Peterborough councillors unite to oppose congestion charging in the city

Peterborough City Council (PCC) councillors from all parties have passed a motion stating that they “oppose any road user charging schemes” in the city.

The motion – essentially a policy suggestion that can be made by any councillor – was brought by Cllr Amjad Iqbal (Labour, Central) at a full council meeting this month and agreed unanimously.

Labour, as well as the Liberal Democrats and Peterborough First, have repeatedly insisted that they don’t believe congestion charging is appropriate for Peterborough and that it wouldn’t be introduced under their leadership – while the Conservatives have maintained that it might.

The Greens – the smallest party on the council – have said that they don’t think it’s currently right for Peterborough, especially in the absence of better public transport options, but don’t want to completely rule it out in future.

Various factors have led to a long-standing debate over congestion charging in Peterborough; one is that the Conservatives brought their own motion ruling out congestion charging in the city at a full council meeting in July.

That motion, brought by Cllr Ishfaq Hussain (Conservatives, Dogsthorpe), failed, with all but two members of Labour, the Liberal Democrats, Peterborough First and the Greens voting against it.

At the time, party leaders said that the motion didn’t need to be brought as no-one had actually proposed congestion charging in Peterborough, while the Conservatives claimed that this was clearly evidence they were open to it in future.

At the more recent meeting, Cllr Rylan Ray (Conservatives, Eye, Thorney and Newborough) asked for clarification on whether Cllr Iqbal’s motion could even be debated because of council rules that state very similar motions can't be brought within six months of each other.

He was advised by a legal officer that the motions were considered to be suitably different enough that it was acceptable.

This was also Labour's rationale behind bringing and supporting the motion, which only mentions congestion charging, as opposed to other measures such as low emission zones and 15 minute cities which are mentioned in Cllr Iqbal’s motion.

The new motion also stresses the need for improved road maintenance, stating that the council resolves to “campaign for the restoration of local highways maintenance budgets to improve their condition in Peterborough, including the leader of the council lobbying the government for fairer funding for road maintenance”.

Another reason the debate over congestion charging has arisen in Peterborough is that the possibility of road charging to discourage private car use is mentioned as a possible measure in the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority’s (CPCA) overarching transport plan for the region.

This plan was vetoed by PCC’s previous Conservative leader, but has now passed with the support of its new leader Cllr Mohammed Farooq (Peterborough First, Hargate and Hempsted).

Ex-leader Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald (Conservatives, West) repeated his claim that this now leaves PCC vulnerable to congestion charging at the full meeting, while other groups continue to maintain that it doesn’t as only the council – as a local transport authority – could impose it, rather than the CPCA.

So, while a motion opposing the measure has been passed by all councillors, disagreements over the perceived threat of road charging are likely to remain a political issue for the forseeable future.