One of three husband and wife duos in the council alongside the Allens and Foxes, Alison completed a clean sweep for Labour in Central ward by almost 800 votes, a victory built on several years of campaign work with group.

That activism work, plus the experience of an ultimately unsuccessful bid for a seat in Dogsthorpe in 2021, meant that she was an ideal candidate when the 2022 election came about - becoming first female councillor in Central ward since the mid-90s.

Meanwhile Dennis retained his seat in Dogsthorpe, a seat he had won in 2018 when he became the first Labour and Co-operative councillor in the ward for nearly four decades.

The duo, and the Labour party as a whole, are keen to continue to attract a diverse range of candidates into seats, and Alison said that on at least one occasion during campaigning someone raised an issue with her that she might not have done with a male candidate.

Alison is born and bred in Peterborough - she can see the house she grew up in from her back garden - with a background in HR which has given her listening skills that were crucial in campaigning.

From there she worked in charity, volunteering for the Samaritans for many years; As part of her outreach work she attended many fundraising conferences, which was how the couple met, as Dennis was a Samaritan in East London.

"I always found it a privilege to listen to people. It takes a lot to pick up that phone and call a complete stranger. Again, you can't solve everyone's problems, but you're there for them."

Speaking about her thoughts before the election, Alison said of her ward: "It's very much a Labour seat but you never know. It's a diverse ward, from Eastgate through the city centre, parts of Park Road, and up to Thorpe Lea Road.

"We (Amjad Iqbal and Mohammed Jamil) sat down and put together a plan, and it was lovely - I got such a warm welcome. You never know what reaction you'll get when you go canvassing.

"It was great to hear people and their stories, and speak to people in different areas. The issues that they had, certainly down Cromwell Road and Gladstone Street, is parking. Obviously there's a lot of rented property there, and that can lead to flytipping.

"Then you move out to some fo the different areas and you probably haven't got the same flytipping and anti-social behaviour issues in the centre.

"But then some of the other roads such as near Westfield Road where there are issues such as potholes.

"I've got quite a diverse caseload already. I know that we as a council can't wave a magic wand and solve everybody's problems, but I see my role as being a link between residents and the council and setting expectations."

PM spoke to the Joneses a few days before Alison was due to meet up with her fellow ward councillors, where they were due to plan how to thank those who had voted for her, and send out a Labour newsletter.

The ward covers everything from Peterborough City Market, the Embankment and the University -now three months from opening.

On the potential football stadium, Dennis said: "People say 'Why is the Labour group against the football club?' It's not. What we want to do is evaluate the options. We've seen the city plan and it looks good, but let's not rush in where angels fear to tread.

"Let's be consultative, using experienced councillors, rather than making hard and fast decisions.

"We have to be sensitive; once it's gone it's gone. Most great cities have river frontages and we have to say that if we 'pave paradise and put up a parking lot', it's not going to come back.

"Let's be honest and say that if I was in Darragh's shoes, I would want the real estate - he's a businessman. So there is always a dichotomy there between what somebody wants, which we get, and the greater good. I would like to think councillors and the Labour group as a whole is aiming for that.

"So there will be a lot of consultation and Ally's (Alison) great strength is having that style, rather than any diktat or being led by a single interest group."

Our interview took place shortly after the confirmation that the council would remain under a Conservative administration, putting an end to the chance of a coalition of the other parties.

Last month's election therefore changed little in the city, and Dennis said of the maintenance of the the status quo; "I never thought it was going to change. There's only so much we can do and Peterborough has a preponderance of Labour councillors. But North-West Cambridgeshire has the majority of Conservative councillors, and we would like to get more representation there.

"So until we build activism and engage more nothing was ever likely to change.

"Are we disappointed - of course. But we voted at full council that the opposition groups would take all the regulatory and scrutiny committee chairs, so that is a strong step in the right direction.

"We're now working together more. The so-called 'coalition of chaos' isn't coming to pass, and even Wayne (Fitzgerald) sees the benefit of working together.

"Maybe this can be a catalyst. We're going to start next year with a £5m hole and we've got to plug it somehow - and none of us are in the business of running away."

"We must be Joe Voter's conduit into the town hall, and it's something that Alison will be intuitively good at. Nobody knows who to talk to - you ring 747474 and wonder where it's going and who you're talking to - so we need to become one-stop shops as councillors. We don't have the answers but we know those who do.

"90% of what we do as councillors is managing people's expectations - they deserve to be listened to."

One of Dennis' main frustrations about the city is a perceived lack of confidence, which we discussed after

He believes that if Peterborough wishes to join Coventry Hull and soon Bradford as a City of culture - then we need to think bigger.

"We are a city - one of the fastest growing places in the country - but we're still administered like a market town, and have a market town mentality, and we have to get away from that. We're a market town in size with inner-city problems.

"The Conservatives say they're looking at a bid for the City of Culture; that was in our manifesto two years ago, so we've lost two years. Coventry didn't just decide to bid for it the next day.

"Peterborough doesn't punch its weight. As an example, we are one of the first cities to have Gigafast broadband - fair play to Marco Cereste to bring it in - but what have we done with it?

"Where's Cisco and Microsoft? The other ones who get it are singing it from the rooftops. Does anyone know who all the providers are in the city? There's several but most people only know Vodafone.

"Where do we create that generative economy to bring in investment that then circulates here? Where we were at the forefront we now seem to be slipping back.

"We're on the Stansted corridor, less than an hour from London, 50 minutes from Cambridge by road - but not punching our weight.

"I'm a Co-op party member, the chair of the Anglia Co-operative Party. We had (Combined Authority mayor) Dr Nik Johnson at our AGM and I told him that we talk about active travel, but you can't get a train to Stansted after 8pm or before about 6am - how do you get people out of their cars?"

"We need to start thinking big. When we produced the city plan in 2019 running up to 2035, go through it and see if you can find anything about light rapid transport. We talk about electric buses - is that the limit of our imagination?"

The interview also obviously took place before last night's vote of confidence in Boris Johnson, which he came through. However many also point a finger at the man on the other side of the Commons, and question why Labour has not built up a bigger lead in opinion polls.

Dennis said: "I'm a Corbynista, tribal Labour, from Manchester. Will Keir Starmer make us more electable? Rhetorical question.

"I'm a trade unionist - we all are if we're Labour councillors. I voted for Blair, Kinnock, Foot, as a tribal Labour man, but the media were never going to cut Corbyn any slack.

"So I wish Starmer well as the new kid on the block, and we have as a party in the city get fully behind him. Whether we're more electable - the jury is out."

Dennis will be part of the team choosing a rival to MP Paul Bristow in time for the 2024 General Election, and it may not be someone from within the city, despite several obvious candidates.

"We are now a marginal constituency so we will be electing a parliamentary candidate in the next two months, and we have had people from across the country expressing an interest for Labour.

"What I would like to see in that candidate, and I haven't seen it in our MP, is someone with gravitas and of stature. Our MP seems thin-skinned and never wastes an opportunity for a photo - I get that we're in modern times and he's a product of that - but I need not just presence and pop-ups, but stature.

"I want to see that in the parliamentary candidate for my party - someone who can go toe-to-toe and show Paul Bristow how it should be done."