Why council leader is facing a no-confidence vote

The Liberal Democrat leader of Huntingdonshire District Council faces a motion of no confidence on Tuesday evening.

The move against Sarah Conboy has been made by Ross Martin, the leader of the Conservative opposition. He says it is over the handling of proposals to redevelop parts of St Ives, St Neots and Huntingdon.

It comes just weeks after two Green party councillors left the joint administration, led by the Liberal Democrats, over the same issue.

The Lib Dems are the largest party at the council with 21 out of the 52 available seats. After May's local election they formed a coalition with the Greens and Independents.

In July 2025, the council approved a partnership with developers Capital and Centric, to come up with ideas to regenerate parts of St Ives, St Neots and Huntingdon.

In August this year the developer carried out public engagement events, where they unveiled some ideas. These included building homes on a number of council car parks.

The council is keen to emphasise that these were ideas put forward by the developers, who are collecting responses from residents. No formal planning application or decisions have been made.

Last week Capital and Centric founder, Tim Heatley told BBC Radio Cambridgeshire they are listening to feedback and are looking at different options.

Public feeling about the plans has been strong, with thousands of comments on social media and hundreds of people turning up to public meetings.

However, official announcements from the council were restricted at this time due to a by-election in St Neots on 20 August . Local authorities generally avoid making big announcements during pre-election periods.

Ross Martin, who has put forward the motion, said he did so because he was unhappy with the way the council cabinet handled the situation.

"The only way of testing is through the leader, there is no mechanism for the whole cabinet."

"People would question me as a leader of the opposition if I didn't," he said.

The Conservative group leader says his group will put him forward as leader in the event of a no confidence motion being successful. They are the second largest group with 15 councillors.

However, he says they would not create a formal coalition with any other party, although he indicated he would work alongside other parties.

Reform UK have 9 members, the Greens 2, Labour 1 and there are 4 independents.

The two Green Party members, Stephen Ferguson and Lara Davenport-Ray have submitted a different motion to the next scheduled council meeting on 9 September.

It is calling for "full transparency and accountability" over the deal between the district council and Capital and Centric.

Ferguson said "establishing who is responsible is more important". He also chairs the council and will have the casting vote in the event of a tied result.

Sarah Conboy said she understood why residents were upset with the way ideas had been presented.

She described the process as "really challenging", and that "the engagement hasn't worked".

She emphasised that the plans needed public support and after "overwhelming feedback from residents we may not see that".

She's encouraging residents to give their thoughts to Capital and Centric, who are collecting feedback until 4 September.

With regards to the leadership challenge she said it was a bad time to change leader.

All councils in Cambridgeshire are awaiting a decision on Local Government Re-organisation. Huntingdonshire's preferred option is to create its own unitary authority, known as Option E, separate to the rest of the county. The option was supported across all parties.

"We told the government we are a stable council," she said. "We all supported Option E. This sends a destabilising message."

The meeting is scheduled to take place at 19:00 BST on 1 September.

Do you have a story suggestion for Cambridgeshire? Contact us below.

Follow Cambridgeshire news on BBC Sounds, Facebook, Instagram and X.