Has our Council Leader let Peterborough down?

As many will be aware the Conservatives have been reduced from 30 councillors in May to just 23. This makes a big difference in how Wayne Fitzgerald the current Council Leader should be conducting business as the representative PPC on outside bodies.

Despite giving several assurances to opposition group leaders and the city’s Chief Executive Officer that he would agree to the Local Transport and Connectivity Plan (LCTP), last week, he used the Peterborough Veto to stop it in its tracks. He did not attempt, prior to the meeting, to inform others that he had changed his mind and didn’t give any reasons at the meeting.

What this has meant though, is that the £200k funding for progressing the new bus depot, which will secure a greener future for Peterborough by including charging facilities for the introduction of electric buses to our city, has now been held back due to it being linked with the LTCP being approved.

It has been suggested that Wayne did this to support his Conservative colleagues in Fenland and East Cambs, which would mean this was a purely political decision and not one with the needs of the city of Peterborough as a priority. And perhaps Wayne has realised that his time as Council Leader is coming to an end, and he is currently looking to secure the position of the Conservative Party’s candidate for the upcoming Combined Authority Mayor in 2025.

Opposition leaders are justifiably angry that Peterborough is being used as a political pawn in a wider county-wide political campaign.

He’ll say he is protecting Peterborough from plans to introduce road charging schemes such as ULEZ, STZ and Congestion Charging. This simply isn’t true, as a highways authority Peterborough cannot have these sorts of schemes forced upon it by the combined authority without its consent.

With the number of councils having difficulties increasing hugely this year and with greater pressures on Adults and Children’s Services for all councils, we all need to concentrate on getting the best possible outcomes for our city in all areas and this can only be achieved by working together.

The bottom line is that this Conservative government has reduced council budgets to the barebones and there is very little that can be done to reduce costs further. We need a review of the way councils are funded. We have a crisis now where the council’s assets such as the Regional Pool, our community centres and libraries need investment as they have been set aside in favour of larger big-ticket developments like the train station quarter development. The current administration seems to be concentrating on attracting new business and residents to our city at the expense of those already living here, we need to redress that balance.

Do you think we need a new leadership with a different emphasis on repairing our broken city which puts residents at the heart of what we do?