Mayor calls extraordinary meeting of all Peterborough councillors to examine plans for future of city

The move comes after a dispute between political leaders over a sudden decision by Peterborough City Council’s ruling cabinet on August 25 to remove a 115 hectares employment site at Stanground from the draft Local Plan.

Members of a scrutiny committee held just days later to inquire into the decision, urged the Mayor of Peterborough to call an extraordinary meeting of the full council to examine the draft Local Plan, which will guide the city’s development for the next 20 years.

The action was demanded after it became clear that no opportunity for the full council to debate and change the draft Local Plan had been timetabled ahead of the document being put out for consultation and before government approval was sought by Decmeber 31.

Now Mayor of Peterborough Cllr Chris Harper has agreed that the new meeting of the full council should take place on September 29 at 6pm.

It will be held two days before the cabinet is due to review its original decision to remove the Stanground employment site, which it is said could provide 5,000 jobs.

Cllr Numan Ali Iqbal, cabinet member for growth and regeneration, said: “It is right that this very important document for our city’s growth gets the scrutiny and discussion that it deserves.

"As a city of growth and expansion, it is imperative that development takes place in a planned and organised way which would benefit the city’s long term sustainable growth – with the needs of our residents firmly in mind.”

Councillor Shabina Qayyum, the council leader, has warned that councils that failed to hit the end of the year deadline would have to start all over again on the Local Plan.

She said this would be a waste of the £1 million of taxpayers’ money already spent preparing the current Local Plan.