An overly annotated abridged potted internet history of the Medway Unitary Authority

Our first - somewhat bewildering - Local Authority Monday long read. Hope you like footnotes!

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When Ed and I discussed my writing long-form pieces for Local Authority I knew that I would be rusty, and was unsure there would be any interest. So we decided that the earliest pieces would be updates of old Political Medway articles. So showing you something you have potentially read before, whilst also updating them as well, so it’s not something you’ve read before. From next month, as well as the one-on-one interviews, Mondays will bring retrospective essays about Medway and other interesting explorations. But for now, a somewhat bewildering history of how Medway Council actually came to be..

Note: An earlier version of this piece was posted on The Political Medway. This version is revised and includes additional analysis.

The river Medway, the Medway Towns, the Medway Unitary Authority¹. This piece will endeavour to understand where we are geopolitically². By we, I mean I at least, not wanting to assume where you are living dear reader. Though the idea you would be reading this and not based in Medway is only slightly more extraordinary than the idea that you are living in Medway and reading this. This piece will provide a top-level look at what acts of parliament led to the creation of Medway as a place for local politics. Though even at the top level, it’s probably deeper than most will have looked into the turn of historical events. The piece is filled with a lot of footnotes because that entertained me when I first wrote this almost ten years ago, and still entertained me when I developed and updated it for you today.

Prior to the creation of the Medway Unitary Authority, The Medway Towns were represented by two councils: The Borough of Gillingham and the City of Rochester-Upon Medway. That all changed with parliamentary legislation in 1996: