Peterborough Lib Dems - Latest Comments

Re: Peterborough needs an integrated transport policy

Rohan Wilson — Tue, 30 Dec 2014 10:15:48 -0000

All rail routes from the East of England to the west and north converge in Peterborough. Improvements to the track and to the service levels would benefit the whole of the East of England, and of course those destinations west and north of here.

Doubling the single track between Ely and Soham will help with links to Bury St Edmunds, Ipswich, Colchester and the eastern ports. The more freight which can be carried by this route the better, relieving congestion on the A14 between Huntingdon and Cambridge. A very high proportion of vehicles on this length of road are short-distance car journeys, and those between Peterborough and Cambridge would be reduced if (as Peter suggests) the rail journey time were reduced. The new Cambridge station at Chesterton (to be opened in 2016?) will further help, for Peterborough people who wish to commute to northern Cambridge. The Chesterton station needs better pedestrian and cycle links than are currently proposed!

Then there's better timetabling, for changing trains and for neat links with local buses, there's better information, and service reliability... each of these deserves much better than we are getting in Peterborough, or in most other places too...

How can we make Peterborough City Council as proud of its public transport as of its roads, and as keen to improve it???

Re: Mayor-JA embarrassment over selecting next deputy mayor of Peterborough City Council?

Julian Charles Bray — Tue, 05 Aug 2014 04:24:04 -0000

I think there should be a health warning issued with the appointment of the Deputy Mayor as Cllr Harper seems to have piled on a few stone, especially the face, perhaps his pet name Cllr Turnip isn't too far off the mark! (Cllr Christopher John Harper spent £1,800 of Stanground East Community Leaders Funding on 'Raised Vegetable Beds' for infants at a LEA funded School of which he is a governor since then he has been referred to as Cllr Turnip ). As Stanground East is to be swallowed up and lumped in with Cardea to become South Stanground nearly all the Stanground East CLF money is being spent on the new estate... Cllr Turnip (CON) hopes to be elected ..

Re: Nick Clegg calls for cycling journeys to be doubled by 2020 @SustransPBoro

Rob M — Wed, 09 Jul 2014 07:35:10 -0000

We've heard all this before, from all of the political parties. Summits and calls for ideas and best practice have come and gone and mad little difference. As a sustainable transport planner working for the last 25 years with our honorable politicians, I can tell you that it's political will and real support for making cycling normal (and a willingness to refuse to listen to the car and road transport lobby and their incessant road-building demands and pro-car rhetoric) that will effect change. It's not really the money since there's more than enough within existing transport budgets - IF they allocate them more reasonably. We just have to look to what's been achieved in parts of Europe.

Re: Well done to ALL our candidates! Here’s our election digest ……..

Boro Lib Dems — Sat, 24 May 2014 07:39:44 -0000

Well spotted :) and NOW updated!

Re: Well done to ALL our candidates! Here’s our election digest ……..

Malcolm Pollack — Fri, 23 May 2014 10:55:18 -0000

What about Andrew?

Re: Did local LIB DEMS support “massive” pay rises for senior City Council management??? @ClrNickSandford

Darren Fower — Tue, 15 Apr 2014 16:35:27 -0000

Not right + wrong!

Re: Lib Dem initiative gives millions of £’s to local Tory Council! @EdwardDaveyMP

Darren Fower — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 18:33:37 -0000

Great shout Peter!

Re: Lib Dem initiative gives millions of £’s to local Tory Council! @EdwardDaveyMP

Peter Chivall — Tue, 11 Mar 2014 06:56:18 -0000

Interesting that Osborn and the Tories in the coalition tried to smother the Green Deal at birth by insisting on 7% interest rate for home owners in older properties - like me! Now it seems they've found a pot of money to give to landlords with older properties - well at least the tenants will get the benefit in warmer homes with lower fuel bills. Seems like I'll need to brush up my DIY skills!
Peter

Re: Tories agree to charge YOU for brown bin collections!

Malcolm Pollack — Sat, 08 Mar 2014 06:43:13 -0000

Have they researched this proposal? Have they asked the residents what they think? I cannot imagine there will be a big take-up.

