Five weeks of this to go

All the news from the first week of the General Election campaign, some big planning applications in our towns, news in brief, and more

The General Election was called less than a week ago, but it already feels like the campaign has been going on forever. Inevitably, we have all of the details of what the parties have been up to in Medway during the first week. Further down, we have news on a number of big planning applications in our towns, as well as our usual news in brief section.

Editor’s note: This edition, as we suspect the Tuesday ones might be over the next few weeks, is pretty politics-heavy. We’re going to try and keep the Wednesday and Friday editions away from being full on politics to keep things a bit more balanced, but let’s see how that goes. We’re aware not everyone is super into the political side of things, but it’s kind of hard to avoid at the moment. As ever, we thank you for reading, and we doubly thank you if you’re one of our incredibly generous paid supporters.

Thanks to Emma McCarthy for upgrading her subscription this week and leaving this lovely feedback. There’s so much going on at Local Authority Towers at the moment as we try to cover the election and attempt to organise debates in each constituency while staying on top of the other big stories in Medway. It’s a lot of work, but without descending into cliche, responses like the above from our readers make it all worthwhile. If you value these dispatches, please consider becoming a paid supporter as gradually lose our minds over the next few weeks.

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Five weeks of this to go

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak called a General Election just six days ago, and despite the fact that there’s been a bank holiday weekend, it already feels like the campaign has been going on for six years. There is plenty one could say about the national state of play, but thankfully, we’re a local news outlet for local people, so what have the parties managed to do in Medway so far?

The Conservatives are the only major party still missing a candidate in Medway. Despite Chatham and Aylesford MP Tracey Crouch announcing her intent to stand down back in February, the party has taken a remarkably relaxed approach to selecting her successor. So it is that we are now ten days away from the deadline for nomination papers, and the party has only managed to whittle things down to a shortlist of five. Or maybe seven. It’s not wholly clear.

On Friday night, journalist Michael Crick, who has been excellent at tracking the selections of all parties, tweeted that the party had a shortlist of seven for the seat. So, who are the illustrious local names in line for the job?

Well.

Putting together a veritable ‘who? no, really, who?’ list of names, here is what the party have come up with:

• Stephen Bates (Former Deputy Chair Political for Kent Conservatives, has a ‘my local activity’ map on his website that doesn’t make it any further north than Maidstone)

• Becky Bruneau (Kent County Councillor for Tunbridge Wells South who tried to get elected in Maidstone earlier this month and did very badly)

• Rachel Carnac (Leader of Conservative Group on Canterbury City Council, taking over the role after they dropped from first to third place last year)

• Emily Clifton (Former George Osborne staffer)

• Nathan Gamester (Apparently a real name, Managing Director at Centre for Social Justice, lives in South London)

• Karen Harriers (At a certain point, we have to accept some of these names might be made up)

• Scott Pattenden (has a website that Google warns might be trying to steal your credit card information)

Shortly after posting the list, Michael Crick updated that Emily Sheffield had apparently dropped out, as perhaps had one other. So everything is going very well.

Edit literally seconds before we published this edition: A rapidly deleted tweet from George Perfect, the Leader of the Medway Conservative Group, stated that Nathan Gamester has been selected for the role.

Meanwhile, the two MPs who decided to fight the election got their campaigns underway. Rochester and Strood MP Kelly Tolhurst immediately started calling for a new hospital in Medway, specifically on the Hoo Peninsula, where building is always incredibly popular. Location wise, she managed to campaign in both Rochester Riverside and St. Mary’s Island, places that must be looking a tad shaky for the Conservatives at the moment.

Over in Gillingham and Rainham, sitting MP Rehman Chishti has been hitting the campaign trail with the regularity of a man who might be worrying about what he’ll be doing six weeks from now. Daytimes? Absolutely. Evenings? Nailed it. Outside Rainham station at 6am with a child begging people for photos? You know it.

Conservatives campaigning in Gillingham and Rainham

Elsewhere, his social media output suggests he is doing just fine and isn’t stressed at all. After Labour launched their campaign at Priestfield Stadium last week, Chishti pulled out old pictures of George Osborne visiting the same place in 2011. After he got mocked for this video of his efforts to play football, he defensively posted another one where he actually scored. He went on to post in support of national service, using his own example as a reservist, while neglecting to mention he put two and a half hours into the role.

Most remarkably, though, was Chishti’s tweeting of an ‘endorsement’ from former Gillingham FC captain John Egan, which couldn’t have been more ringing:

While I am not a supporter of any particular party in the UK, Rehman was a great neighbour whom I got to know in the two years I lived in Gillingham. Rehman is a great guy and works very hard for his community.’

So Chishti’s key endorsement is from someone who explicitly says he doesn’t support any political party and left Medway in 2016. Cool.

