Your Peterborough. Your Council

Morag Irving accompanied Julian Bray to the Scrutiny Committee Council Meeting last night. These are a few of the points Morag found interesting. The meeting lasted about 3 hours.

The views in italics are my own says Morag. If you would like any more information or we can help with anything please don’t hesitate to contact us. (Julian Bray has already written about the threat to our Neighbourhood meetings so we can leave those reports to him).

VivaCity presentation
Flag Fen to made more attractive to tourists. The road to Flag Fen was discussed and the possibility of using the river to access the site was suggested.

The new gym at Bishops road was opened on Dec 22.

Finding sponsorship has been difficult although £50 thousand pounds has been received from the Arts Council for the Peterborough Festival this year.

The pantomime was 92% full last year, an increase from 2009 when it was 82%. This means a small profit was made.

Well deserved as it was jolly good, congratulations to all.

‘Micro libraries’ are being rolled out the first has just been opened in Perkins.

Not sure about this, as the library service is ‘up against it’ shouldn’t funds be spent on existing libraries. With the best will in the world a full bookcase of books still requires a spend of a few hundred pound let alone admin. What about a book exchange instead?

The Museum upgrade is underway and scheduled to reopen at the end of the year.

Crime Figures

Overall showing a reduction of 26% in reported crime figures.

This is very good news. Not often this is reported.

The idea is to tackle crime ‘before’ its spread. Very good example was given as follows:-

A brand new car was parked in a ‘bad’ area of Chicago in the 1970s. The car remained untouched for 2 weeks. As part of the experiment a side window was broken. The car was then stripped overnight.

The reduction in crime represents possible savings of £5.2 million.

Showing that we all need to keep on our toes and not accept ASB/Vandalism etc ,Stamp it out before it becomes a problem.

Homelessness

Some 2 thousand empty homes in the city. 700 of those being long term vacant, as they have empty for more than 6 months.

There is no registration of landlords in the city.

Good presentation and the team do seem to be on top of things. Although it is a crying shame people are sleeping on our streets when we have empty property.


As said all views in italics are my own as are any mistakes. Good to see so many members of the public turning out for the meeting. Some councillors bemoaning the fact that the same people turn out for meetings. I don't think that is really the problem, (everyone has a right to be there). The problem is encouraging more people to attend - that is really down to the councillors themselves who need to contact the people who voted for them in the first place.

I felt one or two councillors had 'lost the plot' slightly and had forgotten they put themselves up for election in the first place and are there to serve. Having said that the majority are hard working and lots of good work has been done. I enjoyed the meeting and pass my thanks on to all involved.

(C) Park Farm Neighbourhood Watch Peterborough UK Tel: 01733 345581 Broadcasters direct call ISDN 'down the line' 01733 555319 ISDN Codecs G722 & APT All Press Enquiries Julian Bray 01733 345581