There will be tens of thousands of redundant brown bins. These belong to the City Council. How much will it cost to collect these and dispose of them? They are plastic so not recyclable.

Re: Q: Ever wondered what a video RE: #TORY Deputy Mayor of #Peterborough would be LIKE? Wonder NO MORE!

Rohan Wilson — Mon, 06 Jan 2014 11:20:11 -0000

I congratulate Mohammed Nadeem on rising to run a construction company in such a short period of time. I do recognise Bamber Court, the courtyard development of affordable housing on Russell Street, and watched it being built on my journeys to and from town. Has he completed other new-builds?

The video was hardly a profile of him - just film of the announcement of his election to council and to deputy mayor, plus the a printed presentation of the barest facts of his birth, arrival in UK and education, then some nice posed photos at the end. Does he speak? It would be interesting to know more about him and hear his advice to others who want to become successful local business managers.

I was shocked to see the bear garden behaviour of people (his supporters mainly?) at the election announcement and disappointed to learn that some of our councillors can hardly get their words out clearly even when reading from a script in the council chamber.

This is the first profile of a city councillor I've seen (written or video), and would be interested to see more... ideally impartially written, not promotional.

Re:

Darren Fower — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 06:25:27 -0000

Great to see so many responses and this really helps us LIB DEM councillors and of course out activists across the city!

Re: Did Park Ward playground politics BACK-FIRE on Labour councillor?

Darren Fower — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 04:53:12 -0000

Ditto! :)

Re: Did Park Ward playground politics BACK-FIRE on Labour councillor?

Mark Williams — Mon, 30 Dec 2013 12:08:32 -0000

There is a myth that people have copyright in their image. They don't if the picture is taken in a public place. No consent is needed. So it's hard luck, unfortunately. Mind you, I wouldn't be happy appearing on a Tory card...

Re: Local Tories use Facebook to promote FALSE image of the City???

Darren Fower — Wed, 25 Dec 2013 01:47:06 -0000

Good shout Rohan :)

Re: Local Tories use Facebook to promote FALSE image of the City???

Rohan Wilson — Tue, 24 Dec 2013 09:22:13 -0000

I found the ice-blue lights very cold, this year and last. Without my bringing up the topic a work colleague and a family member volunteered that they preferred last year's canopy design to the open-to-sky effect this year. Of course, fewer lights fewer carbon emissions... but those jittery green lazer beams make me feel very nervous - what if they went astray and shone into people's eyes? The cathedral precinct lights get the prize this year: simple, warm and welcoming.

Re: Local Tories use Facebook to promote FALSE image of the City???

Darren Fower — Tue, 24 Dec 2013 06:27:02 -0000

It's a shame you do not have a snap of how it looks this year - to compare??? :)

Re: 250 people a week DIE – due to exhaust fumes!

Rohan Wilson — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 16:51:45 -0000

Yes, so obvious that those in the car-habit just can't see it.

You switch to walking or cycling (all urban Peterborough is in easy cycle distance of the city centre) and you know exactly how long it takes you to get there, regardless of car jams, you get there invigorated, and it makes you fit and healthy, long term.

Those who have to use car (or still choose to) also benefit because you've helped reduce their jams... and if almost everyone chose to switch to cycling the roads would be places of friendly meetings, totally safe and congestion-free, no conflict, and we'd all be laughing our way to town.

How about encouraging all our people to cycle, City Council?

Re: Q: Do YOUR solar panels make money or not? #SimpleQuestion @BBCCambs

Beki Sellick — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 04:21:52 -0000

I had solar panels installed 2 years ago and they give me enough free electricity to run my washer during the day, as well as keeping my fridge/freezer going, and powering an electric heater sometimes when I'm working from home. I also get paid cash by my Ecotricity, my energy supplier, on the assumption that I give half of all the electricity I make to the grid.
I don't know about the council, but as a private citizen I'm well on the way to recouping my capital costs - to say nothing of the feel-snug (smug maybe?) factor - and I'm reducing my contribution to global warming.

Re: 250 people a week DIE – due to exhaust fumes!

