Latest news with #WayneFitzgerald
BBC News
09-07-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Fully subsidised Peterborough radio station to be reviewed
A community radio station has been receiving rent and rate relief from the council for the past nine years, it has been City Council's current leader Dennis Jones said the authority would be reviewing all organisations and companies benefitting from such relief to ensure fairness and Community Radio (PCRFM) was set up in 2016 at the Herlington Centre in Orton Malborne, by former Conservative council leader, Wayne Fitzgerald, who led the council between 2021 and 2023, said the arrangement was reviewed annually by the council, adding the station provided community value. Documents provided by PCRFM showed its yearly business rates bill totalled £9,231.50 before the 80% mandatory and 20% discretionary relief."We are a not-for-profit community group and there are many of them in the city that receive free rent for example," said Mr Fitzgerald, who is also a director of the radio station."It's on my register of interest, it's all declared," he said."And the council determine whether we qualify [for free rates] or not. And hey ho, they determined we qualified." 'Celebrating the city' Mr Jones said the Labour administration was not "singling out any company at all"."Every organisation that gets rates [relief], they have to qualify for it," he said."And if PCRFM qualify, then that's absolutely fine."The council is quite right to look at its assets and see if it can generate income or revenue, there's nothing wrong with that and we're not offended by it," said Mr Fitzgerald. PCRFM, a music-based community radio station began broadcasting to Peterborough in 2017. It also provides local news bulletins as well as interviews with local people, organisations and station hosts two weekly shows featuring local musicians performing in its studios and promotes local events - and is supported by more than 40 volunteers and three paid of the paid employees is breakfast presenter Kev Lawrence, who says the station's main aims are "celebrating the city and giving a platform for lots of people to share what they're doing". Follow Peterborough news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
17-06-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Peterborough Conservatives given choice over no confidence vote
Conservatives on a Labour-led city council have been told they are free to vote either way on a motion of no confidence in its leadership.A minority Labour administration leads Peterborough City Council, but an alliance of three parties – Peterborough First, the Liberal Democrats, and the Green Party – wants to take current Labour leader, Dennis Jones, called the move a "politically-motivated back room plot".Wayne Fitzgerald, the leader of the Conservative group on the city council, said the council's 11 Tory members would be free to "vote as they will" when the motion goes out to a vote on Wednesday. He said: "We don't whip people per se, we reach consensus."The council is made up of 17 Labour councillors, 13 Peterborough First councillors, 11 Conservatives, eight Liberal Democrats, six independent councillors and five Green Party the motion was voted through, a Peterborough First councillor would be put forward to become the new leader. Jones has been leader of the council since May 2024, when Labour won the most seats to form a minority said he was "incredibly proud" of the work Peterborough Labour had done so far. Christian Hogg, leader of the Liberal Democrat group, said Labour controlled just a "small percentage of the council".He said the coalition with Peterborough First and the Greens included a broad range of opinions, adding: "We are a spectrum of political views and that makes for better decision-making."Heather Skibsted, leader of the Green Party group, said she was "reasonably confident" ahead of Wednesday's vote."We've got more numbers and therefore represent more of the city's residents." Follow Peterborough news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
27-03-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
Peterborough council asks for unspent funds to be returned
A cash-strapped city council has asked councillors to return unused community funds to support its financial of the 60 Peterborough city councillors receive £3,000 yearly as part of a Community Leadership Fund (CLF) to support resident projects in their City Council released a table of each councillor's CLF spending figures for 2024/25, with some spending all of their allocation and others spending nothing at the local authority's budget earlier this year for 2025/26, councillors' CLF allocation will be reduced from £3,000 to £1,000 in a bid to save £120,000 a year. In October, councillors were given the option to forgo any unspent CLF funding but were free to do so if they councillor for West ward, Wayne Fitzgerald, leader of the Conservative group, was among those who spent none of their Fitzgerald said: "We had earmarked the money for several projects in our case, however, we had to put them off because it was requested where councillors hadn't committed to give the money back to the central pot."Labour councillor for Bretton, Richard Strangward, said he was going to spend the funds on a larger project planned which didn't come Party leader Nicola Day, of the Orton Waterville ward, spent £5,000 of her CLF allocation, including around £2,000 carried over from last year to fund defibrillators, roof repairs at a local football club - and to set up a mental health support First councillors John and Judy Fox, and Sarah Hillier, of Werrington ward, spent all of the Fox said: "I think if you are given that money to spend on the community then that is what you should do."A spokesperson for the city council said: "All unspent money has been rolled forward to the next financial year (2025/26)." Follow Peterborough news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
BBC News
31-01-2025
- Business
- BBC News
Peterborough's Regional Pool rebuild has no cheap options
A council leader said there were no cheap options to rebuild a soon-to-be-demolished swimming pool. A new Regional Pool for Peterborough would be "exceptionally expensive," a city council meeting heard, after calls were made to replace the facility. A soft strip of the Bishop's Road site began this month after asbestos and reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete (Raac) was found in the city council's Labour leader, Dennis Jones, said the authority was looking at a number of options to rebuild the site, "none of which are coming cheap". The council confirmed the discovery of Raac - a cheaper type of concrete that has limited lifespan - inside the pool building in mid-2024 and made the decision to demolish the demolition began this month and it is due to be completely razed by the spring. Since the decision, calls for a new leisure centre, including a swimming pool, have been made, said the Local Democracy Reporting authority previously said a replacement pool could cost about £30m and hoped to have it completed by councillor and former leader, Wayne Fitzgerald, pointed out there was "no provision for capital investment in the budget" and asked how it would create the city council has predicted a £23m budget gap for 2025 to 2026, because of increased demand for services and rising costs. 'Exceptionally expensive' At a joint meeting of the scrutiny committees on Wednesday, executive director of place and economy at the council, Adrian Chapman, said officers had been working hard "on a very detailed proposal" to open a new said: "It is, as councillor Jones mentioned, exceptionally expensive. "We think there is a commercial model here that would fund a pool to the specification that we would seek."Peterborough's 88-year-old Lido is currently the only public swimming pool in the city centre. The council initially proposed to mothball the outdoor pool to save £400,000 a year, but reversed the plan after opposition. Follow Peterborough news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.
