Peterborough council leader delivers silent blow to mayor's future transport plans

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority’s (CPCA) overarching transport strategy has once again been voted down by its board.

Or, more specifically, by Peterborough City Council (PCC) leader Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald (Conservatives, West), who wordlessly vetoed the wide-ranging plans at a meeting this week.

As the head of a transport authority (PCC), he was one of two CPCA board members with the ability to reject the region-wide strategy outright, which he did without justification.

Explicitly asked to comment on the strategy – a comprehensive overview of the future of walking, cycling, buses, rail and car use in the region, running to 50 pages – Cllr Fitzgerald refused.

But his contention is, nevertheless, obvious: the document contains reference to “fiscal measures” as an option to “help manage [the] demand” of private car use.

This is a watered down version of the previous wording – that “road user or congestion charging” could help drive down private car use – in an earlier version of the plan vetoed by Cllr Fitzgerald in June, but it clearly wasn’t enough.

The plan, or the Local Transport and Connectivity Plan (LTCP) to give it its full title, is a wide-ranging strategic document, with numerous appendices dealing with each individual part of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough.

It underpins much of what CPCA’s leader, Labour mayor Dr Nik Johnson, wants to achieve during his tenure with regard to creating “an inclusive, integrated, and sustainable transport network which works for us all”.

But it needs the support of the region’s transport authorities (PCC and Cambridgeshire County Council): while CPCA can allocate funding to transport schemes and work on them with constituent councils, it cannot impose policies on them.

The lack of support for it was, then, a blow for Dr Johnson – and also drew ire from Cambridge City Council representative Lucy Nethsingha (Liberal Democrats, Newnham).

Lack of support 'junks pretence of Conservatives caring about climate change'

“It makes me really angry on a whole range of different levels, but one of the most important is that – not only is this kind of junking any pretence that the Conservatives might have had to take any interest in climate change, which is not just going on in this chamber but nationally today – it’s also a massive betrayal of the very large number of our population of people who cannot afford to drive or are unable to drive,” she said.

Cllr Nethsingha added that she believes it’s being rejected for “political reasons”, stressing – as Dr Johnson has done on several occasions – that road charging can’t be forced on Peterborough or any other area in the region.

But Cllr Fitzgerald is not the only one who has objected to the plans including reference to it (as he did more explicitly in June’s CPCA board meeting, when he used his veto previously).

Road charging is 'punitive and regressive'

East Cambridgeshire District Council representative, Cllr Anna Bailey (Conservatives, Downham), said that “a vote for this document is a vote for road charging”, which is among the “negative, punitive, regressive measures” to reduce car use.

Fenland District Council representative, Cllr Chris Boden (Conservatives, Whittlesey East and Villages), similarly repeated his contention that the plan is tantamount to a “war on motorists”.

The failure to pass the LTCP has already impacted on transport strategy in the region: later in the meeting, Dr Johnson led a vote to defer approving a £200k drawdown for Peterborough’s new electric bus depot, saying the project rests partly on the success of the plan.

A report on the project says that: “The success of the bus depot project is explicitly linked with the approval of the Local Transport and Connectivity Plan (LTCP) as this document provides the strategic policy position and commitment from the Combined Authority and partners to continue to develop alternative fuelled vehicles, including buses.”

CPCA mayor accused of 'punishing' Cllr Fitzgerald for veto

The CPCA board voted to defer this item, but Cllr Fitzgerald said that doing so is “ridiculous” as there is already an older LTCP in place and that it “may put in jeopardy” the credibility of the CPCA and its commitment to electric buses.

Cllr Bailey went as far as to call the move “a punishment for Wayne” because of his earlier veto and “outrageous behaviour”.

Dr Johnson refuted this, saying it was a “great shame” the plan could not move forward, but that “due diligence” needed to be done with regards to the plans in the absence of the new LTCP which explicitly mentions Peterborough’s electric bus depot – unlike the old one, still in force, which does not.

In a statement issued after the meeting, he added that the CPCA will vote on the LTCP again.

"I’ve every confidence that we will bring this decision back for approval at the earliest opportunity,” he said.