"Our Vision" - Peterborough Liberal Democrats

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Table of Contents

An Open and Fair City Council

More incentives and fewer finesfor Peterborough people

Greener more cost-effectiveservices!

Our VISION



Content PageNumber

Don’t let the Tories ‘fool you!’ 4

Success You Can See 6

What We Want To Do 7

About Peterborough LiberalDemocrats

15

Introduction 3

About Peterborough City Council 15



“We’ve had 11 years of a Torycontrolled City Council: the samefaces taking turns and making the

Elections can and DO make a difference! Don’t be fooled into thinking your vote does

We’ve had 11 years of Tory rule at the Town Hall: infighting, personality politics andvanity projects have cost the local taxpayer millions of pounds during this time. Thesame faces taking turns & making the same mistakes, over again, letting you down.

They have taken our city for granted and given it the nickname ‘Pottyboro’ outside of

Don’t settle for low politics and broken promises: be more demanding. Set yoursights on a Peterborough you want for your children and your grandchildren, and useyour vote to make it happen. When it’s come to working hard locally – holdingregular ward surgeries, undertaking resident surveys and producing regular FOCUSnewsletters – Lib Dems have a track record 2nd to none.

same mistakes, letting you down.it is time for something different.

it is time to look for a real alternative!”

not count! Outside of elections you have a real opportunity to help shape Peterborough’sfuture. It’s time to have YOUR voice heard and get involved!

our walls. Don;t be fooled into thinking that the way things are is the way theyhave to be! Some of us believe that you should fight for what you believe in, and fightfor change. So our message to you is simple:

Peterborough Liberal Democrats



The Peterborough Conservatives are different breed from those in the CoalitionGovernment with Liberal Democrats down there in Westminster. Locally, Tories expect tobe in power, they believe they have a right to govern Peterborough. All this, despite themajority of people in recent elections voting for other parties! They make use of the TownHall resources to prevent you from remembering their mistakes like:

Spent tens of thousands of £’s on a roundabout, outside the Burghley Square Club –that ended up being too big for buses to manoeuvre around, leading to areplacement being built, at an additional cost to local taxpayers!

Spent £175,000 of local tax payer’s money on installing a bus lane on the TownBridge, only to back track weeks later and remove it completely!

Wasted thousands of your pounds on unnecessary councillor websites, forthemselves, which they do not even bother to keep up to date!

Elected to give their Cabinet colleagues free Blackberry handheld computers - worthhundreds of pounds – and paid for by the local taxpayers (without ever publishing aformal notice of the decision).

Closed popular schools like Bretton Woods and Honeyhill, while selling off thebuildings of our secondary schools to Private Finance Companies, literallymortgaging off our assets!

Decided to make hundreds of hard working council staff redundant, while continuingto support the 6 top earning officers at the Town Hall, whose salaries range from£90,000 to £160,000 per annum!

Lost between £500,000 and £1 million in the Icelandic banks fiasco.

Spent £12 million on Cathedral Square and the fountains, resulting in disruption andloss of earnings to local businesses. Not to mention seeing the estimated annualmaintenance cost for the fountains doubling from £15,000 per annum to £30,000!

Consistently argued to fine you £30 if someone else steals your wheelie bin!

Experienced “significant failures” within their Urban II project team that resulted inthe Peterborough City Council being forced to repay £138,000 of funding.

Don’t let the local Tories ‘fool you!’



Supported the expensive development of the new hospital, with its lower capacityand demolished relatively new Edith Cavell – while encouraging population growthover the coming years in Peterborough!

Spent more than £10 million on temporary staff in the 14 months from September2006 to November 2007! And continued to spend millions thereafter!

Signed up to two match day sponsorship packages per season with PeterboroughUnited at a cost of £6,000, and then paid £8 million for the POSH ground, whenmany suggest its real value is much less…. All paid for by the local tax payers ofcourse!

Sold off ALL the council housing stock, leaving us now with around 10,000 applicantspresently on the waiting list and growing! (The majority of which are Peterboroughpeople!)

Closed down all but a couple of the public toilets throughout our city, with little orno consultation, and started charging people to ‘spend a penny’ in those thatremained, generating themselves £34,345 alone in 2009! Blasted £250,000, £15kover original estimates, on bringing the city centre car park toilet up to scratch.

