Opposing View: An end of term report - must do better!

As is well documented, Peterborough First handed over the reigns of administration to the Labour group three months ago, them taking over with a fanfare of how the world would change under their administration and how collaboration would reach new bounds.

So, at the end of the “first term” writing in the end of term report, have we seen any change?

We have seen yet another deal pushed through to shore up the council’s position on the ill-fated Hilton Hotel, that I remain unconvinced is in the best interests of the public, as most of my colleagues across the chamber or those members of the public who have shared their opinion with me.

We have also seen a 50 percent cut in the funding of the dementia centre and the “don’t blame me guv” narrative, with blame being apportioned anywhere other than with the new administration, who, despite their protestations, had the gift for this not to happen, in the same way they reversed a decision regarding membership of RECAP (recycling Cambridgeshire and Peterborough).

We have also seen a cabinet meeting, with contentious issues such as Werrington Fields debacle on the agenda, where the entire cabinet sat in silence, not raising a single question, nor making any observations or acknowledgements for the entire meeting. One wonders if the cabinet realise, they are there to scrutinise and challenge the Chief Executive and his officers or whether their perception is that they impersonate those adorable parcel shelf toys of a certain insurance company- you know the one “ohh yes”.

In the interests of brevity, we have now seen another cabinet meeting, where at least one or two grasped the concept of speech, so well done them.

What we haven’t seen is any of the promised cross-party collaboration. Not even the new cabinet, who are all entirely new to their responsibilities reaching out to their predecessors for a hand-over or heads up.

As many of you will know, I held the portfolio which includes all the waste solutions, parks and open spaces, transport, climate change, and infrastructure. I am now “shadow” portfolio holder and am therefore here to scrutinise where necessary. This is arguably the most customer facing portfolio as all services are visible to the public.

I fully accept that the new cabinet member has only been in post for three months, however, areas of concern are already surfacing.

We have had the debacle of the household recycling centre being closed for what are two of the busiest days of the year, without prior notice, leaving many residents being turned away at the door.

Dare I ask how much of this waste “fell off” or “out of” roof racks or car boots on the trips back, and what impact did this have on the already excessive amounts of fly-tipping we are blighted with?

Equally, while in post I set up a tripartite group representing, PCC Highways, Aragon and National Highways for cleaning litter and general maintenance of our parkway system and even secured a further £68,000 in the budget for this purpose, yet much to my dismay and that of community champions like Mark Fishpool, I have seen no evidence of any collaborative initiatives.

There are other examples, but this is the “first term” so I will leave it there for now, but progress is measured by actions and results and therefore, the end of term report summary is clear – Must do better!