Opinion: Let’s highlight the positives

Nigel was commenting on the “ILivehere” poll which claimed to show that Peterborough is the second worst place to live in the country. As a Lib Dem councillor for over 25 years, I have done my share of complaining about various actions of Peterborough City Council. But I have always enjoyed living in Peterborough: right from the day in 1984 when I first visited the city and saw the beauty and serenity of our Cathedral and the attractive green spaces all over the City.

As deputy mayor this year, my deputy mayoress, Bella, and I have been out to a wide range of community events. Back in June, we went to a large Roman Catholic service held in Peterborough Cathedral. At one point during the service, a flag was brought forward to represent every country in the World that is represented by at least one Roman Catholic person living in Peterborough: there were over 80 flags presented, illustrating clearly what a richly diverse and colourful place Peterborough is. In the past nine months, we have been out to events run by a variety of religious faiths and denominations: from Church of England, through Methodists and United Reformed Church, to other faiths including Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs. We attended two events organised by the Lithuanian community, two Chinese new year events and an Italian Republic Day celebration. And of course Peterborough has many more communities than these, including large groups who trace their origins to Poland, Portugal, Latvia and many other European countries plus many from further afield including Asia and parts of Africa.

And, in the main, all these groups live together in relative peace and harmony. People of different faiths and nationalities come together to support each other when there are threats, such as the English Defence League march a few years back, or international emergencies, such as the War in Ukraine and the Turkey/Syrian earthquake. This is the positive side of Peterborough and we should maybe highlight it a lot more than we do.

Of course our city has it’s problems. There are areas in Peterborough with high levels of deprivation and poverty. But the second worst place to live in the country? I personally have seen places too numerous to name across the north and the midlands where there is massive evidence of urban decay and dereliction. I once went to Hanley (a part of Stoke on Trent) where almost one building in three was boarded up and abandoned. Perhaps the people in those places don’t have the time or the inclination to vote in online polls?

Finally, I would like to say a sad goodbye to Shaz Nawaz, who is retiring as a councillor after a number of years as leader of the PCC Labour Group. I worked with Shaz when I was Lib Dem group leader and he was responsible for initiating some joint working between the Labour, Lib Dem and Green councillors at a tactical level within the Council. In Germany, the Social Democrat/Liberal/Green coalition government has just introduced a radical new transport policy which enables anyone to travel on any bus or train for less than two Euros a trip. It’s clearly aimed at tackling climate change by incentivising a massive shift in the way that people travel. And it’s an example of what can be achieved when politicians on the progressive left of politics work together for the benefit of their fellow citizens.