Hilton hotel delay, budget gap and transparency: Peterborough council's Conservative administration faces questions from former party members

Peterborough City Council’s (PCC) final full council meeting before a short summer break is underway, with issues on the agenda including its budget gap, transparency in decision-making and further delays to the Hilton hotel scheme.

The first part of the meeting revolves around questions from cross-party councillors to the cabinet – all of whom are part of the Conservative administration – about decisions they’ve made or issues that have arisen relating to their portfolio since the last full council meeting.

These questions tend to be asked by opposition parties and recent Conservative departees Cllr Mohammed Farooq (Peterborough First, Hargate and Hempsted), Cllr John Howard (Peterborough First, Hargate and Hempsted) and Cllr John Elsey (Peterborough First, Wittering) were among those to take the opportunity to challenge their former colleagues.

Cllr Farooq, firstly, asked “how such a large amount has come to light, all of a sudden” in relation to a £5m budget shortfall revealed in documents discussed by the council’s cabinet earlier this month.

Cllr Andy Coles (Conservatives, Fletton and Woodston), who oversees finance, said that the apparent shortfall is simply a “forecast budget gap” which has come about due to inflation and increased pay, as well as other factors.

He added that such forecasts are “just predictions at this stage”.

Cllr Coles also fielded questions about the new Hilton Hotel at Fletton Quays, whose opening date has been pushed back again to July 2024, and transparency, particularly in light of an exempt legal report forming the basis of a discussion about the building of a new industrial park at Horsey Bridge in Stanground.

On the former point, he said that the council has not been asked to extend its loan to Fletton Quays Hotel Ltd beyond December but that if there was a default on it, PCC would receive the property in full; on the latter point he said his “door is always open” to councillors wishing to discuss matters exempt from being made public.

Cllr Elsey, meanwhile, asked about the end of many of PCC’s shared services with Cambridgeshire authorities, which he described as a failed experiment.

“How many good officers did this authority lose to half-committed officers from Cambridge?” he said. “How much did we pay in redundancy payments to these officers? How many of these officers are still here; how much is it costing to recruit new officers to the posts we already had and what impact does this upheaval have to frontline services?”

Cllr Elsey also suggested that he had opposed the joining of Peterborough’s services with Cambridgeshire in the first place but the “thought process was that it looks good now”.

Cllr Coles responded that the joining of services wasn’t a failed experiment and that in fact some, such as public health, will remain joint, but that it has become clear some areas need a “Peterborough response to Peterborough needs”.

Finally, Cllr Howard asked council leader Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald (Conservatives, West) whether he would hope that cabinet members would update the gifts and hospitality register after missing a cabinet meeting to enjoy “the hospitality of friends of this administration”.

Cllr Fitzgerald said that he has “no idea what you mean by friends of this administration” and indeed “no idea what you’re talking about” but that he was at the birthday party of one of the deputy lord lieutenants, who has a non-political role, during the council's most recent cabinet meeting, and that he paid for himself.

In a remark for which those outside the council, at least, have no context, he concluded “and by the way I was never on a boat”.

The council meeting continues and we'll bring you more updates as we have them.