Motion of no confidence in Peterborough council leader Wayne Fitzgerald to be voted on next month

A motion of no confidence in Peterborough City Council’s (PCC) leader will be tabled at a meeting on Wednesday, 1st November.

The motion, if passed, could see Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald (Conservatives, West) removed from his position.

Proposed by Peterborough First leader Cllr Chris Harper, it has been signed by Labour leader Cllr Dennis Jones, Liberal Democrats leader Cllr Christian Hogg and Greens leader Cllr Nicola Day.

With the support of all members of all of their parties, the motion would pass.

The Conservatives have led PCC for more than two decades, although it has usually been from a position of no overall control in recent years.

In this year’s local elections, the Conservatives emerged with 30 seats – just one off a simple majority – but their numbers then dwindled to 23 as seven members resigned from the party and joined Peterborough First.

Despite this, opposition groups said at the time that it was the wrong time to try to form a coalition to oust the Conservatives and that they would wait until the next election.

But they “no longer have trust or confidence in the Leader of the Council, their Cabinet or

their administration”, the motion of no confidence tabled for next month says.

It continues: “The political attacks and weaponization of the Council administration against opposition members has led to the relationship between the leader (incl his cabinet) and the opposition groups (including former group members) deteriorating to such an extent that the delivery of our council services and having majority consent on major policy including the budget are at risk.

“It is a vital time for our council to have stability and sensible leadership to navigate through the difficult financial and governance challenges it is facing.”

It’s signed by five members of Peterborough First – Cllrs Harper, Peter Hiller, John Howard, Ray Bisby and Brian Rush – three members of Labour – Cllr Jones, Cllr Alison Jones and Cllr Amjad Iqbal – two members of the Liberal Democrats – Cllr Hogg and Cllr Chris Wiggin – and two Greens – Cllr Day and Cllr Heather Skibsted.

Cllr Fitzgerald has previously said he finds the prospect of a leadership challenge “remarkable”.

“It puts at risk all the good work and progress we’ve made of working collaboratively together because of people’s personal agendas and vendettas,” he said.