Former Peterborough council leader explains radio station’s free rent situation

It comes as current council leader Dennis Jones confirmed that the authority would be reviewing all organisations and companies in the city that benefit from such relief.

Cllr Fitzgerald, leader of the Conservative group in Peterborough, helped to set up Peterborough Community Radio (PCRFM) in 2016 and it has been based at the Herlington Centre in Orton Malborne ever since.

How does PCRFM pay its bills?

A community radio station like PCRFM is regulated by OFCOM and is not-for-profit, meaning any profit must be used for securing or improving the future provision of the radio service or for delivering social gain/community benefits, not to benefit the people running the service.

Director of PCRFM, Cllr Fitzgerald, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that he “lies awake at night” thinking about how to pay the station’s bills.

“It is challenging to pay all the bills and bills have got to be paid. So we are allowed to sell advertising, raise sponsorships and donations whether that be in cash or in kind.”

A recent freedom of information request to Peterborough City Council found that PCRFM had been receiving free rent and rates at its studio in Orton Malborne, which Cllr Fitzgerald confirmed had been the case since 2016.

Cllr Fitzgerald, who led the council from 2021 to 2023, said: “We are a not-for-profit community group and there are many of them in the city that receive free rent for example. The rent situation here, we took on this building in a very dilapidated state.

“We’ve refurbished, we’ve created this and we’ve come to an area that was thought to be very much deprived.

“So the council, and I’m very grateful for their support over the years and long may it continue […], decided to support it because they saw the community benefit of what something like this could bring. So that’s why it was decided, but it’s not unusual.”

He added: “People say well you are not a charity or not a CIC [community interest company]. We don’t need to be. We are, by our stated memorandum and articles of association, a not-for-profit company. By law and by statute, we cannot make a profit, or anything we do make has to go back into the project.”

Cllr Fitzgerald said the station’s business rates are reviewed by the council annually and its detailed accounts are also submitted to the authority by one of his colleagues.

“It’s on my register of interest, it’s all declared,” he said.

“And the council determine whether we qualify [for free rates] or not. And hey ho, they determined we qualified.

“So if we weren’t here, the council would have a rates liability, let’s say an average of £8,000 over the last nine years, so in effect we’ve saved the council £72,000.

“But if there was a tenant willing to come into this building […] we’ve always said to the council please let us know and we’ll go somewhere else.”

Documents provided by the station show that its yearly business rates bill totals £9,231.50 before the 80 per cent mandatory and 20 per cent discretionary relief.

“The council is quite right to look at it’s assets and see if it can generate income or revenue"

Labour council leader Dennis Jones confirmed to the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the authority would be reviewing all organisations and companies that were given rent and rate relief under previous administrations.

Cllr Jones said: “What we’re looking to do is we’re looking at every single organisation and, if they qualify for free rent and rates, then that’s how it works. So we’re not singling out any company at all.

“Every organisation that gets rates [relief], they have to qualify for it. And if PCRFM qualify, then that’s absolutely fine.”

Cllr Jones confirmed that a review of rent and rate relief takes place every year.

“The council is quite right to look at it’s assets and see if it can generate income or revenue, there’s nothing wrong with that and we’re not offended by it,” Cllr Fitzgerald said.

“Some people seem to think there’s something underhand or improper that they’ve discovered. There’s nothing to discover. It’s all disclosed, everybody knows about it.”

Cllr Fitzgerald noted that, in the past, the station received rate relief while other organisations like Peterborough Volunteer Fire Brigade did not. He said, in this case, this was due to the fire brigade having a substantial sum of money in reserves, whereas he claimed PCRFM only has £2,000.

The council was approached about this and it referred to its discretionary rate relief guidelines, which state that applications are unlikely to be successful where the council considers that the organisation has a significant level of unrestricted reserves proportionate to the level of relief being sought.

They also state: “For all organisations consideration will be given to the extent that granting relief will help to preserve facilities that would otherwise be lost to the community.”

“We’ve not been on a free gravy train"

Cllr Fitzgerald said: “Nothing lasts forever. And we’ve not been on a free gravy train, we’ve been providing a community service, a valuable service, of which the council have been fully involved with either on-air or at live events, or in other ways.”

When asked if he would pay rent and rates for the studio space if the council asked, he said: “I’d happily do so if we could afford it.”

He added: “If I had the money to pay all the people here and reward all the volunteers and pay rent and pay rates and this, that and the other, well then I would.”

PCRFM breakfast presenter Kev Lawrence said: “We’re a hand to mouth organisation. We take in as much as we can, but pretty much all of that goes out on obvious bills.

“I agree with Wayne. If we had the money to pay rent we would, but I don’t think we do. And if we don’t then we will find another space.”

He confirmed that the station had been looking at other potential studios to move to over the past 18 months.

What is PCRFM and what does it do?

PCRFM began broadcasting to Peterborough in 2017. It is a music-based community radio station which also provides local news bulletins as well as interviews with local people, organisations and charities.

The station hosts two weekly shows featuring local musicians performing in its studios and promotes local events. It is supported by more than 40 volunteers and three paid employees.

One of the paid employees is breakfast presenter Kev Lawrence who says the station’s main aims are “celebrating the city and giving a platform for lots of people to share what they’re doing”.

He said: “My experience at PCR has been nothing short of fantastic.

“The reason I say that is because when I first joined it was doing okay and doing pretty well. But I hope that in all of my 30 plus years experience of presenting on radio, not only have I hopefully passed on some tips and advice to other presenters, but it’s allowed me to do what I love to do most which is do local radio.”

“Community radio has never had a more important role in communities"

The station acts as a training platform for new presenters and welcomes people from different cultures, backgrounds, and with disabilities.

It has also helped to plan Peterborough’s Christmas lights switch-on events for the past three years.

PCRFM is now receiving more than 29,000 individual monthly listeners digitally, not including FM or DAB.

“I think community radio has never had a more important role in communities,” Mr Lawrence said.

He described the future of the station as “bold, bright and big”.

“Whether we are in these studios, hopefully we can be, or in other studios, we’re going to continue to grow and grow, be there for people in the mornings, in the day times, in the night times, to give lots and lots of volunteers who love radio the chance to be on the radio and to train people up that want to learn about radio.”