Ensuring our recovery post-Covid

In the past few months our unwavering focus has been on helping people who have needed our support through the most testing of times.

Whether it’s adult social care supporting residents in their own home, the countywide and city coordination hubs helping hundreds of people across the city who are shielding or vulnerable, refuse crews who have worked tirelessly to ensure our bins were emptied regularly or bereavement staff who have continued to support families who have lost a loved one – they, and many others, have all played their part alongside colleagues in the NHS and other care sectors.

In the background we have also continued to press ahead with the many projects that will ensure our city can recover from the coronavirus.

It is vital for our residents and our businesses that we do, so that Peterborough continues to prosper, improve and grow at the rate it was pre-COVID.

One of those projects is the delivery of a dedicated university for Peterborough.

This took another big step forward this week with the submission of the planning application for the Wirrina car park site, off Bishop’s Road.

In a double boost, the Government has agreed to fund 90 per cent of the £14.5 million research super hub from its local growth programme.

I’ll be able to tell you more about this in the coming weeks, but it is a key element of our new university which will set us apart from many others.

It has been a great few weeks for the university with Anglia Ruskin announced last month as our higher education partner to deliver the curriculum and manage the university.

Plans really are progressing and it won’t be long before we see the first students walk through the doors in just two years’ time.

A dedicated university for Peterborough will see huge improvement in the opportunities available to our residents, the success of our businesses, and on informing external perceptions of Peterborough as we progress from a small to a medium-sized city and one which will become an even more attractive place to live, work and set up business.

I can assure you we will do everything in our power to ensure that our new university is a real success and grows to become a vital part of the fabric of our city.

We are already a city with a beautiful cathedral and our new university on a green attractive riverside, parkland campus will help cement and enhance our reputation.

- Many of our city centre restaurants, cafes and pubs have been busier this week, thanks to the Government’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme.

You can visit www.gov.uk to find out which venues are participating.

And to make it an even cheaper night out for people we are offering free car parking at Car Haven car park from 5pm, Monday to Wednesday, until 31 August.

In case you’ve not seen it, the campaign encourages people to dine out, by offering a 50 per cent discount when they eat in restaurants that are registered with the national ‘Eat Out to Help Out’ scheme.

It applies every Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday for the whole of August.

- While the latest Centre for Cities data shows that Peterborough’s high street is recovering following lockdown quicker than the national average, it’s important that we do all we can to protect our local economy during this time.

Garden waste collections have now returned to fortnightly after being reduced to monthly during lockdown.

As a result people now need to sign up if they would like to keep having their garden waste collected.

People who had paid for collections up until the end of May had been receiving free monthly collections, but now normal service is resuming we need to charge once again.

For just £45 you will get your garden waste bin collected until July 31, 2021.

Residents can sign up or renew their subscription online at www.peterborough.gov.uk/brownbins or by calling 01733 747474.

You can rest assured the council will continue to work hard to keep services going, its residents safe and well and to keep the city moving.

- And finally, I’d like to thank all our residents who celebrated last Eid last weekend for the efforts they made to keep themselves safe and to avoid spreading the virus.

I know it is not easy when there are celebrations such as Eid taking place.

But it is more important than ever that we all follow the rules with the number of cases nationally rising.

The only way we can avoid a second peak of the virus is to remain vigilant and keep our distance from people we don’t live with, wear a face covering in shops, on public transport and in other public spaces and wash our hands regularly.

Please keep caring for yourself and your loved ones and do your bit to kick coronavirus into touch.