Sarah Fletcher - General Secretary of Peterborough Council for Voluntary Service

My name is Sarah Fletcher and I have been the Assistant General Secretary of Peterborough Council for Voluntary Service for over 13 years. Our organisation provides the membership for the vast number of voluntary and community groups in Peterborough.

November is a very busy month for our organisation. We start the month with activities during National Compact Week. The national Compact has been around since 1998 however, Compact was not fully adopted in Peterborough until 2005. What is Compact? It’s about better working principals between the voluntary, private and statutory sectors which lead to better outcomes for communities and people.

On Monday 2nd we had the launch of the Next Steps Compact Working Group. This group is tasked with taking Compact forward. After a lively debate the group agreed that over the next few months we need to set out objectives for the local Compact, enabling it to demonstrate to signed partners the impact it has made. The next meeting is planned for December.

From 10am to 4pm on Tuesday we had a drop in for voluntary groups to come in and ask about Compact with an end result of more groups signing the Compact pledge. Despite heavy rain all day we had a steady stream of voluntary groups come along. Our goal is to have at least 10 more signed groups by the end of November.

On 5th and 6th the NHS Peterborough and Peterborough City Council who are both signed partners engaged in a Compact briefing delivered by me. The plan is to remind signed partners what they have agreed to and start to spread the ‘Compact’ word. I hope my presentation was well received and no one was too put out by Jason from Friday the 13th! (you had to be there). It was really good to see Gillian Beasley, Chief Executive of Peterborough City Council involved this will greatly help Compact move forward locally.

The National Compact document is undergoing a refresh at present to find out more about Compact or the refresh go to http://www.thecompact.org.uk/

We are now preparing for the next big event on Thursday 12th November. One of our projects Peterborough Volunteer Centre is hosting the annual volunteer awards event. A little like the ‘Oscars’ of Peterborough this is a great event for all concerned. I will update you on the Awards Evening next blog.

Have you got a place in Peterborough that evokes strong memories?

It could be your favourite place in the city, a place that has special significance or simply one that you find interesting. Send us your picture and we'll incorporate your special memory into the fabric of the new St John's Square in the city centre.

Artist Prof John Newling is working on an innovative art project which will see pictures of people's memories of Peterborough collected, printed in a free newspaper, and mulched down to make compost. That compost will be used to plant the trees in the new St John's Square when the Corn Exchange comes down.

This project, which will also be on display at Peterborough Museum, allows everyone in the city to have a stake in the new city centre redevelopment. We need your help to boost the number of pictures so please send your photo to peterborough@john-newling.com or drop it into the museum for scanning.

Sarah Stannage - Cathedral Square project

Hello, I’m Sarah (age not possible to disclose now I’m no longer able to tick the 18-30 box). I went to secondary school in Peterborough and grew up not far away, so after returning to the area following University I would like to think I can call myself a local.

I’ve been really fortunate to be part of the OP team working with PCC to deliver the Cathedral Square public realm project.

Hopefully I will be able to provide a more of a behind the scenes look at the Cathedral Square project and aim to talk about some of the lesser known aspects of the project including the environmental and arts initiatives the public realm scheme is part of.

Everybody is encouraged to do their bit for the environment and the Cathedral Square project is no different. The team has been incredibly committed to ensuring we manage the scheme to the highest environmental standards possible and it’s not just me praising the team. PECT (Peterborough Environment City Trust) and DEFRA have been impressed by the efforts made and recently we were visited by Hilary Benn, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. Peterborough, including the Public Realm scheme, has signed up to be one of six national ‘Zero Waste Places’. For me the Zero Waste Place scheme and looking at the carbon footprint for the scheme is incredibly interesting as I recently qualified in Environmental Management so I’ve been able to put the theory into practice. The main ethos behind zero waste is obviously to reuse and recycle as much as possible, for example most of the old paving will be returned into the City Council’s stock for maintenance of other areas in Peterborough but it’s also fantastic that quite a few community groups, such as the Eco Art Project, the local Rugby Club and Thorney Abbey have benefited from being given some of the old paving and street furniture.

We have also looked at energy usage and associated carbon emissions relating to not just the build stage but also operating and maintaining the public realm scheme, including lighting system and water feature. Commitments to reducing waste production are a priority within the city, including transferring zero waste to landfill during the public realm construction works.

In terms of Carbon footprinting our construction work is relatively neutral on the carbon emission front. The actual construction work itself will result in the emission of 996 tonnes of carbon dioxide, whilst operating the water feature will generate just 94 tonnes of carbon dioxide annually. Fortunately in the “off set” bracket we have the trees and grassed terraced areas that will form part of the new square, currently being dubbed “St. John’s” square, which will significantly reduce the overall carbon dioxide emissions over a 25 year period. The new lighting system is technically more efficient than the old one but we have had to increase the number of light units in the square to raise light levels overall in order to meet national standards.

