Tonight I will attend the first ever Spark Awards, organised by our council to celebrate all those people, community groups and organisations who support and inspire children.
I cannot wait to hear the stories of the winners and those nominated and we will be sharing details of them after the event.
We are reliant on the support of thousands of people across the city to meet that goal – from professionals and frontline staff to volunteers and community champions, including parents and family members too of course. As they say, it takes a whole community to raise a child.
These awards are about celebrating those people, highlighting their good work, and saying thanks.
I look forward to sharing with you the details of the winners when they're announced tonight at the event at The Marriott Hotel - fully funded by sponsorship I might add. On that note, a thank you to our sponsors, Lindum, Morgan Sindall and Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority.
They say that Full Council meetings are the theatre of local government, and we certainly saw that at last week's meeting.
It's good to witness the ambition for our city that we are seeing at these meetings from across the political spectrum, but it is frustrating when some members use that time to grandstand on issues that have already been dealt with elsewhere.
We saw that last week in relation to Peterborough Station Quarter where Councillor Ed Murphy asked a question about pedestrian safety and the use of concrete – the same questions he has asked at previous meetings and to officers and has been provided responses.
My response on the night confirmed that safety is regularly reviewed, including pedestrian access, and that the Carbon Management Plan identified concrete as the most appropriate material for filling underpasses and supporting retaining walls, while recommending redesigned walls and aerated concrete to reduce its use.
It was also good to see healthy and lively debate on the subject of DBS checks for councillors. A majority of councillors supported a new protocol which will ask every councillor to complete an enhanced DBS.
Some members got caught up in the fact there is no national legislation mandating DBS checks for elected members, but that is a separate issue. I was pleased to see my motion calling for the council to write to our MP to lobby the Government to make mandatory enhanced DBS checks law for every Local Government elected councillor in the country, passed unanimously.
In the meantime, it is the right thing to do to encourage all our councillors to carry out such checks, to ensure we are going to the greatest lengths possible to safeguard one another and our residents.
The first meeting of the new City Centre Growth Board took place last week, bringing together the council, Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority and Homes England with a clear task: turn the city’s growth ambitions into action.
All three partners have a long-term investment in Peterborough and are committed to its success and will be working together to ensure we are laser focussed on how to deliver our plans and build the momentum our city needs to drive forwards with large scale regeneration at speed.
Its focus will be on unlocking opportunities for new homes, jobs and businesses while improving the city centre.
I was also invited by the East Anglia Children’s Hospice (EACH) in Milton, to see the great work they are doing to support children who have a terminal illness and their families. I was blown away by the facilities and we must never lose sight of the importance of such services for children who suffer from a terminal illness. They want to do more work with diverse communities in Peterborough, and I have pledged to support them.