Tag: Jonathan Djanogly MP

Hospital merger proposal decried

“This document that came out today talks about savings in the region of £9 million. Well Peterborough has got a deficit of over £40 million. So there has to be more than that.”

17:11 Wednesday 18th May 2016
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

CHRIS MANN: A merger between Hinchingbrooke and Peterborough City hospitals is looking ever more likely after senior bosses at both hospitals backed plans for a full merger between the two Trusts. An outline business case has been published recommending the merger. From April 2017 four options are being explored by the two Trusts. They say integrating services could save money. Option one would be to do nothing; two would see back offices merged; three the same but with just one executive team; option four would see a full integration into just one organisation. So they’re talking about saving money, but will it improve health care? A really key question, one we want to put now to the MP for Huntingdon, Jonathan Djanogly, who joins me now. Afternoon.
JONATHAN DJANOGLY: Good afternoon.
CHRIS MANN: Four options. Which one would you press?
JONATHAN DJANOGLY: We would go for no merger, but we accept that where savings can be made, they should be made. And where there’s joint working to be had, that should be encouraged. But in terms of the merger, it’s absolutely the vast majority position in my constituency that that would not be welcome.
CHRIS MANN: OK. So which of the options, one, two, three or four are you going for then?
JONATHAN DJANOGLY: Well they have gone for option four, which is a full merger. Although I think it’s very important to say that this is not their fixed outcome. This is basically their proposals, and now they sit down and go through the figures, and go through how the services would be split between the hospitals and so forth. So it’s actually at a vital stage over the next few months, and we will want to keep up the pressure then.
CHRIS MANN: So saving money is what appears to be top of the managers’ agenda. But improving health care is what the patients are worried about.
Continue reading “Hospital merger proposal decried”

Jonathan Djanogly on immigration and UKIP

11:22 Wednesday 4th March 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: We’ve been talking immigration this morning as UKIP Leader Nigel Farage has been setting out his party’s plans for a points-based visa system. Recently the party proposed a cap of 50,000 people a year, compared to the 300,000 currently entering the country. Now Nigel Farage is refusing to come up with a target figure this time, but he did say under the Auatralian system he supports 27,000 people would have been allowed to come here in the last year.(TAPE)
NIGEL FARAGE: That number will vary a bit every year. But all of those people that come will have to bring with them health insurance, and will not be able to claim benefits of any kind until they’ve been here and paid into the tax system for five years. And that I think is a fair way of dealing with people that want to come to Britain to work.
(LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Now we had Rupert Read on from the Greens earlier, who said that there’s a better way to deal with immigration. That’s to sort out the problems at source, and then people wouldn’t want to come here. A sort of Utopian vision is what the Greens were presenting. We also heard from Heidi Allen as well, who threatened to quit if David Cameron doesn’t come up with the promised referendum in 2017.
(TAPE)
HEIDI ALLEN: It’s such a fundamental position of constant integrity that David Cameron has made to the British people, and I’m a member of the British people as well. And if that came to pass, if a referendum, you know, obviously we need to be in power in May, but you know it would be going back on one of the things that’s most emotive to people in this country. And that would be deceitful.
(LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Yes. Well let’s get the view now of Jonathan Djanogly, the MP for Huntingdon. Jonathan, good morning.
JONATHAN DJANOGLY: Good morning.
PAUL STAINTON: Most of our listeners it has to be said, I would say, 95% of the people listening to this show, sixty odd thousand, are pretty much in favour of what Nigel Farage is saying this morning. Where stand you?
Continue reading “Jonathan Djanogly on immigration and UKIP”

