The Greens celebrated two victories, but no party achieved a majority
It was a night of mixed fortunes for parties of all colours at Peterborough ‘s local elections on May 8. A dramatic contest saw 18 wards, around a third of all seats on Peterborough City Council up for grabs.
While some party leaders were jubilant and largely satisfied as the results filtered through during the early hours at Kingsgate Conference Centre, others were left disappointed and despondent. The Conservatives – predicted to be wiped-out by some pre-election polls – were arguably the party who left the count in the most chipper mood.
Six triumphs in North, Paston & Walton, Dogsthorpe, Hargate & Hempsted, Ravensthorpe and Park saw them increase their overall number of council seats from 10 to 13. Peterborough’s Conservative leader, Councillor Wayne Fitgerald, said he was “very pleased with the outcome” as this now makes the Tories, once again, the largest party on the city council.
“We are not dead and buried in the city,” he affirmed, adding: “The Conservatives are not going anywhere in Peterborough. We are very much alive, kicking and fighting [and] we’re in it because we believe what we believe in is the best thing for the city. I’m glad we’ve had a good night tonight.”
As a relatively unknown quantity, Reform UK came into these elections with a palpable degree of momentum and confidence. Andrew O’Neil was, up until now, Reform UK’s sole representative on the city council. However, victories in Bretton, Stanground South, Orton Longeville and Eye, Thorney and Newborough ensure he will be far from alone next time the council meets in the chamber.
He said: “We’ve picked up four seats [so] we now have enough to form a group on the council. I was hoping for ten seats, [but] I think we have enough to maybe make a difference.”
Speculating about how Peterborough’s coalition council leadership team will look going forward, Cllr O’Neil said: “There could be a change in the administration and we may be able to play a role in shaping the future council administration.”
An equal balance of wins and losses meant an evening of mixed fortunes for the Lib Dems which saw them end the night as they started, with eight seats. Party leader Christian Hogg – who retained his Fletton & Stangroun ward – said local politics was “a brutal sport”.
he said: “We’ve lost an absolute cracker of a councillor in Asif Shaheed (Paston and Walton) but we’ve got back Paul Wiggin (Hampton Vale). On the one hand I’m really pleased but, a bit like two years ago, it’s been tinged with sad loss [as] it means we’ve not got a councillor in Paston & Walton for the first time in over 20 years.”
At the start of the evening when the votes were being verified, Labour leader and current Leader of the Council, Shabina Qayyum, told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS) that retaining three of the six seats they were defending would be a “realistic” prospect.
By the end of the night’s proceedings, the party had notched up two ward successes, in East and Central, results which saw the party drop from 13 councillors to 11 overall.
She said: “We’ve gone down a notch. It’s always heartbreaking to lose hard-working councillors from your own party and that’s been the case tonight. Both the mainstream parties… played good… and strong campaigns and sent a really strong message tonight to Reform that the national narrative that is prevailing isn’t quite what it’s cut out to be.”
The Green party also ended the night with two ward victories, with gains in both Orton Waterville and Fletton & Woodston seeing them increase their overall presence on the council by one. Leader of Peterborough’s Greens Cllr Heather Skibsted said she was “delighted,” not just with the brace of seats they secured but also with the fact they were won “convincingly.”
“We were hoping for more wins,” she said, but acknowledged the “rise of Reform had a big impact,” and that “national headlines had made a big difference.” Undeterred, the councillor said the party “will look at what’s happened, learn from it and come back and fight and get more seats next year.”
Peterborough First’s sole victory came in Werrington. However, losses in Hargate & Hempsted and Stanground South means the party now have fewer councillors overall. Speaking on Facebook, party leader Cllr Chris Harper said: “We clearly didn’t do enough in the short amount of time we had to convince many of you to vote local rather than along national lines.
“A minority coalition administration will again be running our city and who that will be we’ll have to wait and see. An interesting few months lie ahead, that’s for sure.”
This is how many seats each party now has on the council:
Conservatives: 13
Labour – 11
Independents – 9
Peterborough First – 8
Green – 6
Reform UK – 5
It is yet to be determined how the new make-up of the council will impact on who is the leader of the authority. Once the dust has settled from these results, the important business of accountable and representative local governance will once again begin.
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