Medway’s future is North Kent

Medway’s future is North Kent

There are now fewer than two years left of Medway Council.

On Thursday, the government confirmed it had chosen Option 4B for local government reorganisation in Kent, meaning Medway Council, Kent County Council and the county’s 12 district councils will all cease to exist on 1 April 2028. In their place will come four new unitary authorities. For Medway, that means joining with Dartford and Gravesham to create a new North Kent council serving around 530,000 people.

If you’re looking for a full breakdown of why ministers chose Option 4B, how it beat the competing proposals and what the new map means across Kent, we’ve examined all of that in detail over at the Kent Current. Here, we’re focusing on what the decision means for Medway itself.

In one sense, Thursday represented a partial victory for Medway Council. In another, it marked the beginning of the end for the authority that has governed the towns as a unitary council since 1998.

From the outset of the reorganisation process, Medway leader Vince Maple argued that if the government genuinely wanted new councils serving populations of around half a million people, Kent’s numbers pointed towards four authorities rather than three. “Two million divided by half a million is four,” he told Local Authority after the government’s announcement. On that point, ministers ultimately agreed. Where they diverged was over the geography. Medway’s preferred Option 4D would have redrawn several long-standing boundaries in an attempt to create what the council argued were more coherent communities. Instead, ministers opted for Option 4B, preserving the existing district boundaries while still creating four authorities. Maple said he remained disappointed by that decision, arguing his proposal would have resolved “some absolute anomalies that we’ve had in place for, in some cases, 50 years,” but he was equally clear that the argument over the map itself was now finished. “I think challenging this process would be a complete waste of taxpayers’ money,” he said, adding that he would urge any other authority considering a judicial review to think again.

That pragmatic approach appears to have won out across Medway politics. While the Conservatives maintain that their preferred option remained the three-authority model and have criticised Labour’s unsuccessful 4D proposal, they too have accepted the government’s decision and are now looking ahead to the creation of the new North Kent authority. Within hours of Thursday’s announcement, Maple had already contacted the leaders of Dartford and Gravesham to begin informal discussions about the council they will now have to build together. “We’ll be having a first informal catch-up between the three leaders in due course,” he said. Until now, much of the conversation among Kent’s council leaders has focused on competing business cases and rival maps. Almost overnight, it has become about how three existing councils can be merged into a single organisation.

For residents, very little changes immediately. Medway Council will continue delivering services until April 2028, and the bins, planning decisions and road repairs are unlikely to look any different for some time yet. Behind the scenes, however, the work has already begun. Shadow elections are due in May next year, giving the new authority around a year to prepare before formally taking over. Electoral arrangements still need to be confirmed, governance structures agreed, senior leadership appointed and thousands of staff, services, assets and systems brought together. Questions over council tax harmonisation, debt, office accommodation and the eventual shape of the new authority remain unanswered, with further detail expected through the government’s structural change order over the coming months.

For almost three decades, Medway has been unusual in Kent. While the rest of the county operated under a two-tier system of county and district councils, Medway stood apart as a unitary authority responsible for virtually every local service. That arrangement will soon come to an end, as every area switches to the unitary model. The biggest political argument in Kent local government for a generation is now settled, but the much harder task is only just beginning. Drawing lines on a map was the easy part. Over the next 20 months, Medway, Dartford and Gravesham have to turn those lines into a functioning council.

Broken microphones, fire station rows and the end of Medway dominate council meeting

There was perhaps some unfortunate symbolism to Medway Council’s first meeting after ministers confirmed the authority would cease to exist.

The meeting began late due to technical issues with the livestream. Once councillors finally got underway, the chamber’s microphone system began to fail too, forcing an adjournment while officers tried to determine whether proceedings could continue.

One person involved offered a blunt diagnosis to Local Authority: The technology was “proper fucked”.

Another councillor remarked privately that it seemed appropriate for Medway Council to be “falling apart” on the same day the government had confirmed the authority itself would disappear.

The livestream was eventually restored, but the microphones were not.

Instead, the meeting resumed with a single handheld microphone, carried at speed between councillors and members of the public by a council officer who spent much of the evening hurrying around the St George’s Centre.

The arrangement was not entirely seamless. At one point, the officer carrying the microphone forgot to take it to Cllr Simon Curry for his response to a public question, prompting another dash across the chamber.

It also created a more serious accessibility problem. Councillors with hearing difficulties were left without their usual support, with Cllr George Crozer appearing to follow the meeting on a tablet via headphones to keep up.

All of this came during what was already likely to be a long evening.

The Mayor agreed to double the time available for the Leader’s Report after the government’s local government reorganisation decision earlier that day, giving councillors more room to discuss the plan to abolish Medway Council in April 2028 and replace it with a new authority covering Medway, Dartford and Gravesham.

Before that, councillors dealt with a motion calling for the protection of fire stations at Cliffe, Hoo and Grain.

Cllr Elizabeth Turpin’s original motion warned against changes to fire cover on the Hoo Peninsula, with Cllr Ron Sands pointing to population growth and the role played by on-call firefighters during a recent fire at Hoo Marina.

