has a majority of just one seat. They had 31 in a chamber of 60. That changed from 57, because this year they introduced new boundaries, and 3 extra councillors were elected, which makes a total of 60. Right? Are you following this?
PETER SWAN: Yes.
SARA VAREY: So if it was tied, it would be 30 all. 30 all. OK?
PETER SWAN: Yes.
SARA VAREY: With Labour .. because the Labour councillors hold 14 seats, so there’s no other big majority or bigger majority.
PETER SWAN: OK. So what is the mechanism therefore if it does end up tied?
SARA VAREY: The Mayor has the casting vote. And the way the Mayor is chosen has also changed.
PETER SWAN: OK. Right. So tell us more about that.
SARA VAREY: Under the new system, the longest-serving councillor gets the job, and the man who holds that title is David Sanders, who’s a Tory, which means there could still be a happy if somewhat precarious outcome.
PETER SWAN: Ok so that’s the mechanism of it all. Are we at an end now?
SARA VAREY: Well almost. Half an hour ago we heard that Gul had now decided to stay. He didn’t want to come on, but John Holdich has agreed to come on and he can fill us in.
PETER SWAN: Well I’ll tell you what we’ll do. We’ll head over and get the latest from the roads, and then we’ll speak to John and see if we can unpick all of this. Because certainly a lot to take on board.

TRAVEL

PETER SWAN: It’s been a very busy day in terms of Peterborough politics. The balance of power potentially looking like it may change, but now it looks as though it’s all going to stay the same. Let’s get a word then with the current Tory Leader of Peterborough City Council, John Holdich, who joins us now. Evening to you John.
JOHN HOLDICH: Good evening.
PETER SWAN: So you’ve had a busy few hours.
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PECT action on litter

10:23 Thursday 12th May 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: Litter a hot topic with you guys this morning. It really is. This from Trev in Manea who says:“We have a dedicated group. We get together once a month or so and tidy up in different parts of the village.” Great respect for them. Dale in Eye says:”Paul what an absolute disgrace and an awful introduction to England the link road is from Stansted Airport to the M11. It’s covered in litter and multiple potholes. It’s absolutely unbelievable.” Yes. And you know you could say well they should clear it up, they should clean it up. But should people have to clear up after people? And why? Why do some people in society think it’s acceptable to litter the countryside and just make it look a mess. Does it drive you mad? Just what goes on in the mind of someone who throws crisp packets out the car windows? Campaigners have found 20 year old crisp packets in the Forest of Dean. And we’ve found some old coke cans and all sorts this morning. And we’ve just had a little look. We haven’t even done it scientifically. Well let’s speak to Jen Orrell who’s on the Communities Team at Peterborough Environment City Trust, who try and look after Peterborough anyway. Jen, morning.
JENNIFER ORRELL: Good morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: What would you like to do with people who litter the countryside? Can we broadcast it?
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Rogue marker threatens SATs tests

17:42 Tuesday 10th May 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: The Department of Education says it’s urgently investigating the online leak of a SATs test which has been taken today by 600,000 children aged ten and eleven in England. A source at the Department suggested to the BBC that primary school tests are being sabotaged by opponents of the Government’s reforms. The source blamed a rogue marker for the latest leak. Julie McCulloch is from the Association of School and College Leaders.
JULIE MCCULLOCH: We think it’s absolutely crucial that children are assessed, and that schools are held to account. We have serious concerns about the way that the SATs have changed this year. They have become significantly harder. Also what they’re actually assessing has changed, and that we think is probably the crucial thing to look at. Are they actually assessing the skills and the knowledge that children most need to succeed at secondary school and in their lives beyond, and we’re not convinced that they are.
CHRIS MANN: This is the second time in three weeks that a test paper has been published online. The answers to a spelling punctuation and grammar test had been mistakenly uploaded by the test supplier Pearson onto a password-protected website for test markers. The Schools Minister Nick Gibb told MPs an individual with access to the site then tried to leak them to a journalist, but it appeared they had not become public.
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Nationwide willing to lend money to pensioners

It tends to be the older people in society who’ve got a bit of cash. And the mortgage lenders just want some of that.

17:43 Monday 9th May 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: At what age are you too old to be in debt? One of the UK’s biggest lenders says it will lend mortgages to people until they are would you believe eighty five. But is that sensible, and what difficulties might it create? Kevin Peachey is the BBC’s Personal Finance Reporter and he joined me a little earlier.
KEVIN PEACHEY: Well lenders general wanted people to pay off their mortgages by retirement, so they ensure that all of those repayments were made while people had a working wage. But now Nationwide, one of the biggest lenders in the country, says that from July it will allow some existing customers to have their mortgage until they’re eighty five. So that means a sixty year old taking out a twenty five year mortgage. And this move comes after their competitor Halifax raised its age limit from seventy five to eighty. So people in their eighties will still be paying off mortgages.
CHRIS MANN: I suppose it all reflects the changing demographic, and quite simply people are living longer anyway. Can everyone get such a loan?
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Equal access to democracy