Despite the Post Office’s history in our city, that hundreds of local families rely uponit for employment and there is still a sorting office in Papyrus Road, decided tosnatch responsibility for second class post from the (locally based) Post Office and topass it over to a private company based in Birmingham.

Wasted more than £40,000 of local tax payers’ money looking into having anunwanted and unrequired casino for the city.

Been responsible for a 30%+ increase in council tax charges since the 2001/2002financial year – Has your pension or salary gone up by this amount?

Privatised, or sold off to private companies, the council’s IT, Leisure and Culture andCity Services departments!

Wasted £50,000 on a badly planned, password-protected electronic bollard inFitzwilliam Street that lead to legal claims and complaints, and now it just sits theredefunct!

Created the ridiculous anomaly that school children in central Peterborough are notin a secondary school catchment area.



The Peterborough Liberal Democrats have a strong track record of stepping up to the markand helping protect services and peoplein Peterborough. Here are just a fewexamples:

Campaigned for more power andmoney to be given toNeighbourhoodCouncil/Committees.

Campaigned for leading councilofficers to take a pay cut.

Fought for the costly StandardsCommittee, which has been usedas a political tool, to be abolished.

Seen LIB DEM proposals to reduce frequency of the Town Hall propaganda sheet“Your Peterborough” adopted by the Tory administration.

Secured council approval to adopt extensions to the annual Christmas Park and RideService.

Consistently asked more questions and submitted more motions at full councilmeetings than any other opposition party.

Successfully secured an agreement, via a full council motion, for greater openness inrespect of the salaries, special responsibility allowances and expense claims receivedby elected members and senior officers. Now open for all to see!

Campaigned against the role of a deputy chief executive and the £145,000 annualsalary - The position has now ceased to exist!

Instigated the successful “Save the Great Northern Hotel” and “Save our City CentrePost Office” campaigns, securing thousands of signatures and messages of support,petitioning local people and holding stalls throughout Peterborough.

Campaigned for safe bins to be introduced around Peterborough to reduce thenumber of irresponsibly discarded and potentially harmful needles.

Success You Can See!



COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

Introduce annual awards ceremony to highlight achievements of local communitymembers who have helped oppose forms of discrimination.

Develop performance education projects that tour local schools, promotingcommunity cohesion between the different ethnic, religious and other groups whichmake up modern Peterborough.

TRANSPORT

Improve existing highways, rather than buildingexpensive new roads, to benefit to all road users,but giving priority to pedestrians, cyclists andpublic transport.

Work strongly alongside bus operators, toprovide a better bus service network, extending theregularity of buses beyond 7pm and developing links between areas,so no-one is forced to travel into the centre first and then to their desireddestination.

Provide free bus travel for Peterborough pensioners,irrespective of the time they wish to travel.

Provide on the spot rewards to cyclists andhighlight these within the local media.

Introduce an all year round Park and Ridescheme, initially at weekends, subsidised inpart by car parking charges, but in the main viaassociated advertising and sponsorship.

What We Want To Do!



ENVIRONMENT

Scrap the gas guzzling mayor’s car and create partnership with local taxi firm forwhen a car is needed. In 2006/07, the cost of running the mayor’s car was astaggering £42,426!

Introduce a 10% discount on section 106contributions, where projects include low carbonfeatures.

Provide a fast track system for planningapplications that show energy efficiencymeasures and promote use of renewableenergy and small-scale renewable energygeneration.

Introduce “100 havens” throughout the city by 2025, aimed at helpingpreserve indigenous plant and animal species.

Provide annual grants to projects like the Green Back Yard and the Eco Art Project,plus support to teach local people how to live a greener life.

Offer households incentives to encourage people to separate their waste, to makerecycling easier, such as vouchers for use in local businesses and free waste utensils.

Look for ways of recycling more commercial waste and work with local businessesand retailers to reduce the amount of waste being generated.

Introduce a Green Audit Committee, to include electedmembers and individuals from relevant local groups, toincorporate programmes of council repair, restoration,reclamation, recycling and a review of use of transport andenergy consumption.