A1 through Huntingdonshire – the forgotten route of the county

07:19 Friday 27th February 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: The A1 through Huntingdonshire has been described as a major constraint to growth and in urgent need of an upgrade. In a report to Huntingdonshire District Council, councillor Terry Hayward calls it the ‘forgotten route’ of the county. The Buckden roundabout is a particular source of anguish to people living nearby. Our reporter Tom Horn is at the roundabout now. How’s it looking this morning Tom?
(OB)
TOM HORN: Yes, morning Dotty. Well we’re right in the middle of the morning rush-hour here at the Buckden roundabout. I’m told this roundabout here at Buckden is actually the last one on the A1 before you get all the way up to Newcastle. Just to give you an idea of where we are, Buckden the village is one side, there’s a Shell garage just behind me. You head North to the likes of Peterborough and South to London. Obviously it’s a very busy morning already, cars struggling to get out of the village. Dotty, with me this morning is the aforementioned Terry Hayward , councillor Terry Hayward. Morning to you.
TERRY HAYWARD: Good morning to you.
TOM HORN: So first of all, what kind of problems do you experience here?
TERRY HAYWARD: Well as you’ve already mentioned, this is one of the main roads in Cambridgeshire. It’s one of the triangular roads, the A14, the 428 and the A1. And we’re the forgotten road quite honestly. As you can see we’ve got trouble getting out of the village onto the A1 here. You’ve got more or less perpetual traffic all day. There was a plan to have a new road way back in 1994, which was put to one side because of lack of money by a new Government. Basically what we need is a new motorway standard A1, stretching all the way from Sandy right the way up to the proposed new A1/A14 junction.
TOM HORN: OK. So of course there’s a constant stream of heavy traffic, cars, goods, freight vehicles, just passing the roundabout here. How difficult is it to get out of the village and onto the A1?
TERRY HAYWARD: Well virtually it’s almost impossible. You and I have been watching it this morning. Give you some example. I live about 100 yards up, away from the A1. On one occasion my wife and I were going into the village. She was driving. I was walking. I got to where we were going quicker than she could get driving, because of the holdup of trying to get onto the A1 and round the roundabout.
TOM HORN: So what’s the solution then Terry? What do you want to see change?
TERRY HAYWARD: Very simple solution. As I say we need a by-pass here. But longer than that we need a whole new motorway standard road, stretching as I say from the A14, the new A14, all the way down past Sandy. I know this is a project in the future, but it needs to be brought forward. It’s been forgotten for far far too long.
TOM HORN: Of course one measure that you have helped to introduce here already is the speed cameras, the 50mph average speed cameras, just a short distance from where we are. Have they made much difference?
TERRY HAYWARD: They’ve made a big difference. I’m Chairman of the A1 Safety Group, which is a group which combines the people from Southoe and Buckden. And we got these cameras put in about a year ago now. It took a long while, four or five years. And it is making a difference. It slows the traffic down. But one of the other problems that we have here is the A14, a notorious road blackspot. If there’s any holdup on there at all, then this becomes a short cut, either through the village or down Perry Road, which we’re atanding opposite. And this then becomes a total snarl-up.
TOM HORN: Terry, thank you very much for your time this morning. Dotty, I’m going to head into the village now. It might take me a while to get out onto the roundabout, as you’ve been hearing.
(STUDIO)
DOTTY MCLEOD: Yes. Good luck Tom. Thank you very much for that. Well we can now speak to Jonathan Djanogly, who is the MP for the area of course. The forgotten route of Cambridgeshire Jonathan. Is that a fair description do you think? Continue reading “A1 through Huntingdonshire – the forgotten route of the county”

David Laws on More Money for Cambs Schools

17:07 Thursday 13th March 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[C]HRIS MANN: Cambridgeshire’s cash-strapped schools are apparently at the front of the queue for £350 million worth of new funding. The announcement was made in the House of Commons today by the Schools Minister David Laws. He also praised the strong campaigning by the MPs for Cambridge and Huntingdon, Julian Huppert and Jonathan Djanogly. .. That announcement came this morning in the House of Commons from Education Minister David Laws. I spoke to him a short time ago.
(TAPE)
DAVID LAWS: Well we’ve made an important announcement today for Cambridgeshire, which is that we’re going to do what people in the county have been pressing us to do for some time now, which is to move to a fairer system of funding our schools across the country. The system that we inherited from the previous government didn’t really seem to us to be rational. It underfunded areas such as Cambridgeshire. We’ve had lots of complaints from local head teachers, Members of Parliament such as Julian Huppert in Cambridge. So we’ve announced today that we’ve allocated over a third of a billion pounds extra to schools, starting in April 2015, and we’ve announced the areas that are particularly going to benefit from that funding. Because we’ve allocated the money to the areas which we think are underfunded. So for Cambridgeshire the important news is that if we press ahead with this after the consultation, it will mean over £20 million more going into schools within the county. It will mean for every child within Cambridgeshire schools, the school will be getting something like £275 per pupil per year more than they presently get at the moment, a 7% increase. And I think these things will be very welcome in Cambridgeshire, where this has been a hot political issue as you will know for some time.
CHRIS MANN: And it’s been a hot political issue because people felt we were being unfairly treated. Our pupils were getting less money per head than any other pupils in the country. So will that end? And will they now be on the same level with everybody else?
Continue reading “David Laws on More Money for Cambs Schools”

