Iain Shanks's Page

Where are you from?

Whittlesey

Website

https://ishanks.wordpress.com/

Have you lived in Peterborough long?

Born in Werrington, raised in Whittlesey. Lived in London for 3 years and studied in Preston for 3

What is your own vision for Peterborough?

Peterborough as a regional centre for the North Cambridgeshire area that transends the unitary authority status and engages with the local economic area to attract value to the area and ensure the sustainable success of local businesses and attractions.

One thing you'd like to change about the place?

Better prospects for educated young people, currently the best thing to hand out with degrees from the university centre will be a train ticket to find a job and training else where.

While the targets for Opportunity Peterborough are focussed on high volumes of low skilled low value added sectors such as distribution, food processing, retail, and business process outsourcing such as admin, shared services and contact centres. Therefore the city's current an future revenue from the sale of its labour are consequently of low value.

We are a service city reliant on selling our labours to generate income for the local economy - in a consumer society low wages create poor consumption and all cultural services: bars, restaurants, theatres, events require consumer spending to be successful.

What areas of the Citizen Power project are you most interested in?

With a workforce of circa 100,000 and nearly 40,000 commuting in everyday from outside the unitary authority I am interested in how this group will be engaged , their opinions of the city often colour the opinions of their coworkers and are a vital demographic to engage

What's your favourite place to eat in Peterborough?

Bygones Bistro, Whittlesey

Favourite place to go?

Cathedral grounds for a picnic lunch - a simple pleasure on a sunny day

If a Martian came to Peterborough, what would you show him/her/it to explain what the place was about?

The Norman Cathedral - built by the Normans some of Peterborough's earliest foreign migrants and still the heart of the city today.

With the passage of time all migrants add something to the city and merge with it.

I would also explain the desire to hold on to a past and a fear of the new. And how this reflects in a lack of new ideas and architecture of note in the rest of the city.