Council supports bus franchising but refuses to rule out congestion charging in debate on future of transport in Peterborough

Motions calling on councillors to support bus franchising and reject 15 minute cities were among those discussed at this month’s full council meeting in Peterborough.

Peterborough City Council (PCC) holds one meeting per month attended by all 60 councillors at which any individual councillor may table motions on issues they feel particularly passionate about; these are then voted on and require a simple majority to pass.

Cllr Amjad Iqbal (Labour, Central), firstly, won support for his motion calling on the council to campaign for a franchised bus network which puts decisions about bus routes, frequencies and fares in the hands of the local transport authority rather than commercial operators.

This is already the intention of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority (CPCA), which is responsible for transport in the region and which is currently drawing up a business case for this, Cllr Iqbal said, but the cutting of the 36 bus linking Thorney and Eye makes it all the more urgent.

Councillors generally agreed with Cllr Iqbal, but leader Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald (Conservatives, West) cautioned that “this is all going to come down to money” and that bus provision is going to “get worse; it’s not going to get better”.

When grant funding runs out, the CPCA’s bus precept won’t be enough to cover the buses it currently subsidises, he said, let alone funding more.

“We need some deregulation to allow smaller operators to come into the market that can offer community solutions,” he added. “Whether it’s an enhanced partnership or franchising, the jury's out on that at the moment.

He also said that you “can’t blame” Stagecoach for cutting the 36 when it was losing thousands of pounds on keeping it running.

Cllr Nick Thulbourn (Labour, Fletton and Woodston), who supported the motion, responded to Cllr Fitzgerald that cutting the bus would have a detrimental financial effect in itself on local businesses with one reporting that around half of their staff had travelled to work on the 36.

Buses should be seen as “part of the infrastructure” of the city, he added, and treated as a necessity not a separate entity.

Conservative councillor calls for rejection of low emission zones and congestion charging

A second motion on transport, this time on 15 minute cities, didn’t go down quite as well with all councillors.

Cllr Ishfaq Hussain (Conservatives, Dogsthorpe) tabled the motion calling on the council to “note its rejection of 15 minute cities that restrict vehicle movement along with any notion of introducing a Low Emission Zone or congestion charges in Peterborough”.

A 15 minute city is one in which people can travel to work or wherever else they want to go within 15 minutes by walking or cycling with minimal need for a car.

But enforcing this risks “penalising drivers and attacking their freedom of choice and movement”, Cllr Hussain said in his motion, as well as impacting residents’ mental health.

This motion failed after the Conservative group asked for a recorded vote on the matter (i.e. one in which every councillor must individually say whether they’re voting for or against it), which was broadly split along party lines with only the Conservatives and one member of Peterborough First voting in favour of it.

'Put your tin foil away', says Lib Dem leader

Speaking in response to Cllr Hussain’s motion, Cllr Christian Hogg (Liberal Democrats, Hampton Vale) said, “with respect, I think you need to put your tinfoil away.

“This is up there with 5G masts are looking into our thoughts and the vaccine that saved the country was to control us.”

Giving people the opportunity to walk to the services they want to access them was the idea behind Peterborough’s existent townships, he said; it’s not a new concept and the motion is “scare-mongering on an epic proportion”.

“I don’t know where you get your news, whether it’s GB News or the Daily Mail,” he added.

Cllr Chris Wiggin (Liberal Democrats, Hampton Vale) agreed that no-one has suggested banning cars other than critics of 15 minute cities and that the idea the Lib Dems support congestion charging in Peterborough originated with the Conservative party’s election campaign.

Cllr Mohammed Jamil (Labour, Central) similarly said that the motion “looks like it’s from an opposition group trying to stop the administration setting up these 15 minute cities” when no-one has actually proposed them in Peterborough and the leader of the council has made it clear he wouldn’t support them already.

Conservatives say opposition is clearly open to congestion charging in future

The Conservatives, though, said that the reluctance of the opposition parties to pass the motion and reject them outright showed a willingness to introduce measures such as congestion charging in future.

Cllr Hussain said they’ve “made their position clear that they’re open to the possibility of congestion charging”, while Cllr Rylan Ray (Conservatives, Eye, Thorney and Newborough) added that without cross-party support for the motion “it leaves it open to our residents being impacted by that in future”.

Cllr Fitzgerald who has spoken out against 15 minute cities multiple times in the council chamber, said that he supports more walking and cycling but not introducing restrictions on drivers.

“The public are clearly against the Labour policy of the London mayor in droves and thousands; they’re clearly against it in Cambridge and there will be a political sea change in Cambridge, trust me, when and if that comes forward as a policy,” he said.

The motion failed with 24 votes in favour, 28 against and one abstention.

Cllr Stephen Lane (Peterborough First, Werrington) was the only non-Conservative member to vote in favour of the motion, while Cllr Heather Skibsted (Greens, Orton Longueville) was the only opposition member other than Cllr Lane not to vote against it. She abstained.

Cllr Hussain’s motion on 15 minute cities was the only one to fail.

Others that passed included motions to encourage the provision of more housing stock for people with disabilities, to treat having spent time in care as a protected characteristic and to support new Government guidance on the treatment of transgender pupils in schools.