Peterborough City Council leader John Holdich: A happy 90th birthday, Ma'am

Cause for more celebration is the immediate impact made by our new Safer Peterborough Partnership Prevention and Enforcement Service. This recently launched ‘joined up’ approach to enforcement on our City streets has had a particularly proactive week tackling anti-social behaviour complaints, street begging and rough sleepers, over 100 fly-tipping issues, Bridge Street cycling, illegal traveller pitches, 24 
abandoned vehicles, 45 housing enforcement visits and many other civil and criminal matters of both a prevention and an 
enforcement nature. I’m very pleased about the 
efforts being made by the 
officer team and, once embedded, I’m confident this good initiative will become even more effective in 
future.

Another of this week’s really positive Peterborough stories involves the current national debate over the country’s shortage of primary school places. Parents of pupils starting primary school in Peterborough in September 2016 have received their allocation offer and in total, 97 per cent of parents were offered one of their three preferred primary schools. Additionally, out of the parents who applied for a place before the deadline, 2,515 parents have been offered a place at their first preference primary school for September 2016, 197 parents have been offered their second preference school and 57 have been offered their third preference school.

Readers might be aware Peterborough has the 
third fastest growing population in the country and since 2007 we have created more than 5,000 additional school places at our primary school, at a cost in the region of £60million. We are currently building a new primary school building on the former hospital site on Thorpe Road and this will 
allow the current West 
Town Primary Academy school to relocate to a bigger site creating extra school places.

I think it’s worth mentioning that around 9 out of every 10 primary schools in Peterborough are rated good or better by Ofsted, so even if you don’t achieve you preferred 1st school place most of our schools are very well regarded by the professionals.

Charles Swift, at 62 years’ service, the country’s longest serving councillor retires in a couple of weeks and to mark the occasion he held a very well attended ‘an evening with Cllr Charles Swift OBE’ on Friday last. Charles regaled the appreciative audience with stories, anecdotes and tales of his years as a councillor and his experiences and impressions of the very many well-known people he’d met through the years. A big 
personality who will be missed hugely when he steps down in May, although somehow I think he’ll be popping up here and there in future!