Tag: Opportunity Peterborough

Young lifeblood wanted in Peterborough

09:28 Monday 10th August 2015
BBC Radio Cambridge

PAUL STAINTON: Let’s bring in Steve Bowyer from Opportunity Peterborough, influential of course in attracting many many of the top restaurants to Peterborough in particular. Steve, it’s a fair point though isn’t it, that these thousands of people that were roaming the streets of Peterborough back in the ’80s, ’70s, ’90s, spending all that money, are we missing out?
STEVE BOWYER: Morning Paul. I don’t think so. I think there’s a really good point there about how city centres have evolved, and that mix and diversity of offer. And I think it is about providing that choice. I think there’s a lot of people been talking about how things are cyclical, and you know we may see nightclubs coming back again. But I think actually things move on, so now we have good music venues, we have good restaurants. Hopefully in Peterborough we’re going to see cinemas soon. The point your last speaker made about university and students is absolutely vital for the city, because that is a young lifeblood.
PAUL STAINTON: How close are we to getting that?
Continue reading “Young lifeblood wanted in Peterborough”

New business in Peterborough

08:27 Thursday 23rd July 2015
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

DOTTY MCLEOD: Start-ups are booming in Peterborough, with nearly 2000 new businesses registered in the city in the last year. .. Tom Hennessy is the Senior Economic Development Manager at Opportunity Peterborough. .. So what kind of businesses are we talking about?
Continue reading “New business in Peterborough”

Global Air Dynamics

Following some debate about whether this story should be open to comments, @PeterboroughTel have kindly switched on comments.

Because it has already scrolled away from the front page there, here is a viewing window. To visit the story directly, right click and open frame in new window.

The story is interesting as it relates to openness and transparency in the allocation of funds from a Government award.
The recipient of the money happens to be a long time business associate and co-director with the Leader of Peterborough City Council, but it is not immediately evident how the dormant company shown here displays the expertise and experience to justify the award.

All Roads Lead To Rome

07:40 Monday 7th April 2014
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

[P]AUL STAINTON: A new programme has been launched aimed at finding innovative solutions to the challenges Peterborough will face in the coming years. Businesses can now apply for funding to develop and test ideas to address problems like spitting in public places and the unhealthy nature of fast food. Let’s speak to Steve Bowyer from Opportunity Peterborough, running the project. It’s called Brainwave. Can you describe exactly how it works.
STEVE BOWYER: Basically you can register on the portal and you can put up any challenge you think the city faces. So it might be around waste. it might be around energy production. Whatever.

………

PAUL STAINTON: So it’s a bit like a dating website for ideas.
STEVE BOWYER: Sort of. Yes. Yes. And then what we also do is if you’re a funder, so if you’re a business angel or a venture capitalist, or anything like that, you too can register on that. And if you tag your interests as things like waste or energy or whatever.

……….

PAUL STAINTON: What sort of ideas are on there already? What are the challenges we’re trying to find solutions for at the moment?
STEVE BOWYER: Good ideas on there, good challenges on there around energy and waste and actually how do we create a circular economy where our waste is used better locally.

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Peterborough DNA – Future Cities Demonstrator – Questions Arising

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Future Cities – The Integrity Of The Process

 

On 14th May on this website an article appeared entitled Peterborough DNA – Future Cities Demonstrator – Questions Arising.

There it was pointed out that the leading actor in a Peterborough bid for funding from the Technology Strategy Board appeared to redact substantial relevant and conflicting private business interests from the Peterborough City Council Register of Interests during the bidding process.

That information was published here, and two media organisations, one Member of Parliament, and four Peterborough City Councillors were directly advised that this information had been published. Continue reading “Future Cities – The Integrity Of The Process”

Peterborough DNA – Future Cities Demonstrator – Questions Arising

Note: this post is a mixture of  items written originally and items edited later when new information emerged.

Via a private arm of the City Council, Peterborough recently bid for £20 million funding from the Technology Strategy Board to develop a Future Cities project. As a runner up to Glasgow Peterborough was given £3 million to develop their ideas.

Their original bid document is here:

Feasibility Study Peterborough City Council.
Continue reading “Peterborough DNA – Future Cities Demonstrator – Questions Arising”

Peterborough – Accessible and Affordable

08:08 Monday 18th June 2012
Peterborough Breakfast Show
BBC Radio Cambridgeshire

PAUL STAINTON: This city has been described as one of the best destinations to live outside of London. For years now people from the Big Smoke have been coming here of course. Many remember the Peterborough Effect, and those great adverts from the Peterborough Development Corporation and Roy Kinnear dressed as a Roman centurion. Well now it seems that more people can be set to make the trip from London to settle here. Earlier Catherine Penman from Carter Jonas explained why our fair city was such a good place for Londoners to come to. (TAPE)
CATHERINE PENMAN: I think Peterborough is an extremely convenient commuter location. Short journey times, the second shortest of all of the various towns and cities that we included in our survey. And also, most importantly I think, house prices are relatively affordable, compared to most other commuter towns around the UK. (LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: We also spoke to Tina Bramhill, from the 40 Years On project in Peterborough, and she told us what the city was like before the Peterborough Development Corporation campaign in the ’70s. (TAPE)
TINA BRAMHILL: It was really considered a small market town, even though we were a city. It expanded massively. It went from around 80,000 to nearly 140,000 people. But they did expand other things alongside that. They brought in sports facilities, more schools. They had to do everything alongside that to support everybody coming in. (LIVE)
PAUL STAINTON: Well how would we cope, if more people came to live in our fair city at the moment, if we had some sort of influx? Rowen Squibb is from Growborough, an independent group trying to attract private business to Peterborough, and Steve Bowyer is the Head of Economic Development of course at Opportunity Peterborough. Morning gents. Rowen, first of all, can we cope? Have we got the facilities? Have we got the houses? Have we got the infrastructure? Continue reading “Peterborough – Accessible and Affordable”

Growth Cities Network

If, like many of us you don’t read the Financial Times behind its paywall, you will have missed an item entitled UK Cities Seek Powers to Boost Growth.

This tells us that group of smaller towns and cities seek additional powers and money from central government to “help the economic performance of the entire country.”

 

Continue reading “Growth Cities Network”