Fletton, Stanground & Woodston Neighbourhood Council Report:

More Car Park Places .....

STOP PRESS: PCC Neighbourhood Manager, Lisa Emmanuel writes:

You refer to the Youth Forum’s spend of Section 106 money, which is in fact inaccurate, this money is not Section 106 money, the money could potentially come from Capital budget (as per this year’s Neighbourhood Council Budget) or from the Councillors Community Leadership Fund.

The Neighbourhood Council Budget update, you refer to the allocation, to Youth Activities as £5000.00 and then record the actual spend as £8008.00 – both of which are correct, I just wanted to clarify that the Youth activities allocation was pooled with the £5000.00 allocation for improvements to Parks & Open spaces which then allowed for the full cost of £8008 to be covered.


A full house for the Neighbourhood Council Meeting which curiously didn't reveal that a proposal to merge and combine into one single meeting, this event with the Police Neighbourhood Panel Meeting. (See earlier item below) had been tabled and would be debated this week in Council.



Under the chairmanship of Cllr. Goodwin an almost full turnout of of our elected councillors with the exception of Flettons Cllr F. Benton (apologies) who also was absent from the previous meeting.



Attending: Stanground Central : Cllr M Cereste, Cllr B. Rush, Cllr. I Walsh Stanground East: Cllr J. Wilkinson, Fletton: Cllr M Lee and Cllr. L Serluca



Youth Forum gave a spirited and well managed lucid PowerPoint presentation on how they would spend S106 funds of (ie not fundraise!) £10,000 to make improvements in the area and although some of the ideas were not practicable, several were and at least one the provision of a pathway between the new skateboard park, the shelter and the public pathway was adopted. The idea was to ensure that mud from the grass approach would not be deposited on the skateboard ramps making them dangerous to use, and funding from a variety of sources earmarked for the project.

Neighbourhood Manager Lisa Emmanuel confirmed that the 'top-slice' funding required had been found that that she had physically signed off the requirement earlier in the day! Clearly a case of great minds thinking alike. Mention should also be made of Susan Schofield and Jenny Humphreys (either of which could immediately get a job with the Key Theatre as highly energetic stage prompts) 'Youth MP' Kamal Highman was also introduced and takes up his role on the 1st April 2011, and once he has his feet under the desk will be back to give us all an update. Best of Luck Kamal and we are happy to support you!



The Carbon Challenge Development and the STEM Centre Project at PUFC We have already commented on Richard Hodgsons dire presentational style but this important project does seem to have not only gone off the rails but also into the realms of fantasty. We are talking about the parcel of land alongside the River Nene, the Old B&Q and Matalan sheds, PUFC ground, football stands and pitch, old railway building and all the buildings/nightclub fronting London Road adjacent to the football ground.



This was billed as "an update on the proposals and an opportunity for discussion with the officers involved" In reality it fell to project leader Richard Hodgson who then raced through the proposals at breakneck speed but not before we all managed to extract some nuggets from his presentation. The development seeks to be carbon neutral, will save one football spectator stand but introduce three new stands and increase the overall capacity by some 4,000 people on matchdays.



The number of units is given as 70-300 and the number of residential units ie houses 294, all eco-carbon friendly and in line with that, very few car parking spaces have been designed into the overall plan, the idea Mr Hodgson suggested was for the residents and businesses to use the bus, walk or a park and ride, he even suggested that electric cars would probably be acceptable in the future (as we reported earlier in response to a question from the floor Mr Hodgson used his car to get to the meeting).



Completion is thought to be around 2013. Mr Hodgson briefly touched on a 'public sector hub relocation' and we've asked the jargon police for a clarification. No one was able to say that as this seems to be a community stadium, would it be open for use by other sports such as Rugby or field sports and local groups or is this exclusively for the use of PUFC and football?



Clearly the assembled residents were not happy with what they they were hearing, and one resident called the artists impressions of the development 'dishonest' another 'the flats looked like something out of East Germany under the GDR'.



Generally most people present were unhappy and after several interventions concluded that apart from planning blight and a further severe drop in property and apartment prices, severe disruption to London Road would continue for some four years or so. There would be no let up from illegally parked vehicles on football days and Mr Hodgson was unable to confirm in response from a concerned resident who lives opposite the proposed site, if the contractors would be on a fixed price or if the works would increase employment locally.

On a lighter note, Mr Hodgson confirmed that PUFC would effectively be in charge of the carbon challenge once the development was completed but none of the proposals had been approved or formally presented to PUFC as "We wouldn't want PUFC to have to attend meetings like this....." Still the idea of Barry Fry as the new Carbon Tzar suggests that anything is possible... general feeling "work in progress" or as another resident put it "dinner of a dog...", more widespread and realistic consultation is required and the need to greatly increase the car parking space provision in order to accommodate the weekday traffic flow and additionally the greatly increased matchday traffic flow.....



Street Leader Scheme Roy Clark gave a report on the progress of the Street Leader Scheme and said they had volunteers and were looking for things to do. They now have 'toolkits' and can rapidly train up volunteers so far 70 strong and 120 on the books.



Budgets An impressive short PowerPoint presentation from Lisa Emmanuel, Neighbourhood Manager, Funding total; £25,000 actual spend: £24,830 Youth Budget £5,000 Actual spend: £8,008



E&OE



(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