07:18 Friday 6th May 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: And just to go quickly to Anthony Carpen once more, who’s a political blogger and community activist in the Cambridge area. I haven’t been canvassed once in the run-up to this local election, which is a source of some disappointment, because I like to play a game where they knock on my door, and then I open it and try and guess the name of the councillor before they tell me their name. I know. The long evenings really do fly by in my household. Do you feel that canvassing has been at fever pitch?
ANTONY CARPEN: Certainly in some of the wards it has been. For example, Market and Romsey had the doors canvassed the hell out of.
DOTTY MCLEOD: Knocked on heavily.
ANTONY CARPEN: Whereas in other wards, Cherry Hinton for example, there were complaints from various people that they hadn’t received any election literature whatsoever. Now I think there are a couple of things to say about this. One is that there’s obviously a negative impact of political parties just targeting a small number of wards. But also for me democracy is not a spectator sport, and one of the things for me that goes with being a citizen is that isn’t there a responsibility for us as citizens to be proactive and find out who is standing in which areas. It’s one of the reasons why I created over fifty short YouTube videos featuring a number of candidates from all of the political parties standing either in the elections for local councils or for the Police and Crime Commissioner elections.
DOTTY MCLEOD: And Daniel, Anthony mentioning there Cherry Hinton ward, where I believe Rob Dryden who’s the Mayor of Cambridge, very very well known local figure, was standing and re-elected for Labour. Do you think there are some wards within the city where your party Labour has become complacent?
DANIEL ZEICHNER: I don’t think complacent, but I think all organisations work the system they’ve got. So you concentrate your resources. I think actually Labour does make a consistent attempt to make sure that everyone gets election literature. I’ve (something) Liberal Democrats have almost withdrawn completely from whole areas of the city, and just contest very hard these very marginal areas. So it does mean that everyone else gets left out, which is why I and others think a change to our electoral system would actually be good for our local democracy.

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Cambridge City Council election 2016 – the city’s housing crisis

08:11 Tuesday 3rd May 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: Cambridge City Council is under Labour control at the moment. How much do you think local politicians can do about this housing crisis?
SOPHIE BARNETT LABOUR: Well I think Cambridge City Council has already done quite a lot, but there’s obviously the national restrictions that we’re facing. So in terms of council housing, not being able to build enough. But what Labour have managed to do in thr two years that they’ve been in is to build a lot more council housing. They’ve bought back some land that had previously been sold and built council housing on it.
DOTTY MCLEOD BBC: So when you say a lot more council housing, how many properties are we talking about?
SOPHIE BARNETT LABOUR: I think it’s around 100, but I’m not sure of the exact figure.
DOTTY MCLEOD BBC: That’s nothing though is it, in the context of the number of people who want affordable homes.
SOPHIE BARNETT LABOUR: No and I think it’s really unfortunate with the national policies that we’re unable to borrow against the housing stock that we’ve currently got. So it means that you can’t get the finances up to build more housing.
DOTTY MCLEOD BBC: And you blame who for that?
SOPHIE BARNETT LABOUR: The national government really.
DOTTY MCLEOD BBC : OK. Let’s go to Roy then standing for the Conservatives. Sophie says it’s your party’s fault.
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Peterborough City Council election 2016 – the battle for control

10:21 Thursday 28th April 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: So we’re a week away from the local elections – who will be in control of your council come May 6th? Today we’re focusing on Peterborough, and who’s going to be in control of that. Will it still be the Conservatives that are running things, and doing it their way? Or will Labour surge through? Perhaps UKIP will grab a load of seats. Or the LibDems will see a resurgence of yellow across the city of Peterborough. Well let’s find out that they all think. We’ve got in the studio Nick Thulbourn from Labour. He’s the Deputy Leader. Morning Nick.
NICK THULBOURN: Good morning.
PAUL STAINTON: We’ve also got John Holdich, currently the Leader of the Council for the Conservatives. Morning.
JOHN HOLDICH: Morning.
PAUL STAINTON: Nick Sandford is here, the Leader of the LibDems. Good morning.
NICK SANDFORD: Good morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: And also with us (A CHIME GOES OFF) oh .. also with us .. I don’t know what that was .. also with us is John Whitby, who’s a UKIP councillor as well.
JOHN WHITBY: Good morning.
PAUL STAINTON: Welcome to the show. Well let’s start with the man who’s been running the Council then, after Marco’s ousting. John Holdich is with us. A difficult task. You’ve had to do some difficult things, some of which have gone down like a sack of wet fish with the people of Peterborough. Are you going to pay for that at the ballot box?
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Eastern devolution – the wooing begins

10:24 Wednesday 27th April 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: Is your neighbourhood getting a rough deal from the rest of Cambridgeshire? That’s our question, after the Leader of East Cambs. District Council launched a scathing attack on fellow-council leaders across Cambridgeshire. James Palmer said they were too Cambridge focused. Areas like East Cambs have been forgotten about. One of his quotes: “I’m afraid some councillors who represent the city of Cambridge have no idea what exists within two or three miles of them. They think East Cambridgeshire is off the edge of some cliff, Fenland is at the bottom of it.” He’s happy to go it alone without Cambridgeshire, and forge a union down the Yellow Brick Road of Norfolk and Suffolk. Well let’s speak to the head honcho, Lewis Herbert, Labour Leader of Cambridge City Council. Morning Lewis.
LEWIS HERBERT: Good morning Paul.
PAUL STAINTON: Have you forgotten about some parts of Cambridgeshire, forsaking all others unto Cambridge?
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