Opinion

I was really encouraged to see a Public Health England report this week which praised our efforts in reducing alcohol related hospital admissions, writes leader of Peterborough City Council, cllr John Holdich.

The month of August is, of course, entirely taken up with the school summer holidays, so I don’t have as much news from schools to update you on as usual. writes Jonathan Lewis, Peterborough City Council director of education.

Every day most of us will put time and effort into sorting our waste so we can put what can be recycled into our green bins and what can’t into our black bins, writes Simon Kail, Chairman of Peterborough and Fenland Liberal Democrats.

Sometimes what you seek is right on your doorstep. Allow me to elaborate...Just over ten years ago I had a vision of becoming a TV chef and spent a lot of time, money and energy travelling all around the UK for television work opportunities, writes Parveen Ashraf.

I was saddened to read in this year’s report by the Education Policy Institute (EPI) that school pupils in Peterborough from lower-income households are, on average, around two years behind their peers in educational attainment by the time they leave secondary school, writes Peterborough MP Lisa Forbes.

An open letter to Cllr Holdich. I am writing to ask you for an update on plans relating to the burned out Toys R Us retail unit, and for you to use your influence to get the site cleaned up as quickly as possible.

I have photographed some interesting characters over the years– including Victor Holroyd who was quite eccentric and called himself a Christian commando and sported messages of peace and love on his hat and coat, writes Chris Porsz, the Paramedic Paparazzo.

The 17 th century French statesman, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, once described the art of taxation as “plucking the goose as to procure the largest quantity of feathers with the least possible amount of hissing”.

Prior to a run at this year’s Edinburgh Festival, Noise Boys staged the World Premiere of their show here at Peterborough’s New Theatre last month, write the Peterborough Music Hub.

I can’t start off this column without sharing sympathy with the victims of the two mass murders in the USA. Our hearts go out to those families affected, writes Chris Ash, Liberal Party member of Peterborough City Council.

W hen I was a little girl in the 1970s there was none of this business of living our lives online. We had to get our entertainment and live out our fantasies in simpler ways, writes Peterborough Cathedral Canon Missioner Sarah Brown.

This week, diplomats in Brussels have been told that a No Deal Brexit is currently Boris Johnson’s ‘central scenario.’

When a record high temperature was recorded in Peterborough last month, what did we all take for granted? Easy access to as much clean, fresh water as we needed to quench our thirst and cool us down, writes Rotary’s Janet Cooke.

O ver the past year we have seen a 56 per cent rise in the number of families who present themselves to the council as homeless, writes cllr John Holdich, leader of Peterborough City Council.

I loved the great big billboards at pavement level such as the spaghetti one (main image) in upper Bridge Street, Peterborough – the photo is from around 1980, writes Chris Porsz.

I photographed this group standing on the corner in the late seventies with hoardings up around the under-construction Queensgate Centre, writes Paramedic Paparazzo Chris Porsz.

We are calling time on the naysayers and doom-mongers, writes Paul Bristow, Conservative parliamentary candidate for Peterborough.

Margaret Thatcher once quipped, “The problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money”, writes leader of the Labour group on Peterborough City Council, Cllr Shaz Nawaz, in his weekly column.

The next few years promise to be an exciting time for higher education in Peterborough.