ADDRESS TO VOTERS I am standing in Park Ward in the Peterborough City Council election on 4th May 2023.

Full statement

I am campaigning in Park, where I live and am working closely with residents on the things we all care about. If your voice is not getting through to the council or to the police, for example, I can help.

Litter

As we walk around the ward we spot lidless bins. As we come across these, each one is being reported to the council. Park Ward is awash with litter, a lot being blown out of broken bins by gusts of wind.

Community Centres

Park Ward has no council owned community centres. All Saints Church Hall and Central Park’s Bowls Pavilion can be hired for community events. But with the Elm Tree Tavern site subject to a planning application, there is now only one pub (The Hand & Heart) left in our ward. Although we have an unusually high number of school and college buildings, these aren’t routinely open for community use during holidays and at weekends. (Teachers are already overloaded.) We are short of venues and many young people are at a loss for something to do outside school. During a phase of rapid development, the city currently risks losing our Regional Pool and Athletics Track. Park Ward alone has lost six tennis courts. Voluntary organisations are picking up some of the slack. But if you’d like to help with this issue, I’d love to hear from you.

Adult Education

Adult education and training have been cut and cut again by the government. This has reduced availability of social activities and routes to vocational training for over 18s. In our part of Peterborough, many adults struggle with English and Maths. The erosion of adult education provision damages us all, economically and in terms of quality of life.

Care and Health

I have worked with effective campaign teams to achieve good outcomes. I have served on Peterborough’s Maternity Services Liaison Committee which ensures that recent mothers have a way to ensure that the health services provided to pregnant and birthing mums are at the level of quality they expect and deserve. I have campaigned to protect Home Birth services and those who support mothers wishing to give birth at home. I have advocated for hospital patients who need help putting their case. And I have investigated children’s care complaints.

Help to Heal

The oppressive regime of austerity has never been lifted. We were told it would last just five years. It is time to repair and heal the damage.

Inadequate Resources

Park Ward is not just missing out due to council cuts. Our ward doesn’t have enough councillors. We have what is known as a “democratic deficit”, not envisaged when Peterborough decided to become a unitary authority. In the ward, there is so much needs doing. With just three councillors and one MP Park is disastrously underserved in terms of elected officials. This is inevitably hard on those who get elected. My impression is that this is not really understood by the council. Our ward councillors find themselves at a disadvantage to those representing wards which do have a parish council. I would be very happy to articulate this to the council and also to residents.

Parish Peterborough

Other areas have a set of parish councillors plus a set of town councillors plus a set of district councillors and one MP. Elect me and I will help to correct this imbalance. A vote for me IS a vote to parish Peterborough. For Park Ward, parishing would mean about a dozen new unpaid councillors – maybe more since representation is based on population. For Park Ward parishing would mean a parish council budget not otherwise available (this is an unseen deprivation). A really effective parish council takes time to develop but can do a lot. A parish council costs each council tax payer a few pounds on their annual bill, but the PC can decide at what level to set it. In several parishes in the city, we can all see on social media how this additional budget a parish can be used to provide free bulky waste collections, which save those who need it huge bulky waste bills. A “parish nurse” is another option, which looks more attractive the more fractured the NHS becomes. I’d love to hear from you hear if these ideas appeal to you.

Dentistry

Dentistry is an essential NHS service but it almost entirely collapsed during the pandemic. It is still in crisis, with no lists at all open at present for NHS patients to register in Peterborough. Dental surgeries are in limbo, waiting for new contracts. We must force central government to rethink its approach to the National Health Service. Voting Green at local level is the single best way to do this, since The Green Party is unambiguously opposed to privatisation of health services.

Safer Roads

I have consistently supported reducing the speed limit to 20mph on residential roads. Most traffic already travels slowly, as road conditions demand. But a lower legal limit would improve safety and the quality of life of residents and everyone travelling to and from colleges, schools and nurseries in Park ward. I will work with existing and new projects to make active travel safer and easier, prioritising more vulnerable road users to make the roads more useable for them. Feeling good and being safe when out and about is so important for health.

A Greener Street Scene

Our pavements have been neglected and our street scene is not as attractive or as welcoming as it used to be and could be again. Park Ward has lost street trees and gained private cars, as people struggle to get around without a car. This gives us parking and congestion problems. Park ward needs better and more buses. And we need a lot of good gardeners. Please contact me if you can help.

Better Building

Planning legislation is inadequate and developers have been able to build in a way which degrades our built environment. Developments without supporting infrastructure, creating large residential areas without schools, transport links, community hubs or surgeries have gone up. The council has not had enough powers or resources to prevent inadequate and unsympathetic developments, despite its very excellent Local Plan, drawn up a few years ago with a very decent consultative process. At a time when climate change requires homes to be improved, the UK has pretty much binned its housing standards, and those which remain are not built to. I would be delighted to work with the council to help it perform as well as possible on planning.

Drainage

Park Ward is mostly flat and therefore vulnerable to blocked drains and to the ever increasing risk of flash floods. In Park ward, homes have been subjected to the wholly unacceptable ingress of passing vehicles’ wash during recent flash flood events. The traffic wasn’t even stopped. This showed how much we need to tackle drainage. Park ward is lucky because we have precious green spaces which can be used to help mitigate the effects of climate change. The council has an entire section on its website featuring Sustainable Drainage (SUDS) I’d like to help the council dig this policy out and implement it. Roads we know can flood in Park ward should be tackled first.

Asset Management

The city’s antiquated combined sewage and rainwater drains needs replacement or overhaul. I discovered that the handover of the old Drainage Board’s property infrastructure to the Council was never completed when the Development Corporation left. This is one of Peterborough’s very many asset management issues, which all need sorting out. Another is Peterborough’s Green Wheel, which (at about the same time) was never given the legacy funding needed for its maintenance. The council needs to go to battle with Westminster to get proper funding for these necessary but yet unfunded things. It is time national government treated Peterborough with due respect.

Achievements

I stood for parliament in 2010 and 2017. I helped manage the successful Green Mayor Campaign in which The Green Party kept its deposit, polling over 9% of first preference votes in Peterborough and proved strong core support in a city with strong environmental ambition. I was part of the team which helped Orton Waterville to elect Peterborough’s first Green city councillor and we now have a Green group of four city councillors. Vote for me. I am ready and able now to join my fellow Greens on the council to make a positive difference in Park Ward.