Peterborough’s Conservative councillors set up Shadow Cabinet to ‘ensure good decision making’ by coalition administration

The move by the 13-member Conservative group on Peterborough City Council comes ahead of the first key cabinet meeting tomorrow (October 2) of the local authority’s new ruling group.

A Labour-led coalition with Peterborough First and the Liberal Democrats is currently in charge at the city council and headed up by Labour’s Councillor Shabina Qayyum.

She was appointed following the resignation of former Labour group leader Cllr Dennis Jones last month.

Now the Conservative group says it has formed its own shadow cabinet to ensure a more effective keeping to account of the new administration.

Cllr John Howard said: “Residents are aware of the history between the groups now in a joint administration.

"Their first cabinet meeting starts by withholding 20 documents from public view or scrutiny.

“Decisions that will affect millions of pounds of taxpayer money, made behind closed doors.

“This is an unacceptable level of exempt papers for a public-serving council, and our priority is to ensure we can review these papers and ensure good decision-making is taking place.

“With this level of secrecy being made by the new cabinet, it is more vital than ever the city has a shadow cabinet that will hold this administration to account on decision making and policies.

"We have always supported the administration in making good decisions for the city, but equally we will always challenge bad decision making too.”

Tomorrow’s cabinet meeting is due to start at 10.30am.

It will consider 16 items and there are a total of 20 reports that are marked as confidential and exempt from public scrutiny.

Most of the confidential papers are concerned with financial details.

There are 10 confidential reports with the items on the future of the Hilton Garden Inn, two with the disposal of a community centre, two concerning the Key Theatre, three dealing with the disposal of the Victorian rail shed at Fletton Quays and one attached to the item on the expansion of Heltwate Special School.

Councillor Shabina Qayyum, leader of Peterborough City Council, said: "When I became Leader of the Council I said that I wanted all political groups to work together for the good of the city, so it is regretful to see the Conservative group making comments such as this which are frankly untrue.

"One of our core values as a council is transparency and it is a personal value for myself as well.

"We always strive to make as much information publicly available as possible, but there will be times when information has to remain exempt owing to financial or legal reasons.

"This is the case with the Hilton Cabinet paper, where releasing some information at this stage could affect the sale price for the hotel.

"In these situations, we will always strive to not go into exempt session during meetings to consider such information publicly, so they can remain open to all.

She added: “"My door is always open so if the Conservative group has any concerns I invite them to discuss them with me."

Who’s who in the Conservative group’s new shadow cabinet:

• Councillor Fitzgerald, Shadow Leader of the Council/ Leader of the Opposition, covering portfolios of Communications, Adult Social Care and Health
• Councillor Steve Allen, Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Shadow Cabinet Member for Communities, Housing and Regulatory Services
• Councillor Marco Cereste, Shadow Cabinet Member for Growth and Regeneration
• Councillor John Howard, Shadow Cabinet Member for Finance and Corporate Governance
• Councillor Lynne Ayres, Shadow Cabinet Member for Children’s Services and Education
• Councillor Arfan Khan Shadow Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport