Resignation of seven Tory councillors 'caused some instability' in Government's confidence in Peterborough City Council, leader admits

The loss of seven councillors from the Conservative party in the wake of this year’s local elections “caused some instability” in the Government’s confidence in Peterborough City Council (PCC), its leader has admitted.

But Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald (Conservatives, West), leader of both the council and the Conservative group, added that he believes they’ve now been “reassured” because PCC councillors will continue to work collaboratively regardless.

Cllrs Ray Bisby (Stanground South), Brian Rush (Stanground South), Peter Hiller (Glinton and Castor) and Gavin Elsey (Wittering) left the Conservatives and joined independent group Peterborough First shortly after the local elections on 4 May, citing reasons ranging from concerns over the direction of the party to dissatisfaction with how a planning application to build an industrial park at Horsey Bridge in Stanground was handled.

They were later followed by Cllrs Mohammed Farooq (Hargate and Hempsted), Saqib Farooq (Glinton and Castor) and John Howard (Hargate and Hempsted), who have all now also joined Peterborough First.

This knocked the Conservatives’ numbers down from 30 – just one seat of a majority – to 23, its lowest number this century.

After the election, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak named PCC as an example of a Conservative success story as the party had initially strengthened its numbers.

But the subsequent resignations didn’t “promote a picture of stability as far as DLUHC are concerned,” Cllr Fitzgerald said.

“We’ve had some change, it caused some instability in terms of the confidence of DLUHC, but I think they’ve been reassured because the collaborative nature of how we’ve worked would still remain.”

DLUHC, or the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, initiated an external assurance review of the council’s governance and financial position in June 2021 after it requested exceptional financial support from the Government.

The council continues to be monitored by an independent panel which reports to DLUHC on PCC’s progress.

Peterborough First increases its share of council committee seats

The latter three councillors to resign from the Conservatives joined Peterborough First earlier this month after initially sitting as independents, meaning the council had to vote through revised arrangements for political proportionality on its various committees once again at a full council meeting this week.

The Conservatives lost five committee seats in the reshuffle, while Peterborough First – now the council’s third largest group behind the Conservatives and Labour – gained five.

Having overtaken the Liberal Democrats as the third largest party (they have 11 to the Lib Dem’s eight), they also replaced them at the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Fire Authority.

Meanwhile, Cllr Fitzgerald took up the mantle of social care and public health, which had been the remit of Cllr Howard before he left the Conservatives, despite initial suggestions it would go to children’s services cabinet member Cllr Lynne Ayres (Conservatives, West).

Independent panel still concerned about PCC's budget

Despite the resignations and reshuffles, the independent panel’s most recent report – presented to councillors this week – complimented PCC’s progress in reforming its governance, particularly its decoupling of services from Cambridgeshire and appointment of new executives.

Executive Director Adrian Chapman said at the meeting that the council is still forecast to come out of intervention around the end of December and that there has been a “sea change” in the council’s culture and collaborative approach, but stressed that the “budget situation is quite volatile” and that budgets for some services need to be redesigned.

The independent panel’s report notes that PCC’s budget gap has risen to just over £5m, jumping to £10.5m in 2026/27 and that it has £75m of short term debt due to be refinanced in the next 12 months.

Accounts not completed despite surpassing legal deadline

Meanwhile, its accounts for 2021/22 have not yet been audited and its accounts for the subsequent year, 2022/23, have not yet been completed despite the legal deadline being almost two months ago.

The report says that “realising further asset sales provides options both to reduce the overall debt to more normalised levels and create resources” and that the council’s approach to managing assets has “made progress” but still “lacks an overall focus”.

It also suggests the council consider again moving to all out elections and that clarity is urgently sought on the state of several council companies including Opportunity Peterborough (OP) which “remains active, with the council’s leader on the board”.

“Future intentions for this company are not immediately apparent and the Shareholder Committee should consider this company and its future urgently,” it says.

Row over Opportunity Peterborough at council meeting

OP has proven a contentious subject with opposition groups; Cllr Chris Harper (Peterborough First, Stanground South) asked Cllr Fitzgerald to clarify the company’s position at PCC’s full council meeting this week, to which he said that the company is dormant.

“I wasn’t consulted at all as is being insinuated about a recent planning issue,” he said (that being Horsey Bridge).

“It’s dormant; I remain a director and that’s probably just to keep the company going but there’s no reason for me to be on it. If anything, I’d be happy to come off it.”

Cllr Hiller, one of the Conservative departees, then added that “OP actually funded a table at an awards ceremony recently where Cllr Fitzgerald was a guest, sitting on that table.”

The leader responded that “the financing of OP is now an internal budget. It has no staff and it’s therefore a council operation so I wouldn’t have to declare anything; I’m working on behalf of the council at those awards as you have done many times.

“It’s irrelevant because OP Ltd is not trading. OP as a brand is now subsumed into the core council business.”

The council has now entered a short summer recess after the final full council meeting until September.