Support programme of replacing sodium lamps withLED high efficiency bulbs and introduce a programme ofdimming streetlights - initially starting in the early hours of themorning, then look to extend the project dependent on success levels.Essex County Council has already turned off 18,000 of its 220,000 street lights,saving an estimated £1.25million a year, and Buckinghamshire has turned off over1,600.



Scrap plans for a waste incinerator and, instead, look at more environmentally-friendly options including more effort on waste reduction and recycling. Save up to£60 million over a three year period from 2011 onwards.

Reduce frequency of grass cutting on council land, in order to deliver savings andincrease bio diversity.

Sign up immediately to the 10:10 challenge. Everyone knows that if you reduce yourcarbon footprint you reduce costs. It's a virtuous strategy. Don't dither, do it!

EDUCATION

Develop ten year plan for education in our city, via consultation with schools,parents and interested groups, to include guaranteed dates for a university and newschools.

Ensure that there are places for local children by consistentlyoperating at a number 5% above the anticipated levels.Vacant spaces can then be offered to children fromneighbouring authorities at a charge.

Open up school facilities to the wider public, and offer50% rate relief to associations or registered socialclubs in the city.

Reward and encourage greater parentalinvolvement in the running of schools and ensure thatevery school has an active school council.

Make use of schools for council committee meetings and ensure that at least 75% offull council meetings take place in secondary schools around Peterborough.

We oppose the sale of school playing fields, to ensure the health and activity offuture generations of young people in Peterborough!



LEISURE & CULTURE

Provide a venue for local artists to display their work freeof charge, throughout the year.

Look at building, through grant access and privatefunding, an all-purpose swimming pool in the northof the city, to be used by local schools and localpeople.

Never charge for entrance to Peterborough Museum.

Increase opening hours at community libraries around the city.

Provide an allowance for the Peterborough poet laureate, with annual awardceremony, to be held in venues like Central Park.

Look to provide a skate park within the area of Cathedral Square, coupled with moretrees and greenery, plus encourage controlled street entertainment.

CRIME + COMMUNITY SAFETY

Work with the courts and other parts of the justicesystem to establish and enforce Acceptable BehaviourContracts with persistent young offenders and provideeffective support for parents who have problemscontrolling their children.

Take real action under the licensing laws, “three strikesand you’re out” for premises that are caught selling to under-agepeople.

Take effective action to tackle under-age drinking and seek to get large venues topay towards local late-night policing.

Work with the Police Authority to have more ‘bobbies on the beat’ and enableresidents to monitor their local Bobbies via Twitter accounts.



HEALTH + SOCIAL CARE

Work, alongside our MPs, to secure more say for the city council on how services arerun in this city and look to reduce the middle management levels within primary,mental health and hospital care in the city.

'Care in the community' is a liberal concept but it must be properly funded andshould enhance, not replace, individual/community effort. We will prioritise thewelfare of children, spend more on qualified social workers who deliver services onthe ground and spend less on needless layers of management.

Liberal Democrats in Scotland succeeded in getting care charges for the elderly andothers in residential homes paid for by the taxpayer. We will campaign for theintroduction of similar payments here in Peterborough.

Actively support voluntary groups and organisations which are delivering services tothe community, not just through the provision of financial assistance but through thedevelopment of genuine partnerships and the harnessing of all the council'sresources.

ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Support agencies to provide counselling for new and existingbusinesses, training courses and a 'one-stop shop' forbusiness enquiries.

Create a local exchange trading systems (a form ofcashless bartering for individuals and small businesses),credit unions (which provide access to cheap loans) andday centres to help the unemployed train for and findwork.

Redevelop brown field sites rather than using green field, outof town sites for the construction of new buildings.

Halt the wholesale destruction of our architectural heritage, preferring rehabilitationof existing buildings for residential use, shops, small businesses and workshops.

Get the city centre ‘Masterplan’ back up and running, but preserve the Brewery Tap.

Break the current focus on city centre development and develop a series of mini‘Masterplans’ covering the whole local area.



HOUSING

Introduce several housing advice centres throughoutthe city.

Look to increase the Council’s present percentagetarget for affordable housing to a figure morelikely to reduce the growing 9,000+ applicationson the local housing waiting list.

Create a dedicated council team and make use oflegislation, to bring empty homes into occupation. In March2011, it was said there were as many as 2,000 empty homes in the city!

