Why seven Peterborough City Council meetings have been cancelled in June
It comes following a decision made at full council in May
A total of seven Peterborough City Council committee meetings have been cancelled in June.
It comes following a decision made at a full council meeting on May 19 to adjourn a number of items related to committee structure and allocations.
The items, which are discussed at the beginning of each civic year, would have seen city councillors allocated to the various council committees, each with a specific area of responsibility.
Chair of the full council meeting, Mayor of Peterborough Judy Fox, told councillors she adjourned the items due to “limited number of seat allocations to committees that the democratic services team have received”.
The committee meetings cancelled in June include:
Employment committee on June 5
Shareholder cabinet committee on June 9
Planning and environmental protection committee on June 10
Prevention, independence and resilience scrutiny committee on June 24
Economy, inclusive growth and environment scrutiny committee on June 25
Children and young people scrutiny committee on June 26
Sustainable future city council scrutiny committee on June 26
The delaying of committee seat allocations comes amid plans for a potential takeover of power at the city council.
Councillor Dennis Jones has been leader of the council since last May, when Labour won the most seats to form a minority administration.
However, Peterborough First’s newly re-elected leader Cllr Chris Harper recently revealed negotiations were ongoing to remove Labour from power and form a new administration.
Cllr Harper told the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the takeover plans could not be put forward at the full council meeting on May 19 due to constitutional reasons.
He now intends to put forward a motion of no confidence at the next full council meeting on June 18, and says a coalition with the Liberal Democrat and Green Party groups is nearly agreed.
“Things are going extremely well. We are confident that we are nearly there now and we’ll go for it. It will be up to the vote on the night,” Cllr Harper said.
Cllr Jones said that the takeover plans “risk throwing Peterborough back into instability and chaos” and labelled it a “politically motivated back-room plot”.
A spokesperson for the Labour Party said the plans were “disappointing”.