Meanwhile, over in the Labour camp, things seem relatively boring as they plug away with knocking on doors and delivering leaflets. Gillingham and Rainham candidate Naushabah Khan had big teams out in the constituency over the weekend while also visiting boats and doing the obligatory stuff like shouting out the Rainham Poetry Festival.

Labour campaigning in Rochester and Strood

Over in Rochester and Strood, candidate Lauren Edwards was also out on the campaign trail while also making videos about Chatham High Street, even if she declined to highlight the ridiculousness that it’s in the Rochester and Strood constituency. She also managed to find Al, a Conservative voter who is switching to her for this election, and by happy coincidence, managed to get him to star in a slick campaigning video. Lucky find there.

Newly minted Chatham and Aylesford candidate Tris Osborne managed to release a less slick video of his priorities before hitting the campaign trail for Naushabah Khan over in Gillingham. It's an odd move given how potentially winnable Chatham and Aylesford could be if Labour put the effort in, but it seems their ruthlessly targetted campaign isn’t allowing for that.

Further down the electoral pecking order, the Lib Dems were apparently out campaigning in Horsted over the weekend, but without the obligatory photo, who really knows?

The Greens seem mostly worried about money. After announcing their three candidates, they have started crowdfunders for each candidate, asking for £500 to get them on the ballot in each constituency. So far, they have raised £380 in Chatham and Aylesford, £120 in Rochester and Strood, and a whopping £35 in Gillingham and Rainham.

Aside from being interviewed by an award-winning local news outlet, Reform candidates have been getting some posters up in Rochester and Strood.

There has been little sign so far of campaigning from the SDP or Workers Party candidates, but that’s probably not particularly surprising.

Had any political parties at your door or dropping leaflets off? Email hello@localauthority.news and let us know what’s happening in your area!

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Big plans

It’s been a big week for planning-related matters in Medway. A couple of interesting new applications have been submitted, with some big decisions due in the coming week.

Last Spring, the former commuters car park in Wigmore was occupied by travellers. When the Labour administration took over, they granted the travellers a three-month window to use the site, but they have remained there ever since. Despite legal efforts to try and remove them from the site, they still remain, and now, remarkably, there is a planning application to retrospectively re-designate the site as a permanent one for travellers. It is unclear who submitted it, but it doesn’t appear to be Medway Council, who owns the site, so it appears to be part of a stalling tactic to allow the travellers to remain on site. Unsurprisingly, the issue has already triggered several letters of objection from local residents.

Plans have also been submitted to demolish the former St John Fisher School in Chatham and replace it with 139 new homes, in a mix of houses and flats, as well as associated open space and parking. We originally wrote about these proposals when the developer consulted on them back in March, and little seems to have changed here. It’s hard to imagine this application not being approved, given it offers desperately needed new homes on a brownfield site.

This Thursday, the application for Basin3 at Chatham Docks returns to the planning committee following legal challenges. While a call-in from Michael Gove now seems less likely given the imminent election and is likely to be approved at this stage, the scheme is still likely to face hurdles as campaigners fight to stop any part of Chatham Docks being redeveloped in any way.

A mere six days later, the planning committee will meet again (you spoil us), and planning officers will recommend multiple applications for approval, including:

• Medway’s first drive-thru Costa (and a car warehouse for some reason) on Medway City Estate next to McDonald’s, despite being refused last year.

• 25 new homes in Cliffe Woods, with a requirement that 6 of them be sold at Discounted Market Rate forever.

• The permanent shelter at City Wall Wine Bar on Rochester High Street, something that has somehow been contentious for many years.

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In brief

🚌 Residents in Cliffe and Cliffe Woods are campaigning for a more reliable and regular bus service. With the villages growing, they argue that the hourly service isn’t sufficient and buses often don’t turn up when they are supposed to.

🚧 The M2 will be closed westbound between Junction 3 for Blue Bell Hill and Junction 2 for Strood all weekend. The closure will allow repairs to the carriageway on the Medway Viaduct to be carried out. Best of luck to anyone driving through Rochester and Strood during this period.

🪧 Security staff at Chatham JobCentre went on strike today. The walkout took part as part of a wider national dispute over pay and conditions.

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More Authority

Over the weekend, we published an interview with all three Reform candidates standing across the Medway constituencies: Daniel Dabin in Rochester and Strood, Thomas Mallon in Chatham and Aylesford, and Rizvi Rawoof in Gillingham and Rainham. It’s an enlightening read from three candidates you likely haven’t heard much from just yet.

We’ll be running more of these in the run-up to the General Election so you can hear from as many candidates standing. In the coming weeks, we’ll be doing similar sit-downs with the Liberal Democrat and Green candidates.

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Footnotes

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Music that soundtracked the creation of this edition: Best Buds by Mom Jeans, Yes I Jan by Bas Jan, We’re Gonna Walk Around This City With Our Headphones On To Block Out The Noise by Nosferatu D2, and Too Much to Ask by Cheekface.