FREE SCHOOL MEALS: Does Your Child Qualify?

Parents are being encouraged to find out if their child is entitled to free school meals. From 1 April 2011, schools will be given additional funding by the Government, called a pupil premium, for every child who applies for a free school meal. This money will be spent on helping pupils who are underachieving to reach their full potential. Under the new cashless card swipe system no one will know if the student is getting free school meals or not!

Pupils whose parent (or guardian) receives one or more of the following benefits are entitled to free school meals:

Income support
Income based job seekers allowance
Employment and
support allowance
Child tax credit, provided you don't also receive working
tax credit and have an annual income, as assessed by the Inland Revenue, that
does not exceed £16,190
Guarantee credit element of state pension credit;

Support under Part 6 of the Immigration and Asylum Act 1999.

Children who receive income support or income based job seekers
allowance in their own right are also eligible.

Jonathan Lewis, assistant director for resources within children's services, said: "We are aware there are children who attend Peterborough schools who are entitled to free school meals but do not realise it. We are also aware that some parents choose not to take up the entitlement to a free school meal.

"The new pupil premium means that even if you don’t wish to access a free daily meal, applying will mean that your child's school will receive further funding."

Richard Lord, principal of Ken Stimpson Community School, said: "Currently around 11 per cent of our pupils receive free school meals but potentially there are twice as many pupils who are entitled but their parents or carers are unaware that they qualify or choose not to.

"Students who qualify for free school meals have £2.20 credited automatically to their cashless catering card each day. This represents a saving of £44 per child each month. It is impossible for other students to know which students have benefitted from free school meals and which have not as all schools now operate a cashless system."

To find out if your child is entitled to a free school meal please contact your local school who can check your eligibility with just a few simple details.


(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

No Evidence on Value for Money of PFI projects say MPs

Not a candidate for PFI, the infamous Duckhouse.

The private finance initiative may have delivered many new hospitals (including the new City Hospital in Peterborough), and homes which might otherwise not have been delivered, but there is no clear evidence of whether PFI is any better or worse value for money than other procurement routes, MPs have said.

In a report on the use of PFI in hospitals and social housing, the influential Public Accounts Committee said that by April 2009, there were 76 operational PFI hospitals in England and more than 13,000 homes had been built or refurbished through PFI, “representing a small but significant part of investment in social housing”.

It said: “As with previous reports, we again found no clear and explicit justification and evaluation for the use of PFI in terms of its value for money. However, we accept that the then government gave the Departments (the Department of Health and the DCLG) no realistic alternatives to PFI as the procurement route to use for these capital programmes.”

The committee said its other concerns revolved around central government's failure to use the market leverage that comes from overseeing multiple contracts, and the lack of robust central data to support effective programme management.

The MPs suggested that there were cases where PFI was used where there was no evidence it was the best procurement route.

They called on the government to do more to:

- identify the circumstances where PFI works best
- capture the lessons learned from PFI procurements, and
- apply clear criteria to future decisions over identifying the best route for particular public infrastructure investments.

The committee said it expected any procurement decisions on the housing projects whose future is now being reconsidered in the context of the Comprehensive Spending Review “to be made using clear value for money criteria”.

The report claimed that it was clear that implementation of PFI projects could be improved.

“Many PFI housing procurements have taken very much longer, and cost a great deal more, than originally planned,” the MPs said.



(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

Launch of Crime Stoppers FEARLESS

Download this Poster for your School or Village Hall

http://www.fearless.org/assets/files/Poster-72dpi_RGB.jpg

http://www.fearless.org/

Launch of Fearless in Peterborough

Fearless, Crimestoppers' new website for young people, has been officially launched for the Eastern Region at The Voyager School in Peterborough.

The event was attended by 50 agencies, over 1000 pupils and some members of the newly formed Cambridgeshire Volunteer Committee.

The day included an interactive theatre production by The Solomon Theatre on drugs, alcohol, peer pressure and making healthy choices.

Ricky Norwood, who plays Fatboy in Eastenders, was supporting the event and said: “This website is a great idea which will hopefully encourage more young people to be ‘fearless’ in tackling crime. So many young people have died because of crime and it doesn’t have to be like that. By using Fearless they can get advice and pass on information about crime 100% anonymously which could save one of their friend’s lives”.

(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

Alert! Check Your Security

Reports have been received of a burglary in Brodsworth Road, attempted break ins in Houghton Avenue and further suspicious behaviour in Portchester Close.

On the 17th January entry was gained at the rear of a property in Brodsworth Road.

On the 18th January attempts were made to gain entry into homes in Houghton Avenue and 3 hooded youths were seen checking over back fences in Portchester Close at 2am in the morning before running off when realising they had been seen.

Please revisit your security arrangements. Ensure your doors and windows are closed and locked (and the keys put out of site) and if you have one, switch on your burglar alarm even when you're at home on retiring. By checking your outside security you can help put off such characters approaching your house or car. Consider fitting external PIR lighting or a shed and garage door alarm and don't forget to postcode mark your property with a UV pen or Smartwater product.

As always if you have any information on the above incidents please contact the Police on 0345 456 456 4 or your street coordinator.

(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

Park Farm Pumas Football Club

Players Wanted

Park Farm Pumas Football Club

are seeking to add to our excellent crop of Players

Under 7 (School Year 2)
&
Under 8 (School Year 3)

If your children (boys & girls) would be interested in joining our club and taking the opportunity of training and working with our FA Qualified coaching staff, speak to Chairman Ciaran McAuley on 07713 106 898.

Please visit our website http://www.pitchero.com/clubs/parkfarmpumas/

Planet Rock - Hidden Radio Gems on your Satellite Telly or Digi Radio...

Courtesy of the eRADIO web

Away from the ASB front line and time to kick off your shoes... We don our 1991 worn-out Guns N Roses T-shirts for a special eROCK edition of eRADIO.

Q&A

This week we put the questions to Planet Rock Programme Director Trevor White. Under his stewardship, the station's won countless awards - including Digital Station of the Year at last year's Sonys.

Tell us first why you decided to make the switch from a recorded syndicated breakfast show to a live one?

The Alice Cooper Breakfast Show has been enormously successful for Planet Rock. Alice started 5 years ago with a negligible breakfast audience and has built a loyal following. More than that he has singlehandedly imaged the station and positioned us at the heart of rock in the UK. However, our exceptional growth has gone hand in hand with a large proportion of listeners using Planet Rock as their primary radio station and the time has come for us to satisfy their needs at breakfast with a live show and relevant content. We are now able to interact with our audience with all the commercial benefits that follow.

And a big giveaway in the first month with the station's beloved jukebox on its way out of the station we hear?

Lucio's first words on arrival at the Planet Rock studios, after being shown his office and looking at the Juke Box, were "that will have to go" and he wasn't talking about Nicky Horne. It's a old Juke Box full of our favourite CD's and will look great, in a lived-in sort of way, in one of our listeners homes.

How much of the output is live now?

We are live 6am to 9pm and then Alice takes over through to 1am.

The Alice Cooper breakfast show's been on for nearly five years, during which time Planet Rock's audience size has nearly doubled. Where do you see the station in another 5 years time?

In the short term we are on track for hitting a million listeners and our longer term objective is to be the UK's Number One digital station.

With stations like Absolute Classic Rock, GMG's Rock Radio, BBC 6 Music, Xfm and Kerrang there is plenty of choice for fans of guitar-based music - what do you think makes Planet Rock different to your competition?

As the only truly national rock station we differ in 3 fundamental ways – musically, we are broader and deeper than the others – more bands and more tracks. Artists from some of the world's greatest rock bands are regular presenters, underlining our Rock Authenticity. And finally a clearly defined, and frankly down-to-earth attitude that runs through the core of the station.

Planet Rock's owned mainly by an individual and isn't part of a group of stations - does that make a difference to how you operate in any way?

Not really – if anything it allows us to react faster (to his every whim and fancy).

What role do you think Planet Rock plays in getting listeners to go digital?

For better or worse we have been at the forefront of the move to digital (11 years so far…). We know that our musical offering has been unavailable anywhere else and has driven digital take up – don't ask us, ask our friends at PURE.

You've got a good mix of radio people and musicians on your line-up - how valuable are things like contacts, knowledge and fans that your rock stars presumably add to the station?

All those things add value but It's all about content. Rock music is all about characters and their stories and that's the secret – only they can tell it as it really was.

Sony Gold for Planet Rock. We've lost count of how many times you've been named Digital Station of the Year at the various awards ceremonies - how's the trophy cabinet looking?

Sparkling, but hungry.

Starting the new year with a new breakfast show, new logo and new website is fairly exciting - have you got anything else major planned for 2011?

You missed out the new player, new iPhone app and the new evening show with Alice but we have only just started… everyone is on short contract!

Planet Rock is available across the UK on DAB, Sky 0110, Virgin Media 924, Freesat 730, via iPhone and online at http://go.madmimi.com/redirects/bffe8940e9a0eb900a1137bb41b7c4fa?pa=2683720089

(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

ON YER BIKE! Police Open Day to Reunite Stolen Bikes with Owners

Pedal Bikers who have been the victim of theft have been invited to visit Thorpe Wood police station today to see if officers have managed to find their bikes.

Cambridgeshire Police have over 100 bone shakers that have been seized from criminals and are on display at Thorpe Wood Police Station in Peterborough.

Simply make an appointment to come to the station and bring proof of ownership between 11am and 1pm today. (Other times may be available by arrangement)

People.com

To book an appointment call the station on 0345 456 4564.

(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