Ensure housing expansion is at a rate which is economically and environmentallysustainable.

Seek to ensure that people are able to find jobs within a reasonable distance of theirhomes and have access both to a sustainable transport infrastructure and to greenopen space of high biodiversity value.

BETTER GOVERNMENT

Reduce the number of cabinet positions, no more jobs for the boys,saving at least £100,000 over four years!

Devolve at least 60% of power/decision making from the TownHall to Area Committees, supported by a similar percentageof the annual budget.

Expand public participation in council meetings byholding meetings in venues away from the Town Hall.

Hold full council meetings at weekends.

Provide live streaming of council meetings via webcams.

Scrap the current secretive and inefficient cabinet system and return to a moredemocratic committee system.

Save up to £50,000 a year in lost parking revenue by scrapping free car parkingpasses for city councillors and generate up to £28,000 a year by offering them anannual parking pass at £500 a year.



Stop producing “Your Peterborough” magazine, saving at least £100,000 a year andmake use of local newspapers, magazines, websites and social network sites toinform people.

Execute voluntary freeze on pay for Chief Executive, Directors and Heads of Service,estimated saving of £50,000+ a year.

Reduce grass cutting frequencies on areas of grass away from people’s homes (e.g.playing fields, large parks and open spaces), saving £50,000 per year.

Take away cabinet members’ free Blackberries; they already get money in theirsalaries for telephone use! Savings here would be minimal, at around £5,000, but thegesture to the local population would be strong.

Abolish buffets after council meetings, last quantified at nearly £2,000 a year. Nomore fine wine and cheeses!

Stop paying for councillors to attendance Buckingham Palace garden parties.Currently two councillors and an officer attend with free transport and a posh hotelbeing hired for them to change their clothes in! If they want to go they can pay!

Work with the council's partners to save on back room costs. Do we really needindependent accounting functions in the councils, the police and fire authorities?

Do we really need a council communications team that costs over a £1 million ayear? Work with local media to establish systems that help them and also look toshare services with police, local quangos and the NHS.

Stop outsourcing council services - because you lose control, delivery declines andresidents get short changed!

Provide a realistic replacement for the failed Master Plan development – and not bereliant on expensive consultants!

Invite others to come in and work under council management to deliver servicesmore effectively, saving money. Focus especially on the not-for-profit sector – with20% target of services to be delivered this way.

Scrap the Community Leadership Fund! Annual savings would be £240,000.

Stop wasting millions on consultants: £8million last year!



Scrap additional payments for cabinet advisors and neighbourhood councilchairmen. Estimated saving of at least £42,000 a year!

Ensure that at least one cabinet role is taken by an opposition councillor and alsolook to have 70% of council committee chairs filled by councillors who are notmembers of the ruling administration.

Lobby the Government to scrap the Cabinet system and replace it with a committeestructure.

Work with a local web company to provide a website for all our neighbourhoods andcommerce centres like Werrington, Bretton, and Hampton etc.

Up to 10% discount on Council Tax for those households that provide a proven emailaddress and agree to receive information via this format.

Start looking at selling the Town Hall and provide alternative office space to staffwithin existing empty space around the City Centre.

Sell off marble staircase, chandeliers and various decorative items, from the CouncilChamber and reception room, via eBay, with 10% donation to a local charity.

ALL of the above to be achieved within the first four yearsof the administration!



Peterborough City Council is legally responsible for a population of 160,000 people. Thelargest age sector of the local population is 30-44 years (22.8%) and there are slightly morefemales than males in the city.

More details: http://openlylocal.com/councils/83-Peterborough-City-Council

The Peterborough Liberal Democrats were formed in spring 1988 on merger of the oldLiberal and Social Democratic parties. Life has often been a struggle for the new party buttoday it has emerged intact, boosted by electoral success and an expanding membershipand with great prospects for the future.For more information or details please contact:

Chairperson

Name: Peter Chivall

Address: 88 Elmfield Road, Peterborough, PE1 4HB

Telephone: 01733 358941

Mobile: 07747 406974

Email: [email protected]

Website: www.peterboroughlibdems.org.uk

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About Peterborough City Council

About Peterborough Liberal Democrats

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"Our Vision" - Peterborough Liberal Democrats