After what will now be ten years of rent and rate free occupation, Peterborough Community Radio (PCRFM) is set to vacate its council-owned premises at the Herlington Centre, Orton Malborne, following confirmation from Peterborough City Council that it is moving to market the unit at a commercial rent.
The development marks a decisive moment in a saga first revealed by CambsNews in the summer of 2025, when an investigation uncovered that the radio station – a private limited company, not a charity or community interest company – had benefited from a prolonged, informal and unusually generous arrangement under successive council administrations.
In an update issued in January 2026, the city council confirmed that PCRFM has been formally notified that the rent-free agreement is ending, and that the station has indicated it intends to leave.
A council spokesperson said: “As part of the council’s asset review process we are reviewing all property rental arrangements to ensure they are providing best value.
“We have informed the tenants of Unit 23-24 at the Herlington Centre, which is Peterborough Community Radio (PCR), that we will now commence the marketing of the site to achieve a market value rent. PCR has indicated to us that it wants to leave the unit.”
The confirmation brings to an end what critics have described as a decade-long financial honeymoon, during which PCRFM occupied the unit on a tenancy at will, paid no rent, and received 100 per cent business rate relief, while also receiving tens of thousands of pounds in council payments for services and events.
A story that would not go away
CambsNews’ original investigation established that PCRFM had operated from the Herlington Centre since 2016 under an informal arrangement renewed indefinitely, with no lease, no valuation, no cabinet decision and no service level agreement to underpin claims of social value.
Freedom of Information requests revealed that the council did not hold full accounts showing turnover, liabilities or detailed income and expenditure, despite the station operating a commercial advertising model and employing staff.
Micro-accounts filed at Companies House showed three employees but omitted income and expenditure details – a legal but opaque approach that left the council unable to demonstrate whether continued financial support was justified.
The radio station is owned by Peterborough Community Radio Station Ltd, a private company in which Conservative councillor Wayne Fitzgerald is listed as holding “significant influence or control”. It is not registered as a charity or CIC.
Despite this, council records from 2019 showed PCRFM listed among organisations qualifying for 100 per cent discretionary rate relief, based on historic, PR-led descriptions of community benefit that CambsNews found could not be substantiated by evidence of a training academy or shared community arts hub.
From “munificence splendour” to hard choices
At the time the story broke, then council leader Dennis Jones made clear that the days of what he described as “munificence splendour” were over.
He said the authority had “bills to pay” and that while social value was often cited, “social value butters no parsnips”.
Mr Jones revealed he only became aware of the arrangement following a phone call from the council’s then finance chief, who questioned why PCRFM was paying neither rent nor rates.
“What happened on other people’s watch” was not something he wished to revisit, he said, but added bluntly:
“If you are not paying any rent, not paying any rates, what do you want to do? You want to hang on, don’t you?
“At some point the chickens are going to come home to roost.”
That moment has now arrived.
Council closes ranks on arrears
The January 2026 update also addressed questions about whether PCRFM owed any money to the council – a line of inquiry the authority shut down firmly.
The spokesperson said: “This isn’t something we can comment on. Discussions with our tenants should remain private and it is not right for us to share publicly information about individual tenancies.”
What is clear, however, is that the informal arrangement is ending, and the property will be offered to the open market.
Fitzgerald: ‘Nothing lasts forever’
Cllr Wayne Fitzgerald declined to comment to CambsNews when the investigation was published, but he later spoke at length to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, offering his own defence of the arrangement.
He acknowledged that PCRFM had received free rent and rates since 2016 and said the financial pressures kept him awake at night.
“It is challenging to pay all the bills and bills have got to be paid,” he said.
“So, we are allowed to sell advertising, raise sponsorships and donations whether that be in cash or in kind.”
He rejected claims that the station had been improperly supported.
“We are a not-for-profit community group and there are many of them in the city that receive free rent,” he said.
“The rent situation here, we took on this building in a very dilapidated state.
“We’ve refurbished, we’ve created this and we’ve come to an area that was thought to be very much deprived.”
Cllr Fitzgerald said the council supported the project because it saw community benefit, adding: “So that’s why it was decided, but it’s not unusual.”
He also insisted everything had been declared: “It’s on my register of interest, it’s all declared.
“And the council determine whether we qualify [for free rates] or not. And hey ho, they determined we qualified.”
‘We’ve not been on a free gravy train’
Perhaps most tellingly, Cllr Fitzgerald accepted that the arrangement could not last forever.
“Nothing lasts forever,” he said.
“And we’ve not been on a free gravy train, we’ve been providing a community service, a valuable service, of which the council have been fully involved.”
When asked if he would pay rent and rates if required, his response was unequivocal but conditional: “I’d happily do so if we could afford it.”
That caveat now appears decisive. Faced with the prospect of market rent, PCRFM has indicated it will leave the unit rather than attempt to renegotiate.
Wider questions remain
While the immediate issue of the Herlington Centre unit is resolved, broader questions raised by the CambsNews investigation remain unanswered.
Why did a decade pass without a formal review?
Why was 100 per cent discretionary rate relief repeatedly granted without demonstrable annual reassessment?
Why were no senior officers alerted until last year?
The case echoed another controversial decision involving Metal Culture, a community arts group evicted from Chauffeurs Cottage after 13 years of peppercorn rent to make way for a care leavers’ facility.
In both cases, the council argued it had to become more hard-headed in its management of assets.
A changed political landscape
Since the original story broke, the political landscape at Peterborough City Council has shifted again.
Dennis Jones is no longer council leader, having been replaced in September by Cllr Shabina Qayyum.
And this week, PCRFM breakfast presenter Kev Lawrence left the station.
The council’s January 2026 update makes no reference to personalities or past decisions. Instead, it frames the move as part of a broader asset review designed to achieve best value.
But the symbolism is hard to miss.
After ten years of free occupation, preferential treatment and unanswered questions, the arrangement has finally run its course.
The honeymoon is over.
