Political View: A positive vision for the city
In last weeks column, my colleague and friend Councillor Steve Allen spoke about the political changes we are seeing in local government. Well, I have some good news for the people of Peterborough, you have a chance to make a change when local elections take place on 7th May, writes Councillor John Howard, Conservative Press Officer.
I am sure the public won’t forgive or forget the parties who tried to stop these local elections: Labour, propped up by the Liberal Democrats and Peterborough First in administration. We hope the people of Peterborough look to support the Conservative candidates in your local areas, all who’ve been selected to be active and vocal local champions.
We can’t ask you to look to the future without acknowledging the past. A lot of noise has been made by the Labour leader of us running the city down.
Since 2012, Conservatives in Peterborough oversaw £120 million investment into schools, £100 million into roads, and £76 million into an innovative energy and waste plant. We also pushed for the City’s university working with the combined authority mayor and delivered the Station Quarter project which is now taking shape.
We brought back the Great Eastern Run. We championed the initiation of the towns fund projects. None of this has ‘run the city down’ quite the opposite. We can reflect on other decisions too. The Hilton Hotel project was initiated with the best intentions but remember it’s the Labour administration who are now flogging off an asset which with a partner we could’ve seen through and eventually made money on the original investment. And with some of the allegations being made, again I remind you that no Councillor writes cheques or buys and sells buildings on behalf of the Council.
So, we offer a positive vision for the city. We want a safer, more welcoming city centre and we will increase the presence of city centre enforcement officers to ensure shoppers feel safe. And as the administration that brought back the Great Eastern Run, our next event priority is to bring back the much-loved Heritage Festival.
You can’t talk up a city of culture unless you prioritise cultural events in the city. We must ease the burden on taxpayers, one of the measures will be supporting our mayor's free parking plan. Our city needs a new city centre community stadium, bringing major concerts to the city and helping our tourism offer. The mayor’s development corporation will bring us back to the golden days of last development corporation with aspirational and considerate development in the city.
We must also ensure with the government's thirst for more housing, this is met with community provision that matches the rate of development with responsible economic growth and regeneration. We will push for a better-connected city, and we will not build asylum housing ahead of focusing on residents who are already on our housing list. And for those worried about the running track, I am a runner. It will be safe. These are our priorities.
The news of the libraries being saved is welcome, but of course the political focus on the Woodston library to court political favour is unfair on all the other libraries in the city who may have been wondering if they are ‘saved’ too. It doesn’t remove the fact that we must regenerate and bring new visions to some of these libraries to ensure they don’t get challenged again in the future. This is work me and Councillor Allen started and we will push to ensure that our library estate isn’t just safe today but is credible and safe for the future too.