Hide it behind some trees.....

Bless, one of the recent election caddidates running for Stanground Central thought we could get the Dubai World owned Magna Park massive eurocontainers unloaded "behind some trees and containers unloaded inside warehouses." That's what he told BBC Peterborough Breakfast Host Paul Stainton on BBC Radio Cambridgeshire.

Simply we are talking about a quotes" a Strategic Regional road/rail freight interchange on land to the north-east of Stanground." Specifically concreting over a huge historic flood plain 'DrySides' stretching from the middle of Park Farm, Stanground then having trashed the floodplain, altered the watertable, this massive construction extends all the way over to the windmills by the railway and down to Kings Dyke so actually going way beyond Peterboroughs Unitary Authority borders.


The Site Allocation DPD plan voted for by the PCC Tory controlled Cabinet (NO ONE ABSTAINED) calls for a railway, rail sidings, and huge crane gantries  - such as you would find at a massive container port. A much smaller example of what will be certainly be called Magna Park can also be found at Milton Keynes. 

For a fuller explanation  I suggest everyone has a good look at Peterborough Site Allocations DPD Inspectors Report February 2012 Appendix A Paragraph 156 -161 inclusive (pages31-32) and the updates insertion on Pages 42 and 43 entitled MM19 (SC/37) Page 27 insert after para 4.13. Now this is the new 'kicker', no one saw this one coming:-

"....with a possible ADDITIONAL 33 hectares in the neighbouring district of Fenland."

Magna Park Meet the new landlord ....

...... and his Chairman

NO MAGNA PARK!

Julian Bray writes: I've added this regulation hard hat to the Believe in Stanground!  armoury, as if the block voting Stanground Tories have their way, we'll have one of the UK's largest building sites on our hands for a couple of years or so, and noise and traffic pollution for the rest of our natural lives, we'll all then need regulation hard hats; thanks to Cllr. Irene Walsh, and with very few new local jobs to show for it.

The developers (pre Arab Gazeley) orginally said 5,000 jobs would be created , then within weeks, they quickly revised it down to 4,000, then using comparative industry manning figures for automated warehouse sheds, it tumbles by almost any yardstick you care to apply,  to a less than impressive 1,500. Hmm big drop!   Cllr Walsh blustered for a sound bite at the cabinet meeting simpering she was against the project, THEN PROMPTLY VOTED IT THROUGH AS PART OF A BIGGER PACKAGE!  Still it was to be expected as part of the robotic votiing we have all come to expect from the Stanground Tories....

The background to this picture is in fact the actual site where a gigantic Magna Park rail freight interchange is scheduled to dominate Stanground. The project now owned by Dubai, as UK company Gazeley sold out to Dubai World. Cllr. Irene Walsh who is defending her Stanground Central seat on May 3rd, voted FOR imposing a Magna Park on us during the recent cabinet meeting of council.