Political View: Let's get everyone back to participating in local democracy
It’s always a good start by reflecting on last week’s columns, and my colleague and friend Councillor Allen reinforced our stance as a positive influence in the chamber and as a responsible and constructive opposition, writes Councillor John Howard, Conservative Group Press Officer.
Perhaps readers last week had a shock too, seeing the first column from Peterborough First for several months. This is because despite an insatiable appetite to take power, they don’t have anything much to say.
They went into hiding during all the excitement being stirred by their failed power grab, and their return feels like a copy and paste article. Throwaway phrases such as ‘No political pressure from above or elsewhere’ or even ‘independent’ won’t fool the public as this group have shown their true colours. We see the political coloured robes they wear in green and yellow, with their failed Green Party and Liberal Democrat alliance.
How are they independent anymore? The truly independent Councillors are tired of the desperation for power at any cost, and of the internal politics. Councillors are leaving Peterborough First, the most recent being Councillor Mark Ormston. More will follow.
And then there is the real leader of Peterborough First, Councillor Hogg, who seems to have a great interest in my words. I should be flattered. And here’s some more words that he can digest: If your ‘alliance’ was seriously going to deliver a Council budget, then prove it! Let’s see how you all shape up now in the FSWG group, and let’s see what budget the alliance was going to deliver. Perhaps this will help heal the wounds of mistrust, and you can also then prove to the public that the ‘alliance’ had serious intentions of supplying an administration with your actions.
Working constructively with other political groups to help deliver and support a balanced budget for next year would be a powerful action. It would send a message to the public and to the other political groups in the chamber.
The Conservative group will be taking a responsible approach to budget setting. What won’t be tolerated is more secret cuts: This year, we saw the industrial hub closure come out of nowhere post-budget approval. I have already said I won’t see this happen again. It falls to the administration to push for the transparency members need, and the public need this too. The savings challenge becomes ever tougher-this is where politicians must challenge and scrutinise. The revised scrutiny committees now get to input to budget setting within their areas of scrutiny. This is another welcome change and allows a minority administration to give the majority the information and insight they need.
Following the scrutiny ‘lockdown’ caused by the vote of no confidence, council business is starting to happen again, and we had the training for the new format scrutiny committees last week. 31 of the 60 councillors will participate in scrutiny. Sadly, only 12 Councillors attended the training. 9 Conservatives, and I will commend the 2 members from Peterborough First and the 1 Green party member who did show up too. There are a lot of wounds to heal politically, but they need to start somewhere and get back to participating in local democracy, it’s what we are all elected to do.
It's nice to see the Regional Pool and the Station Quarter are gaining traction. After the Labour press call about the station quarter, I want to emphasise the cross-political work that needs to occur. Our two Labour MPS, and the councils Labour administration, must work with our Combined Authority Mayor Paul Bristow on these two major projects to ensure we get access to all the potential funding streams available.
Peterborough deserves the best outcome, and this will only be achieved by everyone working together. The same theme could be applied to the council chamber; it’s a long road ahead.