Peterborough Council leader appoints 3 cabinet advisors at £27k per year – what do they do?

The appointments were made after Cllr Jones and his Labour administration survived a motion of no confidence vote at a meeting on June 18.

The council has seven cabinet members, including the leader, who are responsible for many things, such as leading on developing council policy and giving guidance on budget priorities and running activities.

Cabinet advisors, who each receive an extra allowance of £8,999 per year, assist, support and advise the relevant cabinet members in the exercise of their responsibilities.

They can also oversee a specific area or areas of responsibility within a cabinet portfolio at the request of the relevant cabinet member and/or leader.

Cabinet advisors can substitute for cabinet members at meetings, briefings and events as appropriate, but they do not make formal decisions or vote.

Speaking on the need to appoint three cabinet advisors, Cllr Dennis Jones said: “There are two reasons. One is to support cabinet members on a project basis, their briefs are huge.

“While we’re continuing to try to save the council money, I’m also conscious we need succession planning. We need to bring people along so that they can obviously get a feel for what cabinet membership and running the city is like.

“These [advisors] are people that are all relatively young and I want to nurture talent of the future.

“We’ll probably be looking at some areas where we can bring people along so, if anything happens to older members like me, then we have got people who can pick up the reins and continue. I’m trying to futureproof how we go about our business.

“We talked about it before that we looked at cabinet advisors and we shelved it at the time because we hadn’t put it in the budget proposals. The current situation has brought it forward.

“It’s a good time now before the next elections to bring on experience and give younger people the opportunity to develop their own political careers.”

The three advisors appointed were Cllr Zameer Ali (cabinet advisor for finance and corporate governance), Cllr Noreen Bi (cabinet advisor for children’s services) and Cllr Asim Mahmood (cabinet advisor for adults and health).

Cllr Jones also appointed committee members for this civic year, with a number of chairmanships notably being awarded to Conservative and independent councillors.

He said the appointments of opposition members to these roles were partly made so the Labour administration was “not seen as marking our own homework”.

Full list of Peterborough City Council committee appointments

Appeals and Planning Review Committee

Councillor Alison Jones (Chair) Councillor Lynne Ayres (Vice Chair) Councillor Gavin Elsey Councillor Qaiser Farid Councillor Peter Hiller Councillor John Howard Councillor Mohammed Jamil Councillor Mark Ormston Councillor Shabina Qayyum Councillor Asif Shaheed

Audit Committee

Daniel Schumann (Chair) Councillor Nick Thulbourn (Vice Chair) Councillor Imtiaz Ali Councillor Roger Antunes Councillor Polly Geraghty Stuart Green (Co-Optee) Mike Langhorn (Co-Optee) Councillor Michael Perkins Councillor Shabina Qayyum Councillor Kevin Tighe

Employment Committee

Councillor Marco Cereste (Chair) Councillor Alison Jones (Vice Chair) Councillor Andrew Bond Councillor Neil Boyce Councillor Peter Hiller Councillor Mohammed Jamil Councillor Mohammed Rangzeb

Licensing Act 2003 Sub-Committee

Councillor Steve Allen (Chair) Councillor Richard Strangward (Vice Chair) Councillor Lynne Ayres Councillor Daisy Blakemore-Creedon Councillor Nicola Day Councillor John Fox Councillor Samantha Hemraj Councillor Peter Hiller Councillor Jason McNally Councillor Michael Perkins Councillor Asif Shaheed

Planning and Environmental Protection Committee

Councillor Amjad Iqbal (Chair) Councillor Asim Mahmood (Vice Chair) Councillor Andrew Bond Councillor Sandra Bond Councillor Wayne Fitzgerald Councillor Chris Harper Councillor Jason McNally Councillor Mohammed Rangzeb Councillor Brian Rush Councillor Heather Skibsted Councillor Scott Warren

Children and Young People Scrutiny Committee

Councillor Kirsty Knight (Chair) Councillor Scott Warren (Vice Chair) Councillor Ray Bisby Councillor Daisy Blakemore-Creedon Councillor Alan Dowson Councillor Samantha Hemraj Councillor Sarah Hillier Councillor Nicola Jenkins Councillor Arfan Khan Councillor Mohammed Rangzeb Councillor Asif Shaheed

Economy, Inclusive Growth and Environment Scrutiny Committee

Councillor Simon Barkham (Chair) Councillor Alexander Rafiq (Vice Chair) Councillor Raja Sabeel Ahmed Councillor Roger Antunes Councillor Ray Bisby Councillor Nicola Day Councillor Jason McNally Councillor Ann Shaheed Councillor Richard Strangward

Prevention, Independence and Resilience Scrutiny Committee

Councillor Wayne Fitzgerald (Chair) Councillor Marco Cereste (Vice Chair) Councillor Neil Boyce Councillor Alan Dowson Councillor Sarah Hillier Councillor Ann Shaheed Councillor Heather Skibsted

Sustainable Future City Council Scrutiny Committee

Councillor John Howard (Chair) Councillor Rylan Ray (Vice Chair) Councillor Simon Barkham Councillor Neil Boyce Councillor Gavin Elsey Councillor Qaiser Farid Councillor Polly Geraghty Councillor Samantha Hemraj Councillor Amjad Iqbal Councillor Richard Strangward