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Eye Library and youth centre at risk of sale

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As reported in this week’s Peterborough Telegraph and by the BBC, Peterborough City Council is planning to sell the building that houses the village’s youth club and library. The sale of the asset was approved in by the Peterborough City Council’s cabinet in July 23 (Appendix B – Disposal Plan) and council officers have already completed a valuation of the building. In 2019 the government investigated the council to see if they broke the law by selling public assets to help meet its running costs.

The building which is in the village’s conservation area dates back to 1855 was originally built to be the village’s school. It was a working school for almost 100 years but when the current school on Eyebury Road opened in 1951 it closed. Today it continues to be the villages library and is used by both the youth club and the Girl Guides group with nearly 70 children between the age of nine and 12 using the Eye junior youth club. The City Council has said Manor Farm community Centre could be used to provide the facilities in the current building but it isn’t a suitable alternative for a number of reasons, including a lack of storage, no secure outside play area and unsuitable flooring. I’m sure if the council found a million pounds to build a suitable extension to Manor Farm Community Centre residents maybe more amenable.

MP Paul Bristow said “It’s a fantastic, thriving community hub for young people in Eye. The resources there are already stretched, this Youth Club is and will be a vital hub for the community as the village continues to grow.”

The city council has found itself with a multi-million budget deficit and needs to sell assets to stave off bankruptcy as happened to Birmingham City Council. The council’s overall debt has also increased from around £250 million in 2014 to over £450 million today which has also added to the pressures. This won’t have been helped by the recent purchase of the council’s HQ, Sandmartin House for over £47 million, the loan of £23 million to Empower for a solar panel scheme which went bust a few years ago, a £15 million loan to the developers of the Hilton Hotel on Fletton Keys which also went bust and £3 million spent on developing a solar farm project close to Newborough which then didn’t happen.

Deputy Council Leader and Cabinet Member for Corporate Governance and Finance John Howard said in the Peterborough Telegraph: “That this is a review, no decisions have been made” and “Every decision that is made will go through the council scrutiny process and cabinet.”

We will be following the outcome of these meetings closely.

An appeal has been launched by resident Dale McKean to try to keep the building in public hands. Dale said to the BBC: “We already have hundreds of signatures. Eye residents are very angry and children are very upset at the council’s decision. No one was consulted or informed about this.” “The village has grown considerably in the last 10 years and these facilities are absolutely needed for young families and children”.

According to the census the village has grown by over by over a thousand residents in the past 10 years, the highest growth in a village in the Peterborough area and more community facilities are needed, not less.

Our MP Paul Bristow has written to the council and will be at the library on Friday 17 November at 11am to talk to residents.

Lets hope common sense prevails and the building is retained in public hands…

In the media

Parking restrictions at McDonalds in Eye

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Please remember that there is a one hour parking restriction at the McDonalds in Eye, the McDonalds website makes no mention of this. I have heard of a few cases where customers have been caught out and fined. The parking restrictions are enforced by http://metparking.com not the store itself. Met Parking also receive the proceeds of the fines, not McDonalds, although the contract with the parking company to manage the car park will be with McDonalds.

Your car registration is recorded by ANPR as you enter the property and then as you leave. If the time is longer than an hour you will get a fine. Whether you agree with this method of enforcement of not, by entering and parking you are agreeing to the terms and conditions which is why it can be challenging to appeal.

A spokesperson for McDonald’s said: “We have parking restrictions in place at a number of our restaurants, with a time limit to ensure there is adequate parking for all of our customers. We make this clear to our customers with signage in the car park. If a customer feels they have been wrongly ticketed, we would encourage them to get in touch with the third party contractor who issued the ticket by way of appeal.”

Matt Jarett

McDonald’s also doesn’t want people parking in their car park and visiting the adjacent car sales company which is why the time limit was introduced.

If you wish to register a complaint with McDonalds and you think the time limit is too short please visit https://www.mcdonalds.com/gb/en-gb.html The restaurant in Eye is a franchise restaurant which is owned by franchisee, Matthew Jarrett of M PJ Enterprises Ltd.

You can also read more here: https://moneynerd.co.uk/mcdonalds-parking-fine/

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Eye Green McDonalds, Crowland Road, Peterborough. PE6 7TN

Woodland to the east of Dogsthorpe sold

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This piece of woodland, also known as Dosthorpe Spinney to some is just outside the western boundary of Eye Parish. It was sold for £133,000 in May 2021 and there have been concerns about its future. There is very little woodland to the east of Peterborough with only a few small patches surrounded by farmland. Trees play a vital role in removing pollutants from the air, filtering atmospheric pollutants like sulphur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide through their leaves. For the busy junction, that the A15/A47 junction is, it may go some way towards counteracting the pollutants generated.
 Continue reading “Woodland to the east of Dogsthorpe sold” →

City of Peterborough grows ever closer

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Plans for 1,130 new homes on land within the ‘Norwood Extension’ are to be put forward by the owners, Church Commissioners, Central England Co-op and Milton Estate. Taylor Wimpey, who reported an operating profit of £850.5 million in 2019 has already applied for planning permission for 870 homes with a two-form primary school and local centre on the Norwood extension. The eastern point of the site is just 0.3 miles from the top end of Hodney Road. Continue reading “City of Peterborough grows ever closer” →

Fly-tipping, what can be done about it?

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The Reaches, Eye

It was welcoming to see our local MP take the fly-tipping debate to parliament this week. The illegal dumping of waste is the scourge of the countryside, especially close to large urban populations. It’s not only an eyesore but can be a health hazard, not to only to humans but wildlife as well. It isn’t unique to this area, you’ve only got to see this feed on the BBC website to see the extent of the problem. In an analysis of fly-tipping done in 2019 Peterborough was named the third worse place in the UK for fly-tipping.

All the photos on this page have been taken in the past two years around Eye and Newborough and can be used copyright and attribution free in stories relating to flytipping.

If you spot fly-tipped waste report it to Peterborough City Council: www.peterborough.gov.uk/residents/saferpeterborough/fly-tipping-and-littering Continue reading “Fly-tipping, what can be done about it?” →

Eye post office closure

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Eye post office has now permanently closed. In recent years the village has also lost both its independent bakery and butchers. It will probably be the elderly and residents without transport that are affected the most. There has been a post office on this location for over 40 years and this is the first time I’ve known the village to be without one*. The current owners have been running the post office for around 25 years and although they have tried to sell the property as an ongoing business this hasn’t been successful. As reported in the Evening Telegraph “store turnover has fallen from £204,750 a year in 2016 to £187,781 a year since the arrival of a Co-op across the road, while Post Office income has dropped from £38,873 to £20,533 over the same period”. Many services are now online such as car tax and it has taken its toll on the rural post office. Plans have now been submitted to convert the building into a fully residential property. Continue reading “Eye post office closure” →