Walton 304
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Transcript of Walton 304
FOCUS www.peterboroughlibdems.org.uk
WALTON RESIDENTS' NEWSLETTER
CONTACT FOCUS
By phone: Call local Liberal Democrat councillors Nick Sandford – 01733 268460 – or Asif Shaheed on 0757 246 3526. By post: Cllr Nick Sandford or Cllr Asif Shaheed, Town Hall, Bridge St, Peterborough PE1 1HG By e-mail: nick.sandford@ Peterborough.gov.uk or asif.shaheed@ peterboroughlibdems.org.uk Or at the councillors’ ward ‘surgery': 6:00 to 7:00 pm, first Friday of every month in Community Centre, Mountsteven Avenue.
SEE OUR WEBSITE: www.peterboroughlibdems.org.uk
FIND US ON FACEBOOK: Search for ‘Walton FOCUS team’
WHAT DO YOU
WANT IN THE ‘REC’? The developers who built the new flats at 998 Lincoln Road (next to
Morrisons) had to pay the council over £26,000 because they did not
provide any significant green open space on the site. Lib Dem councillors recently exposed the fact that this money is part of over £7
million collected from developers which the council has sitting in its bank
account – and much of the money has been there for many years. We think this is
scandalous at a time when budgets are tight and council services are being cut in
many areas.
The £26,000 has to be spent on upgrading the Mountsteven Avenue recreation
ground – usually better known as ‘Walton Rec’.
Your local Lib Dem councillors Nick Sandford and Asif Shaheed recently went
to look round the Rec and are producing a short list of ideas on how this money
can be spent. But they also want to hear your ideas. Please phone or email them to
give them your views.
For example, would you like to see more play equipment, more facilities for
teenagers, some natural outdoor gym equipment or perhaps some more trees
along the path, a water feature or better lighting? It’s not a massive amount of
money but £26,000 might be enough for one or two such projects to make the
area more attractive and get more people using the Rec regularly.
Missing gates One thing that does need sorting out in the Rec is the missing gates for the
children’s play area.
Back in March 2012 Nick and Asif
were advised by local resident Penny
Fower that the gates to the play area
had been removed. This was reported
to Enterprise – the company
responsible for maintaining the Rec.
On a ward ‘walkabout’ undertaken by
your local councillors and managers
from Enterprise back in August the
gates were still missing and the
Enterprise representatives made a note
of this to rectify it.
Asif & Nick went on another ward
walkabout on 26th October and the
gates were STILL missing (see pic)!
Asif commented: “This is now beyond a joke. It’s been over six months,
Enterprise have been informed of this at least twice, and still no gates.
“This is a children’s play area and should be a priority. What would be the
repercussions should children be playing on the equipment and a dog attacked
them? Enterprise is failing miserably on the service it is supposed to deliver.”
On the same councillors/Enterprise walkabout in August a note was made to
arrange the removal of a dog waste bin that had been dumped within the
allotments. Surprise, surprise it was still in there on 26th October!
Local Lib Dem councillor Nick Sandford standing where the gates should be in Walton Rec.
Issue 304
BONFIRE IN YOUR GARDEN? A resident from the Marne/
Mountsteven Avenue area attended
your local Lib Dem councillors’
‘ward surgery’ to raise concerns
about disposing of garden waste
left by a previous tenant.
The new tenants wanted to have
a bonfire to get rid of the waste
but were concerned because the
area is a ‘smokeless zone’.
After checking with the council
and Cross Keys, the councillors
were able to confirm that it is OK
to have small bonfires so long as
they are not too frequent and do
not cause a nuisance.
However, if possible, it is best to
put garden waste in the brown bin
or in a composter.
Printed by Keyprint, Peterborough PE3 7PR. Published and promoted for and on behalf of the Liberal Democrats by Peter Chivall, 88 Elmfield Rd, Peterborough PE1 4HB
USE IT OR LOSE IT The ‘guided busway’ between
Huntingdon and Cambridge was
massively expensive to build but is now
up and running. For much of the route
the bus runs on dedicated tracks away
from other traffic. The guided bus now runs all the way to
Peterborough, although it uses normal
roads for our part of the route. Look for
Bus B at Queensgate bus station. It takes
around two hours to get to Cambridge but
is cheaper than the train.
In Walton don’t forget that as well as
Stagecoach buses we have council service
408 which goes to Bretton Centre and City
Hospital about once per hour on Monday
to Saturday daytimes. They enter Walton
at the end of Fulbridge Road near the
A47, go via Holland Avenue and Croyland
Road into Mountsteven Avenue, past the
schools and into Lincoln Road, then past
Morrisons and on to Bretton….. also
running in the reverse direction.
These buses are not well advertised and
are often under threat when the council
wants to make budget cuts. So it really is a
case of “use it….or you might lose it!”
CUTS NEEDED! Councillors Nick Sandford and Asif
Shaheed are trying to help resolve a
problem with a hedge on Montagu Road.
Nick said: “Mothers with pushchairs are
unable to pass without having to cross the
road. The council has been sent
photographs of the obstruction and we’re
waiting for a response and some action.”
WHAT’S THE BIG SECRET? Council landscaping and a range of other services such as bin
collections have been taken over by a private company called
Enterprise, which has been given a contract of over 20 years. The bin
collections seem to be going OK but there have been many complaints
across the city about the quality of the landscape management. Local Liberal Democrat councillor Nick Sandford has, not for the first time,
found both the council and Enterprise to be very secretive when asked to
supply basic information.
The council agreed with Enterprise earlier this year that it would save
£100,000 by cutting the grass less often in certain areas – for example, on
some large green areas away from housing.
Enterprise has so far failed to deliver this saving so Nick started asking
some questions about it. At a council committee meeting he asked the simple
question: what is the total amount of money that the council has actually
spent on grass cutting over the past year?
Three months later he had not been given an answer and when he did
eventually get a figure he was told he could not tell anyone about it as “the
information is commercially confidential”.
Nick said: “We must have one of the most secretive councils in the country.
People have a right to know how much the council is handing over to private
contractors to pay for basic services. If they won’t publish the information,
people might start assuming they have something to hide.”
Enterprise fails to tackle toilet problem Local Lib Dem councillors Nick Sandford and Asif Shaheed were approached
by Walton Community Centre which had a problem with a hole in the floor of
the toilet area which was causing nasty smells and making the area unsafe for
use by the public.
Council contractor Enterprise is responsible for such repairs but three
weeks after the community centre reported the problem, no remedial work
had been carried out, even though it was a potential health and safety hazard.
Nick intervened and spoke to the Tory council cabinet member responsible.
Within days the repair had been carried out.
Nick said: “I am grateful to the cabinet member for helping me get some
action in this case. But these contractors should be providing basic services
like this within a reasonable timescale. If they can’t fulfil the terms of their
contract, they should not have taken it on in the first place”.
Budget cuts aren’t needed – we can spend our way out of the economic crisis – just like Greece!