Medway Council will stay as government withdraws reorganisation plans
Medway will now hold normal council elections next year after plans to replace it with a new North Kent authority were withdrawn
Plans to abolish Medway Council and replace it with a new North Kent authority are being withdrawn
The government had only confirmed in July that Medway would be merged with Gravesham and Dartford as part of a wider reorganisation of local government across Kent.
Local Authority understands that it will now not go ahead.
The most immediate consequence is that Medway will face normal council elections next May, rather than elections to a new North Kent authority.
Medway Council had been due to disappear on 1 April 2028, ending almost 30 years as a standalone unitary authority.
Instead, the existing council will remain in place.
The original plan would have seen Medway, Gravesham and Dartford combined into one new authority responsible for services across a much larger area of north Kent.
It was one of four new councils due to replace Kent County Council, Medway Council and all 12 district and borough councils across the county.
Shadow elections for those new authorities had been expected in May 2027, with the new councils then spending almost a year preparing to take over.
For Medway, that would have meant voters choosing representatives for an authority that did not yet formally exist, rather than electing a new Medway Council.
That is no longer happening, nor will any of the changes across Kent.
Instead, residents will vote next May in the usual Medway Council elections, with all seats expected to be contested for another full term.
The withdrawal is a remarkable reversal less than two months after ministers settled on the reorganisation plan following more than a year of uncertainty.
Medway had already been preparing for the transition, including work around how staff, services, assets and responsibilities would eventually be transferred into the new North Kent authority.
Questions will now follow over how much work and money has already gone into that process, and whether ministers intend to return with any alternative plans for local government reform.
But for Medway, the central point is much simpler.
The council residents were told would disappear in 2028 is now staying, and voters will elect it again next year.
We will update this story as more information becomes available.
