I came into politics to make a positive difference in our city's communities and tackle the issues that are affecting people's daily lives.
Time and time again I hear people's concerns about fly-tipping and I also see the blight it causes across the city.
Our proactive administration is listening and acting - that's why we pledged to introduce free community bulky waste collections in every ward across the city in our Labour election manifesto. We have honoured that promise and I'm delighted that collections are starting this weekend.
The collections begin on Saturday (3 October) in Bretton and during October will take place in Glinton and Castor, Park ward, Fletton and Stanground and Eye, Thorney and Newborough.
There will be one collection in each ward for the remainder of 2026/27 and I urge everyone to take advantage of these. You can take waste to organised collection points which will be marshalled by staff. A list of collections including dates/times and locations, as well as further information can be found on the council's website and we will also be promoting collections on our social media accounts.
I'm also pleased to say we will be increasing the collections to two per year in each ward during 2027/28 and will announce details about this in due course.
We're also continuing to promote our Love Where You Live campaign, highlighting how fly-tipping and littering damage our environment.
The campaign, which is being actively promoted on our social media channels, emphasises that everyone has a part to play in tackling the problems and by disposing of litter and waste properly, you create cleaner and stronger communities. Please share these messages.
Another subject which I know people feel passionately about is the look of our city centre.
We're working on improving this too, following the success of our recent Operation Horizon which saw streets and pavements hot washed, litter bagged up and graffiti cleaned from walls.
To keep this momentum going we created a City Impact Team, bringing together all the services which are currently working in the city centre including cleaning operatives, enforcement officers, litter pickers, rough sleeper outreach workers and others but in a much more coordinated way.
I would also like to take the opportunity to thank Peterborough City Hospital for looking after my daughter last week. The waiting rooms and corridors were full of patients but the care and consideration shown by the staff who were working non-stop was exemplary. I would like to offer a wholehearted thank you to the Accident and Emergency Team of the Hospital.
We celebrated the 100th centenary of the Cambridgeshire Chamber of commerce in our magnificent cathedral last week too. I was blown away at receiving an award for the best Civic Leader alongside so many others in our city. I am proud of how the Chamber has grown from strength to strength and Charlotte Horobin and her team offer the business community in the region tremendous support. I would like to thank them, Mayor Paul Bristow and others for sponsoring the event and my award isn’t mine alone; I dedicate this to the people of Peterborough. Our beautiful City.
Finally, it may be early to say, but Christmas is now less than three months away!
We will be getting Peterborough into the festive spirit next month with our spectacular Christmas Lights switch-on in Cathedral Square, one of the biggest and most exciting events in our calendar.
It takes place on Friday 20 November and I’m proud to announce this will be hosted by Boomerang Radio for the first time. The festivities take place from 5pm with live music and fun before the big-switch-on at around 7pm. So get that date and time in your diaries!