I am not defending the comments made by Lauren Edwards, but I do think everyone would benefit from reflecting upon whether they have ever said or posted anything which could be considered inappropriate (and with the benefit of hindsight) most certainly is. Some have called for her to be disciplined - but can you discipline someone for historic posts which have been in the public domain for over a decade and before they were elected to office and for which they have already apologised? The scrutiny now should lie in the failings for how and why these comments were not identified ahead of any selection process at both local or national level.
The developer's picture of "Ironmonger Yard" appears to show Commercial Road and Star Hill as pedestrianised open space, which is an interesting presumption on what will happen to the main, busy, 4 lane highway that connects Chatham, Rochester and Strood! Surely the developer is not rushing to get the application approved before the Local Plan is in place? Perish the thought!
Why are you making such a fuss about what Ms Edwards said over 10 years ago. This is as bad as governments apologising and paying compensation for something that happened years and years ago. It happened. People change (Hopefully). Suck it up, and get on with your life. If it hadn't been mentioned in the "Local Media" I wouldn't have been any the wiser, like a lot of people in Medway.
Hi Barry - thanks for the comment. We've covered the story a grand total of twice, the first just setting out the situation after it had been reported by a number of national outlets. This story, the second edition, is less about the content of the material and more about the strange silence from the Labour Party about it, particularly when compared to their response on Cllr Shokar. I understand not everyone will agree with the volume we publish on certain stories, but so far, we have done little different on the Edwards' story than we have in the past on similar stories involving politicians from other parties.
In my humble opinion, regarding Lauren Edwards, it's not about "when" she said what she did. Before or after being elected to office, decades ago etc, it's simply about the fact she said it at all. It just shows an ugly side to her character, and do people want to elect someone who thinks such things in the first place, and how does it reflect on the party as a whole. It's not a good look. It's also about the party being consistent in it's actions. The comments from Satinder Shokar were dealt with, Lauren Edwards were not.
On the new Paddock, it seems a little unimaginative that when the council for the Medway Towns gets some contribution from developers to improve the public realm, they only seem to consider redoing existing public space, rather than other aspects of the public realm. I responded to a consultation on Town Hall gardens, where they ruled out of consideration maintaining the shared pedestrian/cycle path between the development and the existing gardens - the path having turned very corduroy in parts and somewhat dangerous on bikes (allowed) and scooters.
I am not defending the comments made by Lauren Edwards, but I do think everyone would benefit from reflecting upon whether they have ever said or posted anything which could be considered inappropriate (and with the benefit of hindsight) most certainly is. Some have called for her to be disciplined - but can you discipline someone for historic posts which have been in the public domain for over a decade and before they were elected to office and for which they have already apologised? The scrutiny now should lie in the failings for how and why these comments were not identified ahead of any selection process at both local or national level.
The developer's picture of "Ironmonger Yard" appears to show Commercial Road and Star Hill as pedestrianised open space, which is an interesting presumption on what will happen to the main, busy, 4 lane highway that connects Chatham, Rochester and Strood! Surely the developer is not rushing to get the application approved before the Local Plan is in place? Perish the thought!
Why are you making such a fuss about what Ms Edwards said over 10 years ago. This is as bad as governments apologising and paying compensation for something that happened years and years ago. It happened. People change (Hopefully). Suck it up, and get on with your life. If it hadn't been mentioned in the "Local Media" I wouldn't have been any the wiser, like a lot of people in Medway.
Hi Barry - thanks for the comment. We've covered the story a grand total of twice, the first just setting out the situation after it had been reported by a number of national outlets. This story, the second edition, is less about the content of the material and more about the strange silence from the Labour Party about it, particularly when compared to their response on Cllr Shokar. I understand not everyone will agree with the volume we publish on certain stories, but so far, we have done little different on the Edwards' story than we have in the past on similar stories involving politicians from other parties.
In my humble opinion, regarding Lauren Edwards, it's not about "when" she said what she did. Before or after being elected to office, decades ago etc, it's simply about the fact she said it at all. It just shows an ugly side to her character, and do people want to elect someone who thinks such things in the first place, and how does it reflect on the party as a whole. It's not a good look. It's also about the party being consistent in it's actions. The comments from Satinder Shokar were dealt with, Lauren Edwards were not.
On the new Paddock, it seems a little unimaginative that when the council for the Medway Towns gets some contribution from developers to improve the public realm, they only seem to consider redoing existing public space, rather than other aspects of the public realm. I responded to a consultation on Town Hall gardens, where they ruled out of consideration maintaining the shared pedestrian/cycle path between the development and the existing gardens - the path having turned very corduroy in parts and somewhat dangerous on bikes (allowed) and scooters.
I cant help but think the Paddock would have been improved further if only there were some kind of water feature nearby too.