Inside Peterborough City Council's first meeting since local elections and spate of resignations

Despite a rocky few days in politics in Peterborough, last night’s council meeting was almost entirely convivial.

The annual general meeting, held at the Town Hall, was the first time all Peterborough City Council (PCC) members had been invited to meet since March.

Since then, the Conservative group’s numbers have changed significantly: at the local elections in early May it gained two seats but then lost four as four councillors resigned from the party.

Cllrs Ray Bisby (Stanground South), Gavin Elsey (Wittering), Peter Hiller (Glinton and Castor) and Brian Rush all left, instead joining Peterborough First.

Meanwhile, Cllr Mohammed Farooq (Hargate and Hempsted) has been suspended from the group over a “whip matter”.

The Conservative group now has 26 seats, including Cllr Farooq, out of 60: after May 4’s elections it had 30, just one off a majority.

But Peterborough’s opposition groups – Labour, the Liberal Democrats and the Green Party – and its independents, many of them members of Peterborough First, didn’t use the council meeting as an opportunity for political point-scoring.

Council leader Wayne Fitzgerald (Conservatives, West) acknowledged the turmoil, though, by saying he was “disappointed” to lose four members, but that he wishes them the best and hopes they’re “happy in their new home”.

He later added that he doesn’t “pander to the press or speculation” and that he “intends to say nothing about recent events”.

“As far as I’m concerned, we move on, we work together, and that is it,” he said.

Despite his comments during the meeting, he did grant the Local Democracy Reporting Service an interview afterwards, however, in which he said he has a “clear mandate” to continue as leader of the council despite the resignations.

Council appoints committee members

One of the few tangible impacts of the resignations is that Cllr Jackie Allen (Conservatives, East) will take over as advisor to Children’s Services cabinet member Cllr Lynne Ayres (Conservatives, West), a role previously held by defector Cllr Bisby.

The remaining committee appointments, officially allocated at the meeting, are broadly similar to previous years with, for instance, Peterborough First leader Cllr Chris Harper (Stanground South) chairing the planning committee and Labour leader Cllr Dennis Jones (Dogsthorpe) chairing the corporate parenting committee.

Cllr Hiller, another defector, will chair the constitution and ethics committee.

Council ‘making best of a bad deal’ on Sand Martin House

The only business at the meeting not related to officially forming the council was a discussion about the acquisition of Sand Martin House in Fletton Quays, where PCC has had offices since 2018.

The council agreed to a £50m increase to its capital programme to buy the building’s freehold, although both Labour and Liberal Democrats added caveats to their support.

Lib Dem leader Cllr Christian Hogg (Fletton and Stanground) said that having no break clause in its lease of Sand Martin House has “come back to bite us” as its rent would have continued increasing were the council not able to buy the freehold.

“We need to get away from these grandiose schemes that deliver fantastic newspaper headings but don’t really develop into what they say they’re going to,” he said, adding that the council is now “making the best of a bad deal”.

Labour leader Cllr Jones added that he supports Cllr Hogg’s comments.

The next full council meeting is likely to take place next month, in June 2023.