Government agrees to postpone city council election

The government has agreed to postpone Peterborough's city council elections which were scheduled to take place this May.

The city council asked for a postponement after being offered the option from the government, and has become one of 29 local authorities nationally to be granted permission.

It means it will be able to concentrate on local government reorganisation, which will see councils across Cambridgeshire and Peterborough combine into two or three larger unitary authorities.

Elections scheduled for Cambridge City, South Cambridgeshire and Huntingdonshire district councils will go ahead as planned.

Previously the Labour leader of the city council, Shabina Qayyum, outlined the council's reasons for requesting a postponement.

"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.

"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."

However, at a city council meeting on Wednesday, the city's Conservative leader Wayne Fitzgerald put forward a motion calling for the council to write a letter to the government saying they do not want a postponement.

During the debate, he said he did not buy the argument about work capacity on local government reform "being the reason not to have elections".

He added: "Elsewhere in the county other authorities such as Huntingdonshire, Cambridge and South Cambridgeshire are all going ahead and face the same issues and challenges."

The motion was also supported by Green councillor Nicola Day.

"Democracy is precious, we must defend the importance of free and fair voting," she said.

"Elections are what sets democracy apart from oppressive regimes and dictatorships."

Former Labour leader, Dennis Jones, now sitting as an independent, criticised the government for offering the option of postponement at such short notice.

"It should have been a government decision months ago," he told the debate.

The motion was rejected, with 18 councillors voting for, 28 against and 2 abstentions.

Reform UK is bringing legal action against the decision to postpone elections.

The Electoral Commission, which oversees elections in the UK, has said delays to council elections in England risk "damaging public confidence" and it does not think "capacity constraints are a legitimate reason for delaying long-planned elections".

Cambridgeshire and Peterborough is one of a number of areas of England which are having their council structures changed as pat of local government reorganisation, which the government says will save councils money.

The current timetable is for "shadow elections" to take place in 2027 for the new unitary authorities, with the new councils taking over from the current ones in 2028.

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