Cambs Carnage in Coalition Shuffle

07:41 Wednesday 5th September 2012
Cambridgeshire’s Bigger Breakfast
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: David Cameron didn’t show a lot of love to our Cambridgeshire MPs yesterday. Andrew Lansley demoted to Leader of the House, Jonathan Djanogly of Huntingdon lost his job as Justice Minister. And earlier, former MP and GP Dr Richard Taylor told us he was flabbergasted by Mr Lansley’s demotion, and doubted Jeremy Hunt’s credentials to take on the health portfolio. (TAPE)
DR RICHARD TAYLOR: I think Cameron wants to get rid of him, because he knows he has made himself very unpopular. But, to give him his credit, he has worked incredibly hard, and studied the NHS for years and years, because he was the Shadow Heath Secretary. Now the worry about Hunt is that he comes in, what is his background? We know very very little about him. What does he know about health? (LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Well despite being a critic of Mr Lansley’s changes. Dr Taylor wanted the South Cambridgeshire MP to stay on in the role. He also said the changes raised more questions than answers. (TAPE)
DR RICHARD TAYLOR: Is it a sign that David Cameron is genuinely thinking of watering down the proposals somewhat? Is it for Jeremy Hunt a reward for the Olympics? Or is it a punishment for Murdoch for giving him what is an absolutely impossible job? (LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Well if all that wasn’t enough, MP for South East Cambridgeshire, Jim Paice, was also sacked as Farming Minister. Bob Lawrence is the County Chairman of the NFU. There’s a lot of love for Jim in them there fields, isn’t there? Continue reading “Cambs Carnage in Coalition Shuffle”

A14 Collapses Under Load

17:06 Wednesday 16th November 2011
Drive BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

ANDY BURROWS: Let’s talk about the A14 first of all today, because I know that many of you listening to this programme will be on the A14 this afternoon, or this evening as it is. Big problems on the road today, after part of it collapsed. It took place on the inside lane of the eastbound carriageway between junctions 30 and 31. It’s the Girton Interchange. You’ll know it well. It led to delays of up to two hours at rush hour this morning. Mike Wherrett from the Highways Agency spoke to Andy Harper. Continue reading “A14 Collapses Under Load”

Peterborough News 21st October 2010

A summary of the Peterborough Breakfast Show from BBC Radio Cambridgeshire broadcast from 06:00 to 09:00 on Thursday 21st October 2010.

Topics:
Peterborough Council are not prepared to go into specific details about how the city will be affected by the Comprehensive Spending Review until their report appears on October 29th. They pin their hopes on efficiencies and the sale of assets.
Many question where the predicted growth in the economy is to come from, with a worldwide recession and a relentless tide of newly unemployed coming into the market.
Hunts MP Jonathan Djanogly, hauliers and business groups continue to press for the reinstatement of the A14 improvement works.
Continue reading “Peterborough News 21st October 2010”

Peterborough News 6th October 2010

A summary of the Peterborough Breakfast Show from BBC Radio Cambridgeshire broadcast from 06:00 to 09:00 on Wednesday 6th October 2010.

Topics:
Brookfield Construction have handed over the keys to the new £350 million Peterborough City Hospital.
ING Real Estate puts in plans to develop the Royal Mail Sorting Office site near the railway station.
Newly privatised Hinchinbrooke Hospital is closing one of its mental health wards.
Continue reading “Peterborough News 6th October 2010”