Planning committee chair should resign over Horsey Bridge, Peterborough council leader says

The leader of Peterborough City Council (PCC) has called on the chair of its planning committee to resign.

Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald (Conservatives, West) said that Cllr Chris Harper (Peterborough First, Stanground South) “should step down” for his “abysmal” handling of an application to build a new business park in Stanground.

The proposal, which involves building around 20 industrial units at Horsey Bridge off Whittlesey Road, was approved by PCC’s planning committee this week, having previously been rejected in March.

Cllr Fitzgerald says the outcome of this second vote makes it “completely clear” that the planning committee made the “wrong decision” under Cllr Harper earlier this year.

But Cllr Harper said there’s “no chance” he’ll resign.

“If calling for transparency and doing things the right way requires me to resign, then– I’m sorry, but I won’t be doing that,” he said.

He added that he doesn’t believe the initial decision was wrong, but that it wasn’t necessarily the decision the council’s administration wanted.

Cllr Fitzgerald, who doesn't sit on the planning committee, maintains he has had no direct involvement with the outcome of the application.

Cllr Harper says he accepts the committee’s decision to vote through the business park, though, after it was issued new guidance from the council’s planning officers and independent legal advice on the likelihood of a successful appeal, made available to councillors but exempt from public viewing.

The chair didn't oversee the debate and subsequent vote, but instead stepped aside for that item at this week’s planning committee meeting to speak against it as a ward councillor.

Leader says 'little cabal' controls planning committee

Cllr Fitzgerald has also claimed that there is a “little cabal” who were “controlling the planning committee” when the first Horsey Bridge vote took place and that it “still exists”.

Referring to Cllrs Harper, Peter Hiller (Peterborough First, Glinton and Castor) and Brian Rush (Peterborough First, Stanground South), Cllr Fitzgerald said the so-called cabal “have agendas” and are “anti-administration and anti-growth”.

“My mantra to the business community and to my own members is I'm a pro-growth leader that wants to see the city develop in a sustainable way,” he added.

Cllr Hiller described this claim as “ridiculous” and “utter nonsense”.

“It’s a cross-party planning committee, so how on earth could we control it?” he said.

“I am certainly pro-growth, but it’s got to be the right growth in the right area. It appears there is a rabid desire for growth at any cost and I don’t agree with that.

“And don’t forget the political side to this where the applicant is the President of the Peterborough Conservative Association,” he continued. “[Cllr Fitzgerald] is the chairman of that association.”

Cllr Fitzgerald has previously said that the applicant holds an “honorary” position at the association, but no formal role.

Cllr Hiller also suggested that the Conservatives on the committee who belonged to the Conservatives’ Association should have declared this an interest (Rob Facer, president of the association, is also the founder of Barnack Estates UK, which brought the application).

It was declared ahead of the second vote by one of the Conservative committee members – Cllr Ishfaq Hussain (Conservatives, Dogsthorpe) – but not by all.

Cllr Fitzgerald has also previously said the council’s monitoring officer is “perfectly happy” with who did and didn’t declare interests in the Horsey Bridge application after none of them did at the first vote.

Like Cllr Hiller, Cllr Rush said that he is “all for growth in the right place at the right time”.

He has, incidentally, left the planning committee since the first Horsey Bridge vote.

Both councillors resigned from the Conservative group after May’s local elections, with Cllr Rush listing handling of the proposal among his reasons for doing so.

Cllr Harper is also a former Conservative councillor who is now leader of the independent Peterborough First group.

The upshot of the committee’s second vote is that Barnack Estates has permission in theory to build an industrial park at Horsey Bridge.

But it will first need to submit more detailed design work to the council before it can begin the build.

The planning committee, under vice chair Cllr Amjad Iqbal (Labour, Central), unanimously approved the application.