New chair of Fenland District Council 'pleased to tell Mum' of the honour as leadership roles announced

Cllr Chris Boden (Conservatives, Whittlesey East and Villages) has been re-elected leader of Fenland District Council (FDC) for a second four-year term.

The councillor, who is also a member of Cambridgeshire County Council (CCC), first became leader in 2019, having sat on the district council since 2015.

Alongside his party, he saw electoral success on 4 May: the Conservatives bucked national trends in Fenland by increasing their share of council seats by eight.

His deputy is Cllr Jan French (Conservatives, March South).

The leader and deputy were elected at FDC's first council meeting since the local elections alongside the chair and vice chair.

Ordinarily, the role of chair would have gone to the most recent vice-chair, Rob Skoulding, but he stepped down from the council at the end of his last term.

It instead went to Cllr Nick Meekins (Conservatives, Wisbech Riverside) who paid tribute to Mr Skoulding in his acceptance speech, saying that although his health has prevented him taking up the role he feels that “part of Rob will be with me while I carry out my duties”.

Cllr Meekins also paid tribute to his mother, Margaret Meekins, saying: “My Mum has been very seriously ill over the past four months and there have been times when it looked like we would lose her. They have been tough months for all my family but she has, I’m glad to say, kept going.

“I was especially pleased to be able to tell her that her little boy, as she calls me, was having this honour bestowed on me today.”

The role of chair comes with a £4,116 allowance, plus travel expenses, for the year 2023–4.

The newly-elected vice chair (and newly-elected councillor) Cllr Brenda Barber (Conservatives, Leverington and Wisbech Rural) will receive a £1,000 allowance plus travel expenses.

The outgoing chair, Cllr Alex Miscandlon (Conservatives, Whittlesey East and Villages) said that the role has been “really, really enjoyable”.

“I’ve actually been in office 1,066 days so I’ve got my own Battle of Hastings,” he said, adding that the highest points have been royal visits and lowest point was the death of the Queen in 2022.

“I’ve had the death of the Duke of Edinburgh, the funeral of the Duke of Edinburgh, the Jubilee, the death of the Queen, the proclamation that was announced in here, and the funeral of the Queen and the coronation,” he said. “I don’t think a chairman will have all those events in their term of office again.”

Further staff needed to work on planning policy after Peterborough City Council withdrew support

In terms of normal council business, members heard an update from planning portfolio holder Cllr Dee Laws (Conservatives, Whittlesey North West) about Fenland’s new Local Plan, which is a document laying out a region’s planning policies and areas earmarked for future development.

Cllr Laws said that just one person is currently working on the document and that “to continue with the Local Plan, we will need further staff”.

“This is something I will be reviewing with officers as a top priority now I have been confirmed back in post,” she added, estimating that it will take around 18 months to complete after a new team is established.

The lack of staff follows the withdrawal of planning support from Peterborough City Council (PCC) at the end of March this year.

The city council had supported the district council in developing its policies since 2015 but withdrew this in what Cllr Laws described as a “bombshell” move at the time.

PCC said that it needed its staff to work on its own Local Plan; a review of this began in April this year.

FDC also approved the Whittlesey Neighbourhood Plan – a document of even more area-specific planning policies – at its first meeting of the administrative year.

However, given that this was approved by a referendum in February, the vote was simply a formality.

Cabinet positions appointed

Finally, at the meeting, this year’s cohort of portfolio holders was officially announced.

They are:

• Cllr Miscandlon – leisure and internal drainage boards
• Cllr French – revenues, benefits and civil parking enforcement.
• Cllr Laws – planning and flooding
• Cllr Ian Benney (Conservatives, Chatteris South) – economic growth and skills
• Cllr Samantha Hoy (Conservatives, Wisbech South) – housing and licensing
• Cllr Peter Murphy (Conservatives, Chatteris South) – refuse, cleansing, parks and open spaces
• Cllr Christopher Seaton (Conservatives, Leverington and Wisbech Rural) – transport, heritage and culture
• Cllr Steve Tierney (Conservatives, Wisbech South) – communications, transformation, climate change and strategic refuse
• Cllr Susan Wallwork (Conservatives, Wisbech South) – community, health, environmental health, CCTV, community safety and military covenant

FDC’s next meeting – a planning committee meeting – will be held on Wednesday, 31 May.