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!