Added to this the scheme will use high quality materials as part of the scheme including the street furniture, which will minimise the need for replacement and manufacture of materials in the future, saving carbon and money in the longer run. Unlike some other cities we have sourced material from as close to home as possible – for example, the stone for paving is all from the UK.

For me the Zero Waste Place scheme is incredibly interesting as I recently qualified in Environmental Management so I’ve been able to put the theory into practice.

Next Time… the focus will be on our Public Realm Artist, Professor John Newling (who’s just been made a fellow at the Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce).

Future Jobs Fund to bring new jobs for Peterborough

We are all really pleased that GPP have been successful in bidding for money from a new fund to help create new jobs across the city. This is really great news for Peterborough, for the people who will benefit from some exciting job opportunities and for all the areas of work we will benefit from. The funds will create up to 167 new jobs under the Government’s Future Jobs Fund. We will be working with partners over coming weeks to finalise the exact details of each job.

The Future Jobs Fund is part of the Government’s ‘Backing Young Britain’ campaign – which seeks to help young people into employment. This is a £1 billion national programme creating 150,000 new jobs for unemployed people. 24 organisations from the public and voluntary and community sectors came together to create a range of jobs in health, environment and community work. Some of the jobs that are proposed include:

Creating a dedicated team of young people within the health service in Peterborough to promote healthy living amongst young people
Supporting local conservation organisations to manage nature reserves and engage with local communities
Working with the police to assist community support officers in their day to day duties
Providing teaching support at Peterborough College of Adult Education
Jobs at Peterborough museum to help support additional community events
Supporting the YMCA with its youth delivery programmes

All people who are employed in these jobs will have opportunities for suitable training packages. The jobs will be advertised through Job Centre Plus.

We hope that the new jobs will start in November. The jobs are targeted at two groups of long term unemployed people: those living in 10 unemployment ‘hotspots’ in the City, and young people aged 18 – 25. All the jobs aim to bring a lasting benefit to Peterborough by helping young people to contribute to the community and also proving them with the essential skills needed to continue to work in our growing city.

All the partners will be working hard together to ensure that every young person finishes the programme with a greatly enhanced range of skills and knowledge and a more confident approach to job seeking and that Peterborough benefits from their hard work.

Hello from Susie Hall, GPP Manager

I am Susie Hall Manager for GPP. My role is to support and facilitate the work of the 8 partnerships:·

• Children's Trust Partnership Board
• SaferPeterborough Partnership
• Environment Capital Partnership
• Health and Wellbeing Partnership
• Growth Partnership
• Community Cohesion Partnership
• Neighbourhood Regenerating Strategic Partnership
• Adult Learning and Skills

We hope that by partners working together from the public, voluntary, business sectors we can together better meet the needs of the whole community of Peterborough. In particular I am working with the Health and Wellbeing partnership, the Children’s Trust and the Adult Learning and Skills partnership, whilst also and coordinating the Value for Money (VfM) People strand of work. The VfM group is looking to develop the whole workforce of Peterborough to support the delivery of the Sustainable Community Strategy which has the overarching ambition to deliver a bigger better Peterborough. Click here to find out more about the Sustainable Community Strategy.

We are also working on a number of new projects including the Back to Business Club, a networking and support group for managers and professionals who have been made redundant as a result of the economic downturn. The club meets weekly at Peterborough College of Adult Education from 2pm – 5pm every Thursday. For more information – click here.

We are also currently trying to secure income from the Future Jobs Fund to support the employment of young people – we should find out soon if we have been successful in this bid.

August Holiday

We are taking a break from blogging over the August holiday period - but be sure to check back in September to see what our next blogger, Sarah Stannage, Senior Regeneration Officer from Opportunity Peterborough is talking about.

Enjoy the summmer!

GPP Team

Pride in Peterborough

Having come hot foot back from holiday, I want to talk to you about Pride in Peterborough which sits as one of our key objectives in the Local Area Agreement under Strong and Supportive Communities.

My Mother passed away on Monday and I have had to go through the process of organising the cremation. What has really made me proud is that we will be going to one of the top Crematoriums in the whole of the country, which has just won the Green Flag accolade and joins other venues across the city. I know my Mum would be happy with this and I know that my Dad will love to visit.

I have also picked up the fantastic finds that have been uncovered within the city centre as we work on the public realm and as Ben Robinson continues to delve into our history to display our long and historic city’s past. For those of you that would love to know more, then as a Peterborian who went on one of the Museum walks I learnt a lot and I suggest that you pop along to the Museum to find out more. I would challenge any of you that this would not improve your pride in Peterborough.

There is such a lot more within the city to be equally proud of, both in the changes that we plan for the growth of the city and in the continued events such as the Festival, Great Eastern Run etc, this all contributes to Peterborough having strong and supportive communities across the city. I am proud and I want you to be proud too.