Political View: Peterborough Politics never ceases to surprise - time for change
They say ‘a week is a long time’ in politics. That was undoubtedly true, last week in Peterborough, writes Chris Wiggin of Peterborough Liberal Democrats.
Having just had my birthday recently, I went on a short holiday in France, only to find on my return that a social media storm had erupted in Peterborough, which led to the resignation of the then Labour leader of the council. With no leader in place, the council had to hastily set a date for an extraordinary meeting of Full Council to elect a new one. Due to the urgency, this was a mere seven days away.
In normal circumstances, there are several weeks to work out what will happen following elections. With Labour still being the largest party, it was up to them to firstly choose a new group leader and then set out what they saw as the future administration.
Back in June, we challenged Labour because its administration no longer had the capacity to continue on its own and had failed to seek partnerships with others. Since then, they have lost another couple of councillors, and it has become even clearer that no single party can run Peterborough alone.
Having been elected the new Labour Group Leader, Cllr Shabina Qayyum recognised this in her opening column as Labour group leader, setting the tone for a better way of doing politics in Peterborough.
After many meetings, between and within parties, the Liberal Democrat group was invited to join a cross-party Administration with Labour and Peterborough First.
Residents deserve a council that works for them, not one where individual parties fight among themselves. By bringing together Labour, Peterborough First, and the Liberal Democrats, we have created an administration that represents over 56% of the city’s councillors and assembles a team with the talent and experience to make the right decisions for our City.
This decision is not about political deals. It is about responsibility. The list of issues for the new administration to deal with is long and well-publicised, but we are ready for the challenge of fighting for you every day.
We are still working on developing the finer details of the administration’s policy offer to the city, but as Liberal Democrats, we want to see strong, cost-effective actions to tackle climate change and will press for improvements to local bus services. We aim to create an age-friendly city where people of all ages are provided with the opportunities they need to lead fulfilling lives.