Nick Sandford: Peterborough mayor says he tries to 'diffuse the tension' at fiery council debates

Chairing council meetings in a “fairly light-hearted way” can help “diffuse the tension” between opposing parties, Peterborough’s mayor has said.

Cllr Nick Sanford (Liberal Democrats, and Walton), the city’s current mayor, has overseen several contentious debates in the council chamber during his tenure, including a vote of no confidence in former leader Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald (Conservatives, West) on 1st November.

“I’ve had some really good compliments about that meeting,” he told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS). “People felt that I chaired it quite well.”

“My intention was – I said from the beginning – that I was going to be really even-handed and fair,” he continued. “The other thing I decided to do was, not be jokey, but do it in a fairly light-hearted way. I think that can sometimes help to diffuse the tension a little bit.”

Chairing full council meetings, attended by all 60 Peterborough councillors, is one of the four main responsibilities of the city’s mayor: the others being charity fundraising, engaging with local community groups and attending ceremonial events.

'Tension lingering behind the scenes'

The role is supposed to be non-political – although the mayor usually belongs to a political party – which is why Cllr Sandford opted to abstain on the vote of no confidence in Cllr Fitzgerald and the subsequent vote to instate Cllr Mohammed Farooq (Peterborough First, Hargate and Hempsted).

“We’d done a lot of planning for it because we knew it could potentially be quite contentious,” he said. “It all went really well up until the point at which Cllr Farooq was announcing his new cabinet members and Cllr Fitzgerald said he was going to go through each of them in turn.

“Behind the scenes, there’s still quite a lot of tension. There’s still people not talking to each other, which is a bit unfortunate.”

Most members of Peterborough First, which currently makes up the council’s decision-making cabinet, are ex-Conservatives who resigned under Cllr Fitzgerald’s leadership before going on to support his removal from office.

Former council leader Marco Cereste could be next mayor

The mayor usually holds the office for a year before being replaced by the next longest-serving councillor who has not yet undertaken the role.

This system – which replaced the council leader simply picking a mayor – was proposed by former leader Cllr Marco Cereste (Conservatives, Hampton Vale) who, coincidentally, will likely be the next person to qualify for the position.

Also up for the role in the near-future is current deputy mayor Cllr Judy Fox (Peterborough First, Werrington). A new mayor will be appointed in May.

Of the other elements of the role, Cllr Sandford said that he finds undertaking community work “incredibly satisfying”, having met with Lithuanian and Nigerian community groups as well as attending Diwali celebrations in the last year. He has also so far helped to raise more than £10,000 for the mayor’s charities.

These are: Deaf Blind UK, East Anglian Air Ambulance, MAGPAS, Peterborough Environmental City Trust (PECT) and Sue Ryder Thorpe Hall Hospice.

Mayor 'less comfortable with ceremonial role'

The ceremonial element of the job is “important” but “maybe not as the aspect I feel the most comfortable with”, he added, and he would – like his predecessor Cllr Alan Dowson (Labour, Fletton and Woodston) – like to see it gradually move towards modernisation.

The ongoing conflict in Ukraine has highlighted the importance of marking occasions such as Remembrance Day and Armistice Day, however, Cllr Sandford said.

“Sometimes we tend to think that wars and conflicts don’t happen to us in a modern democracy, but that’s probably what people in Ukraine thought until two years ago,” he said.

The mayor has around five months left in the role and there are still plenty of events he has to look forward to before it ends.

Highlights include the Mayor’s Ball at Peterborough’s Holiday Inn on 18th May, as well as a horse racing event (with digital, rather than live, horses) and a chocolate bingo with prizes donated by Hotel Chocolat, he says.

On 27th February, Cllr Sandford will also hold another curry night alongside former councillor Ansar Ali at the Gurkha Durbaar restaurant which will support the mayor’s charities.

His most recent curry night, at the same restaurant in October, raised over £800.