Plans to postpone May elections backed by cabinet

A government offer to postpone May's local elections has been unanimously backed by a council cabinet.

Ministers asked Peterborough City Council for views on delaying the elections until 2027 in light of its plans to overhaul local government in England.

Cabinet members voted to postpone the elections to "release essential capacity to deliver local government reorganisation".

Labour council leader Shabina Qayyum said the decision had not been taken lightly, but was in response to "a complete rebuild of the council system".

"In my mind, the most important consideration here is Peterborough City Council's capacity to deliver local government reorganisation for our residents, whilst maintaining service delivery for every resident of our city who relies on the services that we provide," she said.

"Local government reorganisation is not just a boundary tweak, but a complete rebuild of the council system," she added.

The government plans to get rid of the two-tier system of district and county councils, creating a swathe of new unitary authorities that will be responsible for delivering all local services in their areas from 2028.

Ministers gave all 63 councils affected by the reorganisation and due to hold elections in May the deadline of 15 January to say whether they required the delay.

During an extraordinary meeting of the city council cabinet on Monday, ward councillors John Howard (Conservative), Mark Ormston (Independent) and Heather Skibsted (Green Party) spoke in favour of the local elections going ahead as planned in May.

Qayyum said: "Cabinet members have not taken this response to the question from government lightly.

"Getting Peterborough City Council into a position to transfer statutory services to a new authority safely and legally is not without its challenges, with financial challenges remaining in the new financial year, huge demands for service in some areas, ongoing focus on the improvement and development of children's services, and a desire to make progress on hugely important projects including plans for a new swimming pool and leisure centre and the transformation of the station quarter.

"If postponing local elections for one year means we are able to release the essential capacity needed to achieve those aims and deliver local government reorganisation successfully, then we must support it."

In November, a majority of city councillors in Peterborough voted for "Option D", which would see the city join with western Huntingdonshire.

This option was also backed by the council cabinet, but the government will make the final decision.

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