Saturday, 8.55am: Two projects spearheaded by council leader Marco Cereste could be axed in Peterborough City Council’s budget.
Neighbourhood Committees were introduced in 2010, in an attempt to encourage more people to have a say on what happens in their local area.
But three years later they are facing the scrap heap, after low attendances meant they were not effective as first hoped.
The decision to scrap the committees will save £33,000.
Leader of the council Marco Cereste, who was key in the creation of the councils denied they had been a failure.
He said: “A lot of the opposition were against the neighbourhood committees from the start,
“There is now the localism bill, which will mean parish councils will have more power.
“There will be legislation to give them more funds, and we will support communities who wish to set up parish councils, and support parish councils that already exist.
“In one or two areas they were not as successful as we hoped, but most were well attended and extremely useful to deal with local issues.”
Cllr Cereste was also a public backer of the Enterprise Centre, which was opened two years ago with the aim of breaking even.
However, the decision to close the centre will save £116,000 this year, and £224,000 over the next three years.
Cllr Cereste said: “It is not the end of the service, but we will keep it running in a different way.
“We want to be able to keep Peterborough on the map with services like these.”
View the 2013/14 PCC budget proposals,, original document from Peterborough City Council website, 5pm on 25 January 2013.
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