Three city councillors could threaten a decision by the Cabinet of Peterborough City Council to agree to fencing off Werrington Fields. Councillors John Fox, Sarah Hillier and Christian Hogg ‘called in’ the Cabinet decision and the council’s monitoring officer Neil McArthur “has decided that the request is valid”.
Cllr Hillier told CambsNews: “So we’ve made the decision to call this in following the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday. We feel that consideration hasn’t been given to the impact of the loss of amenity to the community of Werrington if all the fields are fenced.
“We appreciate the need for safeguarding but feel that the need for open space and protected public open space in Werrington has been completely overridden by thought of safeguarding.
Cllr Hogg said: “I was at the Cabinet meeting the other day and I felt that whilst people were allowed to speak
that maybe the Cabinet didn’t give it the full deference it deserved.
“I think it needs to be widened out to a to a number more councillors to put their input in as to whether or not we should be spending this money at this time bearing in mind our financial situation.”
Cllr Hillier said: “The Cabinet although they heard many arguments from the public they didn’t then ask any questions or
indeed have any debate which gave the feeling that the decision wasn’t genuinely being made by Cabinet.
“There was an air of kind of predetermination to it that I think caused many that were there to feel that the process was
unfair, lacked scrutiny and was basically undemocratic.
” We all felt that that this decision had lacked an appropriate level of consideration and so we didn’t agree with the decision or the process of making it so we have called it in to be scrutinised by a scrutiny committee.”
It means the call-in request will now go before a joint meeting of children and education scrutiny and growth, resources and communities scrutiny committee on Friday 2 August at 10am.
“The scrutiny committee will consider the call-in request and the reasons for it,” said a council spokesperson.
“It may decide to take no further action, in which case the decision stands. It may refer the decision back to Cabinet for reconsideration.
“Or, if it considers that the decision is outside the council’s budget and policy framework, it may refer the matter to the council.”
If it does need to go for approval to the city council, Labour will face their biggest first test in office – with the city’s new Labour MP Andrew Pakes breathing heavily down their necks.
He claims a “lack of transparency” over the decision to be “troubling” and says, “this sorry saga has gone on for too long.”
Mr Pakes added: “The ongoing lack of clarity from the council adds further concerns about this being settled in an adequate manner.”
He said both the public and councillors should expect see clear evidence about the options available to the council and the reasons for its decisions.
“This has not happened so far regarding Werrington Fields.”
Cabinet last week, despite a group of residents protesting against their decision, agreed to:
1: Approves that the area of land to be demised to Ken Stimpson Academy, in addition to the main school site (Area B), and under the new 125-year academy lease, should be all the land designated for education use and as shown as Area C in the plan on the next page.
- Agreed to the request from Ken Stimpson Academy, for the council to erect a fence around all of the area of land in Area C. This is to support the academy’s safeguarding requirements and to enable it to deliver its outdoor education curriculum.
- Agreed for the council to pay for the costs associated with the supply and installation of the fence.
- Approved that the council enters into a Community Use Agreement with the academy to enable continued community use of the playing fields outside of school hours.
The call-in will now pause those decisions.
“A call-in is a key element of the scrutiny function and it relates to the right of members to call-in for examination an executive decision that has been made but not yet implemented,” said the council spokesperson.
“Three councillors must sign the call-in request.”
“Councillors John Fox, Sarah Hillier and Christian Hogg made the request and the council’s monitoring officer Neil McArthur has decided that the request is valid.”
