16 Peterborough City Council meetings have been cancelled or postponed since June
A total of 16 Peterborough City Council meetings have been cancelled or postponed between the months of June and September.
The 2025/26 civic year began on May 19 when long-serving Werrington councillor Judy Fox was chosen to be the next Mayor of Peterborough.
On the same day, the council’s leadership and committee structures were also supposed to be confirmed, but the relevant items were postponed until June 18 when a motion of no confidence was put forward in an attempt to oust the Labour administration.
The motion did not pass and the Labour administration remained in charge, but the delay caused seven council committee meetings to be cancelled in June.
All meetings in July and August went ahead as scheduled apart from a cancelled cabinet meeting on August 18, which the council said was reserved for urgent matters only.
A constitution and ethics sub-committee meeting, which was due to be a conduct hearing for Cllr Kirsty Knight, was postponed on September 1 as the council wanted to ensure all parties had “sufficient time to prepare”. The council has yet to set a new date for this.
The shock resignation of council leader Dennis Jones on September 4 brought all cabinet member and committee appointments to an end, meaning there will be no councillors leading the authority until someone new takes charge and appoints a cabinet of their own at an extraordinary full council meeting on Friday, September 12.
Cllr Jones’ resignation led to the cancellation of seven council committee meetings in September, marking 16 cancellations or postponements of meetings in total since the civic year began just four months ago.
The Labour Party also suspended Cllr Jones after a leaked screenshot of text messages appeared to show him call Rotherham grooming gang victims “poor white trash”.
Cllr Jones has since apologised and admitted his message was “clearly inappropriate”.
Shortly after, Cllr Dr Shabina Qayyum was announced as the new Peterborough Labour group leader.
The former cabinet member for adult services said she wanted to “reset the dial” and put an end to the “relentless negativity and toxicity that prevails within our politics”.
Cllr Qayyum will hope to take charge of the council on September 12, but other group leaders have already made their intentions clear and argued that a change is needed.