Werrington Fields more

Cllr  Daisy Blakemore-Creedon (18) says students want their voices heard in debate over Werrington Fields, in Peterborough

Transcript

00:00I'm councillor Daisy Blaydon-Creedon and I'm actually talking on behalf of me being a student.

00:06I've had a large, a vast amount of students come to me on social media, social media lately,

00:13and have voiced their opinion about how they feel as though their voice has not been heard on this decision

00:22and feel as though it's a safeguarding risk

00:27and they need the green space being fenced off.

00:31What I think about today's verdict is that a fence needs to go around the field,

00:41however the size can still be debated.

00:46Are you happy with the outcome?

00:49I think the outcome has delayed the process being done,

00:55however that's democracy and yeah.

01:01It's a very good decision and the good thing about it is all the cabinet members,

01:05sorry not the cabinet members, the scrutiny committee members from all different political parties across the board

01:11have come together as the residents of Warrington have for a compromise.

01:16It's now going to go back to the cabinet to make that decision and let's hope that decision is the right one.

01:22The number one priority, despite what people say, is safeguarding,

01:25but in September 2021 the school only wanted four fields, then it went to eight.

01:31It's still the same number of pupils, it's still the same problem.

01:35Why all of a sudden did they want twice the size?

01:38And that's the big issue and that's what set a lot of resonance.

01:41But today all those different various opinions and fractions or whatever you want to call them

01:46have all come together as one.

01:48This week I got a text message from someone saying,

01:51John we're all singing from the same hymn book.

01:53That has took nearly six years, but people have realised the actual seriousness of this

02:00and the nature of it and they've come together to get a compromise for the good of all.

02:04It's not against the academy, it's not against anybody,

02:09it is for safeguarding and it is for the community.

02:12And bear in mind all the councillors are elected to support their communities.

02:16You can never get that 100% right, that's an impossibility task.

02:19If they ever know that mate, I'll sell it.

02:22I think it's been a really difficult decision.

02:24I think there hasn't been a lack of transparency.

02:26There are questions around the size of the field to be used,

02:29who owns the field and its use, who's decided and agreed to pay for the fence

02:34and do taxpayers have to pay some of the money.

02:37So there are real big issues.

02:38This is a classic local government conundrum that councillors need to adjudicate on

02:43and it was really good to see councillors working together cross-party

02:46to say they want a higher burden of proof before they're satisfied the right decision has been made.