An amendment from Cllr Chris Spalding, seconded by Cllr David Finch, argued that the motion did not go far enough. It was defeated 47 votes to 2, with only the proposer and seconder supporting it.

A second amendment from Cllr Teresa Murray took a more cautious approach, calling for further consideration of the proposals rather than outright opposition. It was seconded by Conservative leader Cllr George Perfect and passed by 48 votes to five, before the amended motion was adopted.

The government’s decision inevitably dominated the Leader’s Report.

Council leader Cllr Vince Maple said he was “pleased” ministers had chosen a four-council model for Kent, but “deeply disappointed” that the new boundaries would not correct what Medway has long regarded as mistakes made when the current authority was created.

He said he had already been in contact with the leaders of Dartford and Gravesham and told councillors the council’s focus would now turn to supporting staff through the transition.

The Conservatives were rather less restrained about the fate of Medway’s own proposal.

Cllr Perfect described the council’s preferred Option 4D as a “disaster” and said its development had been a “shameful way” to approach local government reorganisation.

Cllr Gary Hackwell said more than £100,000 of public money had been spent on a “vanity project”, while Cllr Habib Tejan called the rejected plan a “reckless, artificial experiment”.

“We don’t need more artificial boundaries,” he said, during a debate about replacing one set of council boundaries with another.

Cllr Robbie Lammas used his contribution to continue his public break with Reform UK, declaring that he had been “wrong to join Reform” and acknowledging that Cllr Perfect had warned him. He then listed Conservative achievements to laughter around the chamber before moving on to the work of a longstanding school crossing patrol officer.

Cllr Finch used much of his response to remember former Conservative minister Ann Widdecombe, while Cllr Spalding appeared to argue for retaining a Medway mayoralty even after Medway Council itself had been abolished.

Elsewhere, Labour formally introduced its proposal to scrap the points system used to determine who becomes Medway’s ceremonial mayor.

Cllr Mark Prenter said the council was living through “exceptional times,” while Cllr Dan McDonald described the proposal as a “sensible, pragmatic change”. The motion will return for debate at the next Full Council meeting in October.

By then, the microphones may even be working again.

In brief

🏥 Over 1,300 patients waited longer than 12 hours at Medway Hospital's A&E during May.

💉 Measles is on the rise in Kent and Medway, with 9 new cases this month.

⚓ Work to remove the masts from the SS Montgomery, a shipwreck in the Thames Estuary laden with 1,400 tonnes of explosives, will begin in September.

🏃‍➡️ TruGym at Chatham Dockside has closed, and a very expensive 'premium health club' is set to replace it.

📰 Medway's finest gig promoters, Colin Chapman and Robin Halls of Careful Now Promotions, managed to get themselves interviewed by a local paper while in Norway.

🚢 As we've been following for a few weeks, HMS Saxifrage (or HMS President) was tugged out of Chatham Docks this morning, on the way to be scrapped.

Council matters

By-elections:

• Voters go to the polls in Cuxton, Halling & Riverside on Thursday. The candidates are William Burvill (Reform), Iain Childs (Labour), Ron Gillett (Liberal Democrat), Trish Marchant (Green), and Richard Thorne (Conservative).

Meetings next week:

• Tuesday: Licensing Hearing Panel will decide on an optimistic licence application for a convenience store on New Road in Chatham.
• Tuesday: Kent and Medway Crime Panel will question the Police and Crime Commissioner.

New planning applications:

• Five-storey block of six flats in the Intra area of Chatham High Street.
• Conversion of a Betfred into a restaurant on Rainham Road in Gillingham.
• Conversion of takeaway into convenience store on Richmond Road in Gillingham.
• HMOs on Franklin Road, Ingram Road, and King Street in Gillingham.

Property of the week

This newly built two-bedroom detached house on Capstone Road is on the market for offers in excess of £325,000 and arrives as an almost entirely white void waiting for someone to make a decision. Beyond that, it is a practical little house with a bright open-plan kitchen and living space featuring a roof lantern and bi-fold doors, two double bedrooms, a utility room, a downstairs WC, allocated parking, and a garden designed to require almost no maintenance. It is chain-free, close to Capstone Farm Country Park, and unlikely to contain any alarming discoveries beneath the wallpaper, mainly because there does not appear to be any wallpaper.

Check out this 2 bedroom detached house for sale on Rightmove

2 bedroom detached house for sale in Capstone Road, Chatham, Kent. ME5 for £325,000. Marketed by Moxy Property Consultants, Rochester

Rightmove.co.uk

Events this week

🚂 18 - 19 Jul - Chatham & District Model Railway Show // One of the south east's largest model railway events. Chatham Historic Dockyard. Tickets £10.

🎉 Sun 19 Jul - Love Gillingham Big Day Out // Stalls, entertainment, and music. Gillingham High Street. Free.

🥕 Sun 19 Jul - Rochester Farmers' Market // Stalls selling fresh produce, drinks, gifts, and more. Blue Boar Lane car park, Rochester. Free.

🎞️ Thu 23 Jul - I Swear // Electric Medway film night, with the BAFTA-award-winning film on the life story of Tourette's Syndrome campaigner John Davidson. Sun Pier House, Chatham. Tickets £5

Footnotes

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