John Fox and Sarah Hillier celebrated early today after a stunning election result for Peterborough City Council. Both have been vilified by Peterborough MP Paul Bristow over the issue surrounding Werrington fields.
Mr Bristow’s wife even joined in by standing as a Conservative councillor in yesterday’s election which the MP described as a ‘referendum’ on the issue.
On the day, however, both John and Sarah triumphed in the polls, voters giving them a vote of confidence by decisive margins.
Cllr Fox said: “For Werrington residents, let me state it again and again, Judy Fox, Sarah Hillier and I are not against a fence, but we are against the whole field being fenced off.
“We all want a compromise to suit the students, the school, and the community, which we have been saying since day one.
“Statements like ‘if we are elected as your councillors, we will stop Werrington fields being fenced off. If we cannot do that, we will resign. No ifs or but’s’, seems to be somewhat a ridiculous and ill-informed statement as this would create a by-election costing the taxpayers around £13,000.
“So do they not think there has been enough money already spent on putting a fence up?”.
He added: “They seem to be missing the most important factor and we ask them, why has this taken five years by a previous Conservative administration to sort out and why now is there a sudden interest just two months before an election.”
RESULT
Werrington ward (2 seats
BRISTOW Sara Louise (Conservative) 626
DALTON Ruta (Conservative) 392
FOX John Raymond (Peterborough First – Werrington Independent) * 1,664
HILLIER Sarah Areatha (Peterborough First – Werrington Independent) 1,307
JONES Roz (Labour) 421
KAIL Simon James (Liberal Democrat) 92
SHARP Katherine Ann (Green Party) 178
WARNE Barry (Green Party) 103
Peterborough First HOLD both
Turnout 33.84 per cent
