Departing mayor reflects on difficulties and achievements

A health scare, an apology, council tax rises and major changes to public transport.

The last four years have been a professional and personal challenge for the departing Mayor of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough, Nik Johnson.

He won the mayoralty for the Labour Party in 2021. However, the 55-year-old has decided not to seek re-election this year due to concerns about his health.

Johnson has been speaking to the BBC's Politics East programme about his time in office.

As I meet Johnson, he has a little black book that he flicks through to tell me about some of the things he's achieved in his four years as mayor.

Supporting charities, small businesses, safer cycling partnerships and the setting up of Innovate Cambridge are amongst the things he muses over.

He's also passionate about his involvement in Vision Zero, a campaign to end road collisions.

He wears a badge in memory of Mike Gough, a cyclist who died after a collision with a van last year.

Johnson, who is also a consultant paediatrician, described road deaths as "a public health challenge".

We take a walk to the nearby Guided Busway, where he tells me that signing the bus franchising agreement, which will see these services brought under the control of the combined authority and the taxpayer, is his "biggest achievement".

He also introduced the Tiger pass which allows children and young people under the age of 25 to travel for £1 per journey.

The combined authority also stepped in to run many rural routes which commercial operators stopped running as they weren't profitable.

To pay for it he introduced a mayoral precept on council tax, which is £36 per year for a band D property, a tax rise that wasn't popular with everyone.

"We've got a real sense of purpose with more people using buses around the whole of the area," he explained.

"That's meant people look at public transport in a different way"

It hasn't been an easy time for Johnson as he took on the role of mayor.

"I'm on record as apologising for things that have happened along the way," he tells me, as I ask about any regrets he has.

He was accused but later cleared of bullying, in relation to things that happened as he took control at the authority.

The government even issued a Best Value Notice - where ministers intervene - as they had concerns about the culture at the authority.

Although cleared of bullying, Johnson was found to have breached civility and disrepute rules and he apologised for this publicly.

"I regret having been the cause of upset and apologise unreservedly to those for whom I gave reason to complain," he said at the time.

Reflecting on that period he admitted "it was difficult" and he regrets "not getting the improvement team in quick enough".

However, he maintains that he inherited an organisation that was "on life support" and had "huge discrepancy in good governance" and "financial irregularity".

In November 2022, Johnson took a three-month break from the job as he underwent heart surgery.

It was discovered he had an underlying condition but he said "the stress of the job undoubtedly made me more unwell".

However, he said he was "determined to come back" and finish the job.

He did initially tell BBC Radio Cambridgeshire in November that he intended to stand for re-election, but he ultimately decided a second term would be "one step too far".

As the electorate of Cambridgeshire and Peterborough prepare to vote for his successor, I ask him if he has any personal advice.

He quotes a mantra he talked about when elected: "Compassion, co-operation and community, the three C's."

"Anybody coming in, no matter what their political party, if they continue along that narrative of compassion, they will find the co-operation and we all, as a community, will benefit."

BBC Politics East will be broadcast on Sunday 12 January at 10:00 GMT on BBC One in the East of England, and will be available after broadcast on BBC iPlayer.

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