Beki Sellick — Wed, 18 Dec 2013 04:00:50 -0000

The solution is so obvious: half of all car journeys are under 3 miles, and engines actually pollute more over short distances before they warm up. What gets me is that people don't see the impact of what they do - if the huge numbers of able-bodied car drivers understood they risked more lives by polluting than by bad driving, maybe they'd swop to cycling or walking and get the health and fitness benefits themselves too. Let's hope the Council encourage cyclists with better routes through the City Centre - and they should provide more bike parking (not less) when they do up Long Causeway!

Re: Tory Council backtracks “slightly” over Brown Bins collection plans!

Rohan Wilson — Fri, 13 Dec 2013 17:37:59 -0000

Hey, not quite your topic, but talking about leaf fall: on my way through Westwood to work today I see an Enterprise employee waving a petrol-driven blower at a few leaves, chasing them down a tarmac path. Apparently hoping they'd vanish through the garden fence on his left, or end up on the grass to the right, or perhaps just dematerialise.... what on earth does this waste of fossil fuel do for our environment capital?

Re: Are Peterborough’s Tory MP Tweets really worth reading? @DoctorChristian

Rohan Wilson — Fri, 13 Dec 2013 17:15:50 -0000

Hey, hands off Stewart - he really does mean well.

Re: Did YOU know BEDROOM TAX was originally a LABOUR idea!

Paul Rutherford — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 11:49:27 -0000

Was going to comment, but Rob G has said it all.

Re: Did YOU know BEDROOM TAX was originally a LABOUR idea!

Rob G — Fri, 06 Dec 2013 10:26:24 -0000

What Nick Clegg said is a lie, unfortunately.

The 'size criteria', which Conservatives use to implicate Labour for having designed the policy for the private sector, weren't a new creation in 2008 when Labour introduced the (deeply flawed) Local Housing Allowance. In fact, they come from this piece of legislation:

http://www.legislation.gov....

From the (then Conservative) government of 1989 - the particular size criteria are in Section 3.

The LHA of 2008 re-used these criteria to some extent for private rented sector tenancies, but crucially they were only applied for new Housing Benefit claims, and were originally intended to curb the Housing Benefit bill by giving a set amount to PRS landlords, whose uncontested rent rises are the actual reason that the housing benefit bill went up by a shocking 70% during the last Labour government. There has been a much smaller rise in social housing rents, and nothing like the increase in the number of people claiming Housing Benefit in social housing as has been seen in the relative explosion of numbers in the private rented sector.

Furthermore, whilst Nick didn't address the question he was asked in PMQs - about whether he would apologise for David Cameron lying to the House about 'disabled people who need a spare room' being exempt, the truth is that there are many more disabled people in social housing than in the private sector, with more properties having been adapted.

I don't expect you to question the facts of bedroom tax though, given that your party has facilitated this most pernicious assault on the most vulnerable people in society. I hope you can balance your conscience against the reality of the hardship now being endured by social tenants, with this glib little video of Nick adding one more lie to those already perpetrated by David Cameron.

As you were.

Re: Councillor emails being blocked by ‘by unseen hands’ ?????

Julian Bray UK — Sat, 30 Nov 2013 17:18:07 -0000

As the editor of the Peterborough Tribune blog, I'm always very open to ideas and the mere fact that certain councillors wish to have it banned, shows that the PBROTRIB must be pushing a few of the right buttons. Many people who live in this City are frankly too frightened to speak up in public, it might affect their job prospects, or to go against the majority view. A really sad state of affairs, but that is the way this City is run. I firmly believe that in order to have any form of democratic debate you need to hear all sides of the proposal, not simply agree voting strategy in PRIVATE before council and other public meetings. The PBROTRIB provides a voice, your voice. Feel free to comment or telephone 345581 for a private 'off the record' chat. If we can stand up your information from two other sources, it'll be published and/or passed on to the major news networks.

Re: Surgery change for South Werrington and North Gunthorpe ward

Boro Lib Dems — Tue, 26 Nov 2013 14:53:21 -0000

A change is as good as a rest!