Politics of Peterborough

My guests on this episode of the podcast are former BBC Radio Cambridgeshire breakfast presenter and current Director of Marketing and Communications at Peterborough Cathedral, Paul Stainton; Independent councillor for Orton Waterville ward, Cllr Julie Stevenson; and Local Democracy Reporter, Joanna Taylor. In this second part, we discussed:The state of each of the local parties go

My guests on this episode of the podcast are former BBC Radio Cambridgeshire breakfast presenter and current Director of Marketing and Communications at Peterborough Cathedral, Paul Stainton; Independent councillor for Orton Waterville ward, Cllr Julie Stevenson; and Local Democracy Reporter, Joanna Taylor. In this first part, we discussed:The events of the last full council meetin

My guests on this episode of the podcast are the current leadership of the Council - Leader Councillor Mohammed Farooq and Deputy Leader Councillor John Howard. We discussed:How Councillor Farooq got into politics, and his departure from the ConservativesHow Peterborough First took control of the CouncilThe Hilton HotelThe closure of the Regional Pool and potential replacement deta

My guest for this episode is Peterborough Liberal Democrats group leader Councillor Christian Hogg. We discussed:The Lib Dems aims for the 2024 local electionsWhat changes there have been since Peterborough First took on the leadership of the Council.The Council's net zero targetThe Regional poolYouth engagement within the cityPlus much more.If you have any suggestions for future g

My guest for this episode is Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority Mayor, Dr Nik Johnson. We discussed:What brought him to Cambridgeshire from NorthumberlandWhat made him want to go into politicsHis apology following the recently released report into his conduct during his first year in officeThe changes in leadership at Peterborough City Council, and how that has chan

On this month's episode, I sat down with North-West Cambridgeshire MP Shailesh Vara. We discussed:His upbringing and route into politicsThe racism he has faced along with the current dangers of being an MPHis reaction to the double by-election defeats suffered by the ConservativesThe resignation of 7 Conservative councillors and likely imminent change of leadership of the CouncilTh

This month, I sat down with Conservative councillor and Cabinet Member for Legal, Finance and Corporate Services, Councillor Andy Coles. He gives his response to the accusations made by the 7 councillors that departed the Conservative group after May's local elections; discusses the financial situation of the Council, including how close it came to having to issue a Section 114 not

My guest this month is Peterborough First Councillor John Howard. As well as chatting about how he got into politics, his time as a cabinet member, and some of the issues facing Peterborough today, we took a deep dive into his departure from the Conservative group as he talks about the events for the first time.If you have any suggestions for future guests, or have any questions th

This month, our guest is Peterborough's member of the Youth Parliament, Eva Woods. We discussed what the role entails, what got her interested in politics from a young age, why youth turnout is much lower than other age groups, what Peterborough is like as a city for young people, her interactions with the City's MPs, and much more beside.If you have any suggestions for future gues

On this month's episode, we sat down with Labour Councillor Dr Shabina Asad Qayyum. We discussed her journey into politics, her suspension from the party in 2021 and her time as mayoress over the last year.We then dived into the recent local elections, Labour's performance and what lessons have been learned for the next election.We also discussed some of the issues currently facing