Conservative Party tighten grip on Peterborough City Council but body remains under no overall control

A surprise late Park Ward result made it a successful night for Peterborough’s Conservatives, who now hold 30 seats on the council, just one away from an overall majority.

This means that the council still remains in no overall control- as it has done since 2019- but the party ended the night with two more seats than it started with. The party already holds all of the cabinet roles and leader roles of the council.

It took until after 3am, owing to recounts, but when the Park ward results were announced it was revealed that the two seats that were vacant at the start of the night owing to the resignations of Labour Group Leader Shaz Nawaz and Labour councillor Ikra Yasin both turned blue.

The new incumbents are Khan Afran and Muhammed Asif, who beat out close competition from Labour’s Sabra Yasin- Ikra’s mother- and Junayd Hussain.

The other Conservative gain on the night was Raja Ahmed, who won Ravensthorpe from Labour with a majority of 367 ahead of Labour candidate Jason McNally. Previous Labour incumbent Lucinda Robinson decided not to seek reelection.

This gain was cancelled out, however, by Chris Burbage losing his seat in Bretton to Labour’s Richard Strangward by 78 votes.

Both Leader and Deputy Leader Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald and Cllr Steve Allen retained their seats in West ward and Eye, Thorney and Newborough respectively.

Labour started the night with 12 seats and ended it with 14.

Asim Mahmood took North ward from former Labour candidate turned Independent Ansar Ali and Nick Thulbourn took Fletton and Woodston from Green incumbent Imtiaz Ali, who had defected from Labour.

Thulbourn’s winning margin was just 12, the smallest on the night.

All of the other seats were holds, with Labour keeping hold of the Dogsthorpe seat through Katy Cole after the resignation of Katia Yurgutene.

Heather Skibsted was a big winner for the Greens, she kept hold of her Orton Longueville seat that she originally won as a Labour candidate. She is the first councillor in the country to do this, she returned a majority of 307.

Liberal Democrat councillors Jade Seagar, Sandra Bond, Chris Wiggin and Simon Barkham made it four holds out of four for the party.

Judy Fox romped home in Werrington for Peterborough First. She had the biggest winning margin of the night, polling 1672 votes- 1340 ahead of the nearest rival.

Overall turnout in the city was up very marginally from 2022, with 30.46% of residents casting a vote compared to 30% last year.

Park ward saw the highest turnout at 44.55%, the lowest was Hargate and Hempsted with just 21%

At the end of the night, the makeup of the council is now: Conservatives 30 seats, Labour/ Labour and Co-operative 14, Liberal Democrats 8, Greens 3, Peterborough First 4, Independent 1.