Peterborough council holds a minute’s silence for ‘much admired’ former councillor Sheila Scott OBE

Councillors held a minute’s silence in Peterborough Town Hall to honour a long-serving councillor who has recently died.

Sheila Scott OBE served as a Conservative councillor on Peterborough City Council (PCC) between 2004 and 2016.

A nurse who became the chief executive of the national care association, she also served as cabinet member for children’s services towards the end of her tenure as a councillor.

Ms Scott “died quite suddenly”, a tribute posted to Facebook by the Hargate and Hempsted Conservatives group said.

“Sad news of an old friend and colleague Sheila Scott who has died quite suddenly,” it said.

“Many of us in Hampton remember Sheila who was the local city councillor for many years, when the ward was known as Orton with Hampton, prior to the 2016 local government boundary changes. We send condolences and warmest wishes to her family.”

A tribute from the North West Cambridgeshire Conservatives said that Ms Scott was living in the United States in the last years of her life, having moved to Virginia in 2021.

The Association said it was “saddened” by her death and that she leaves behind a daughter in the US and a son in Australia.

Ms Scott grew up in Wisbech before becoming a nurse.

She owned two care homes in the 1980s, according to the Care Alliance, before going on to become a care home consultant and launching the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Registered Managers Network and leading the Better Security, Better Care project across Cambridgeshire, Northamptonshire and Peterborough

She was awarded an OBE in 2007 by King Charles, then Prince of Wales, and the Freedom of the City by her PCC colleagues in 2017 when she was also the city’s alderman.

Current Peterborough mayor Nick Sandford described her as a “much admired councillor and cabinet member” before leading the minute’s silence.