Before we start again
A look back at a year of Local Authority, and what we’re trying to protect
As we reach the end of the year, we are breaking with the usual Local Authority format to pause and take stock of where this project is, what we have spent the past twelve months doing, and where it is heading next.
I hope you have managed to get a bit of breathing space over the festive period, even if that mostly involved realising how tired you actually were once everything finally stopped.
This has been a strange year on a personal level. When my dad died earlier in the year, many of you emailed, messaged, or replied with words of support. I did not say much at the time, partly because I wasn't sure how to, but I do want to acknowledge it here. Local Authority can sometimes feel like a fairly one-way conversation. That reminder that there are real people on the other end of this, thoughtful and kind ones, meant a great deal.
We will be back to our regular publishing rhythm shortly. Before that, I wanted to look back at the work we have done this year, share a little of what goes on behind the scenes, and explain, plainly, what keeps this project running.
As ever, if the mechanics of local journalism are not especially your thing, feel free to skip this edition. But from the start, we have tried to be open about how Local Authority works, what we prioritise, and the limits we are working within.
Much of our reporting this year has come back to a familiar question. What is actually happening here, and why is it so hard to get a straight answer?
We spent months trying to establish how £825,000 of public money was allocated across dozens of community projects. We revealed that some of Medway’s red route cameras were not catching anyone at all. We reported on plans to sell off significant parts of the council’s property estate, and on the abandonment of the £33m Innovation Park Medway scheme. We followed the issues at Medway Community Healthcare and sat through licensing hearings that demonstrated, in real time, how poorly parts of the system function.
Alongside that came a steady stream of political turbulence. Reform took its first seats on Medway Council. A councillor defected. Parties fractured internally. Flags appeared and disappeared. A UKIP protest in Rochester attracted barely double figures. Most of it was treated as routine.
One story travelled far beyond Medway. Our reporting on a Nigel Farage football shirt being offered as a school prize prompted national coverage and sparked a rapid U-turn by the school. It was the most read story we published this year. It was also one of the least enjoyable to work on, which is often how these things go.
Not everything we publish is about conflict. We have also spent time looking back at Medway’s lost pubs and skate parks, exploring how churches are quietly becoming cultural spaces, and digging through our ceremonial and mayoral history.
Our interviews ranged from council leaders and opposition councillors to artists, writers, filmmakers, Drag Race superstars, wrestlers, and community figures trying to keep fragile institutions alive. It is not a tidy body of work, and it is not meant to be. It reflects Medway as it actually is.
Alongside the reporting, we have continued trying to create space for local democracy to happen. This year, we held another Medway Question Time at MidKent College, bringing local politicians and figures face-to-face with residents. We also launched our Local Democracy Café events, smaller and more informal conversations about how things work locally, and what doesn't.
Local Authority remains a small operation. There is no office, no sales team, and no safety net. Most of the work happens in evenings, early mornings, and weekends, fitted around everything else.
Toward the end of the year, we moved from Substack to Ghost. It was the right decision, but it means the neat, comparable stats we used to share no longer tell a clear story. What we can say confidently is that thousands of people read Local Authority every week, our reporting is increasingly followed up elsewhere, and many of our strongest stories still begin with a reader getting in touch.
This work is also getting harder. Public bodies are slower to respond, more guarded when they do, and increasingly comfortable limiting access altogether.
That gap is the reason Local Authority exists. It is also why it is fragile.
If you have been reading Local Authority this year and found it useful, informative, or frustrating in the right way, the most direct way you can support the work is by becoming a paid subscriber.
Paid subscriptions make it possible to spend weeks on stories like the £825,000 community funding investigation, to stick with the flags saga long after others lost interest, and to publish pieces that do not come with press releases, neat quotes, or guaranteed outcomes.
Right now, we are offering 25% off an annual subscription, making your first year £45.
That support directly funds the reporting you have been reading all year and helps ensure we can keep doing it in 2026.
If paying is not an option, that is completely understood. Reading, sharing, and sending tips still helps more than you might realise.
This year also saw the launch of the Kent Current, our county-wide title. It was a slightly unhinged thing to take on alongside Local Authority, but it came from the same place. Frustration at how little transparent, independent reporting exists on decisions that affect people across Kent.
The Kent Current has not reduced our focus on Medway. If anything, it has reinforced why this work matters locally and how quickly important stories fall through the cracks when nobody is watching closely.
We were again nominated for Kent News Website of the Year at the Kent Press and Broadcast Awards. I was also nominated for Print and Online Journalist of the Year. Awards are not why we do this, but they are worth acknowledging as a signal that this work is being taken seriously beyond our own readership.
Looking ahead, the shape of Local Authority will not change dramatically. We are close to the practical limits of what we can publish while keeping standards where they need to be. What will change is the emphasis. Fewer filler stories. More time spent on pieces that take weeks or months to come together. Some light tweaks to the schedule.
There are already several stories in progress that have been a long time coming. We are looking forward to finally publishing them.
Before we sign off for the year, thank you.
Thank you to our paid supporters, who make this project viable. Thank you to the readers who reply to emails, challenge us, correct us, and trust us with information that is not always easy to share. Thank you to the people who agree to be interviewed or talk to us for stories.
Local Authority exists because enough people believe Medway deserves better than an information vacuum. That still feels slightly improbable, and we do not take it lightly.
We will be back soon. Until then, thank you for reading, and for sticking with us.
Ed
Editor, Local Authority
