Council finances are still looking shaky and elections around the corner - Welcome back !

With the holiday season firmly behind us, we tend to look forward to the opportunities that the New Year has to offer, In the political world of Peterborough City Council, we are currently focused on working on delivering a balanced budget

Meanwhile, back in Peterborough, the advice from government is cancelled out by the same government department telling us that our reserves are too low and need to be increased. Our hard-working officers nevertheless have continued to work hard at transforming the way the Council works. The previous Conservative administration has now gone after over two decades in control, but their mistakes are still costing this city.

More recent examples of these mistakes would include and by no means the only examples, funding for the Hilton Hotel development, which was sold to councillors as a scheme that was good for Peterborough and a cast iron investment that would reap a good return. The reality was delay upon delay which led to the development grinding to a halt forcing the council to step in and take over the project. Whilst council officers are confident that we will be able to recoup our money in the long term there is still a level of risk that leaves me very uncomfortable. We also had a similar “get rich quick” scheme with the Empower investment, it seems no lessons were learnt from that.

You also must ask yourself what could we have been doing instead of these projects. A replacement for the Regional Pool would be on the top of my list. You really can’t blame RAAC for failing on a 50-year-old building when the specification is for it to only last 30 years? Maybe we could have saved St George’s Hydrotherapy pool. Certainly, the relocation of the city market could have been done a lot better.

Moving on to later in the year, we have another round of local elections where you will get the opportunity to elect councillors that will represent your views and fight hard for your communities. We are already seeing a great deal of political shenanigans accusing other parties of policies or points of view that simply don’t reflect reality. As the saying goes caveat emptor – buyer beware – do your research and ask questions of the party’s candidates for their actual position.

Obviously, I would like you to vote for the Liberal Democrats, but please consider that we are known for our commitment to local issues and grassroots campaigning. By voting for the Liberal Democrats, you are supporting a party that places a high value on local representation. They strive to listen to the concerns of our residents and work hard to address them effectively.

If you want to do a bit more than just vote, get in touch with us and have a chat about how to get involved with our party by emailing us at admin@libdems.info.