Accusations of aggression, a ‘Lib Dem ploy’ and a councillor’s sudden exit: Inside Peterborough City Council’s latest meeting

Accusations of aggression, talk of a “Liberal Democrat ploy” and a councillor’s sudden exit: Peterborough City Council’s final full council meeting before the local elections in May was uncharacteristically heated.

Councillors have, in recent meetings, congratulated themselves on working together more collaboratively since the pandemic and leaving behind what ex-Labour group leader Shaz Nawaz called the “petty, personal attacks” of the past.

But even a seemingly uncontroversial motion calling on PCC to take on a “zero-tolerance approach” to the “intimidation and abuse of councillors” drew barbed comments.

“I want to point out what we’ve seen in recent years from one particular political party at regional and national level,” Cllr Ansar Ali (Independent) said while debating the motion. “There seems to be a desire to move away from democratic processes.”

“I don’t excuse bullying of any description,” council leader Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald (Conservatives) said during the same debate, “but we mustn’t be afraid to criticise councillors or politicians about their views or other similar matters.”

He added that criticism shouldn’t be “personal”, but that it is not the same as bullying.

Further barbed comments were exchanged on Twitter during and after the meeting, which Cllr Julie Stevenson (Independent) left just under an hour in before taking to social media.

Council leader criticises 'bonkers' request from Lib Dems

As for council business, Liberal Democrat group leader Cllr Christian Hogg asked that a report on whether full council or its leader (currently Cllr Fitzgerald) has the final say on appointments to external organisations be sent back to the constitution and ethics committee because the full council vote scheduled on it didn’t give councillors a proper say.

The report passed through the constitution and ethics committee last month with a vote confirming that the leader would continue to make those decisions – full council was just being asked to approve that this week.

“That leaves us in the crazy situation that if you vote in favour of this you get one thing, but if you vote against it you get the same thing,” Cllr Nick Sandford (Liberal Democrats) said.

But Cllr Fitzgerald described Cllr Hogg's request as “bonkers”.

“This is a Liberal Democrat ploy to wrestle more decision-making from the administration,” he added. “If you send it back to committee, we’ll just vote the same again.”

The original vote was split along party lines, with the four Conservative members in the committee voting in favour of the leader making the final decisions and the three Labour and Liberal Democrat members voting against.

The vote taken at full council to determine whether the issue should be sent back to the committee failed, though, with 24 votes in favour, 30 against and two abstentions.

Cllr Sandford criticises leader's 'very aggressive tone'

Procedures around mayoral dress also sparked heated debate between Cllr Sandford and Cllr Fitzgerald.

Cllr Sandford, who, as deputy mayor, is likely to take over as mayor of Peterborough later this year, called for greater discretion in what he must wear when carrying out mayoral duties.

“Another bonkers example of what the [constitution and ethics] meeting was about,” Cllr Fitzgerald said of this request. “It’s disappointing that we have in this chamber anti-monarchists, but that’s fine, I accept that.

"But when you take on the role of mayor you also take on the role of first citizen and should uphold king and country, all the laws of the land and all the protocols that go with it.”

“Sign up to the protocol or don’t sign up to be mayor,” he added.

Both Cllr Sandford and current mayor Cllr Alan Dowson (Labour) took exception to this.

“What I do find slightly disturbing is the very aggressive tone of what Cllr Fitzgerald was saying,” Cllr Sandford said. “What I heard was, you will do exactly as I say”.

“I’ve never said that,” Cllr Fitzgerald responded. “You take advice from the civic office. It’s not me saying that; it’s nothing to do with me.”

Cllr Dowson, meanwhile, said that he feels “very strongly" about his "principles as a republican” and that he hopes others who wish to do away with the monarchy will not be denied the chance to be first citizen in future over “some ancient procedures”.

Beyond this, the meeting largely underlined previous council business before the new civic year.

Questions raised about net zero, Regional Pool and Serco

Questions were asked about the council’s commitment to net zero, the Regional Pool car park and the council’s decade-long contract with Serco.

Cllr Sandford asked Cllr Marco Cereste (Conservatives), cabinet member for climate change, whether the net zero target for Peterborough is 2030 – as agreed in 2019 – or 2040 – referred to in later council documents – and whether the council will put a plan in place for achieving it.

“We anticipate that, with a fair wind, the target for the city will be 2040,” Cllr Cereste said. “But it is both unreasonable and not sensible to expect the people of Peterborough to do as they’re told. So whatever happens in the future it’ll be with the cooperation of the people and business of Peterborough and we can hope and aspire to being able to deliver something by 2040.”

On the new temporary Regional Pool car park, “contractual mobilisation” has led to the delay in opening, cabinet member for culture Cllr Steve Allen (Conservatives) said in response to a question about the wait.

Cabinet member for finance Cllr Andy Coles (Conservatives) took the question on the council’s contract with Serco which was extended by a decade in 2018 with performance indicators taken out.

None of the individuals who signed off on the extension remain in post, Cllr Coles said, so we “can’t say with 100 per cent certainty” why it happened but, he added, it may have been needed to support the budget’s bottom line at the time.

Governance changes since mean that any such contract would have to pass through the council’s cabinet, he continued, meaning in future any such decisions will have greater scrutiny.

The next full council meeting will take place after the council elections on 4 May.