Derby City Council is being called upon to reconsider holding a potential vote of no confidence in its leader, Councillor Baggy Shanker, in an emergency meeting it is understood is due to be held in secret this evening.
Organisations representing thousands of businesses, including the Business Improvement Districts (BIDs) for the Cathedral Quarter and St Peters Quarter, plus Marketing Derby, as well as investors, such as St James Securities and Wavensmere Homes, have submitted letters expressing deep concern about the introduction of political instability at a crucial time for Derby.
At immediate risk is a huge sum of up to £500 million of investment with genuine fears that instability will further affect investor confidence costing the city jobs and investment.
Wavensmere Homes, which has already built over 900 new homes in the Nightingale Quarter, with a further 500 homes in the immediate pipeline, has said it may now consider re-evaluating a further £250 million of investment in Derby.
St James Securities said that negotiations on the next phase of the £230 million Becketwell scheme were at a very sensitive stage and feared this might be threatened.
The BIDs are especially concerned about losing city centre regeneration momentum and today Marketing Derby has written to the Mayor of Derby, Councillor Ged Potter, reiterating these concerns and urging a different approach be taken to solve any political problems.
All submissions have stressed they are non-party political and supportive of the four-year electoral cycle introduced last year. This being broken could lead to three years of uncertainty.
The vote of no confidence from opposition leaders relates to the conduct and actions of Cllr Shanker regarding the failed Sinfin Waste Treatment Plant.
Shanker was quoted by the BBC saying the motion was “a desperate act of political opportunism.”
A statement from Shanker added: “It is no coincidence that two of the signatories to the motion happen to be standing against me in the general election to become the next MP for Derby South.”
