Opinion: Putting people before politics

I hope it will help to debunk what happens behind the scenes at the Council and in the Council Chamber.

I also want to give you our vision of how much better our city can be.

The motions and conduct at the full council meeting in July made it very clear that this city needs a change to a transparent and dynamic administration.

All motions put forward at the meeting by the administration were policy that could have been put in place by the administration themselves.

Instead the current Conservative administration used the meeting time and council staff resource to bolster Paul Bristow MP’s false rhetoric.

This is a needless waste of officer resource and a waste of time in the chamber.

Peterborough First represent you at Full Council meetings, and it is a great concern to us that the administration would rather focus on their own false narrative instead of focusing on the residents of Peterborough.

Contrary to what the administration councillors may have said, many in our group voted against the much discussed 15-minute city/ULEZ motion because it was a needless political stunt.

To be clear, as was said in the chamber, Peterborough First do not support 15-minute cities, ULEZ charging or any form of higher levy on the already suffering motoring public.

We do support implementing as many innovative measures as possible to give our residents cost-effective and economical alternatives to car use. But this will never be at the cost of taxing car users more.

If we want to reduce emissions by reducing vehicle use, then a viable alternative needs to be put in place.

We need a fit for purpose bus service that is regular, joined up, reliable, safe, clean and cost effective.

The current provision of cycle and pathways are in an unacceptable state. We need cycleways and footpaths that join up the city and our rural communities that are safe, well lit, and with properly maintained surfaces.

Funding from Central Government and the Combined Authority, which our Council relies on to fund vital new infrastructure, requires vision and ambition. The administration should spend more time on planning for such infrastructure and share with us the vision of the next 5, 10, 20 years. This will mean more to the public than meaningless political stunts.

We urge the administration to take its role seriously and put people before politics. Peterborough First is exactly that: we will always put people before politics.

The time for change cannot come soon enough.