“I'll stand on my track record of decades of service”

What Steven asked Cllr Vince Maple, Leader of Medway Council at the halfway point of his Labour administration.

Steven sat down with Medway Council Leader Cllr Vince Maple for the fourth time, two years after he took control of Medway Council following the 2023 local elections. They discuss what powers Vince actually has to improve things in Medway, the future leadership of Labour in North Kent, whether we should improve Medway’s ties to Europe, and lots more.

Cllr Vince Maple

Being Leader of the Council, I imagine, has some stressful moments…
It does.
What do you currently do to unwind?
That's a great question and we're having this interview whilst I've got a bit of overall chesty infection at the moment, so not even having a good night's sleep is an option. I think, as Local Authority readers know, I'm passionate about the job, so trying to have any time off is difficult. Although with Ned now being at school age, school holidays are really precious. We've just had the Easter break, and I had a couple of days where I actually turned the laptop off. We went and had a lovely time in Liverpool. We enjoyed the cathedral, not as cool as Rochester Cathedral, I'm obliged to say, and a few other bits and pieces there. So yeah, we try and have that family time, but it is difficult because absolutely, I want to be an active council leader, and I appreciate that people want to have the opportunity to have their conversation with me, invite me to their events, and I'll always try and facilitate that. That's their diary, not mine. I always try and work with community groups and others as much as I can to facilitate that, but I always remember that the two most important people in Medway live in my house.

You worked for a long time to become leader of Medway. Any regrets?
I regret Michael Gove taking 170 million quid off me on the first working day. Has everything been perfect in the last two years? No, but I'd said that beforehand. I said that at the hustings just over two years ago now. I'm a human being. We are fallible. We make mistakes. Has everything gone exactly as I'd want it to? No, but on the whole, blimey, we're making some good progress on really challenging areas, not least the finances. We're getting through our FIT Plan (Financial Improvement and Transformation Plan), which will be the plan to get us back to financial sustainability. Those are important things. That means difficult decisions. Sometimes, communicating those difficult decisions can get lost in the mix, and I think we saw that perhaps with the Christmas lights example. Even then we had a good outcome: Both the community stepping up, but also some businesses as well, supporting our administration. I'm pleased two years in, but you know people are human, people make mistakes.

Following the Rochester East and Warren Wood by-election, the Labour group lost its majority on the council. It now has a majority on the council. What happened? What are you allowed to say?
As I've said to Local Authority and every other journalist that's asked me about this, by the very nature of any internal process in the Labour Party, it is a rule-breaking offence to talk about an internal process in the Labour Party. I'm pleased it's concluded. I welcome our two colleagues back to the Labour and Co-operative Group. The process took too long. I've said that elsewhere, and I'd say that again. Which was unfair on both of those individuals and the Labour Group and the council as a whole. I'm pleased that we've concluded that.

The Local Plan caused irreparable rifts in the previous administration. How are things with the current administration and the Local Plan?
It's an absolute political priority. We've been very clear on that. We are determined but not predetermined to deliver a Local Plan. You cannot have a situation with a community like Medway where the last Local Plan was created 22 years ago. That leads to piecemeal development and leads to planning by appeal. That's not in anyone's interest. My concern is that some of the people who it feels as if they're trying to disrupt this process are some of the people who argue most vociferously against house building. We are determined. We've worked hard on this as an administration since we got into control. I pay particular tribute to my friend and colleague, Simon Curry. His determination on this is without challenge. He has been working hard on this, and our amazing council officers who have worked tirelessly on this, as is well documented, we've got a special council meeting coming up early in the new municipal year and I look forward to the debate.

You once said the nature of the Local Plan is that “no one will be happy about some aspect of it.” In that world of upsetting voters and what we call ‘political capital,’ with local government reorganisation coming, is there a need to finish a Local Plan?
I think it's our duty to get a Local Plan in place. I think it's essential because otherwise, we will continue to have planning by appeal.
Would a new North Kent unitary authority have to adhere to it, or would they start all over again?
That's a good question that I don't have the answer to, not least because we don't know the nature of what we have and what those new councils will look like. If you've got a Local Plan that’s in place for 15 years, that will be brought to the table along with any other Local Plan from constituent parts or complete councils that may make up that new authority. There will be a huge piece of work. Local government reorganisation will take a lot of energy, a lot of time, although we won't have a lot of time, to make sure that we go through all of those processes. The quasi-judicial matters of planning and licensing will be one element where we'll need to see where we are with policies. We’re likely to have a shadow year where we will be doing that work. But it's absolutely in our best interest to have a Medway Local Plan. People will continue to do the work, and we will be pressing ahead with our special meeting later in the year.

In two years, what good things have you achieved in that time which aren't a continuation or a completion of a Conservative project?
Lots, and we'll talk about some of those. I think one of the things that we have not concluded because we're on a journey is financial sustainability. The previous administration's last budget was built on reserves. Then they used further reserves during the year without taking any external advice and guidance as to do next. That is not sustainable. I think we took the right decision to bring in CIPFA (The Chartered Institute of Public Finance and Accountancy). I think they have given us two very honest, open reports. We've published them. We didn't have to, we chose to. We think that's the right thing to do.
We've made the council more transparent. Whether it's One Minute Medway, whether it's Medway Matters Live, whether it's the new questions that will be coming to Cabinet, the accessibility of this council and its leadership, along with Our Medway Live, which is an internal staff version of Medway Matters Live. In all cases, myself, the Cabinet, Richard Hicks as Chief Executive, are far more accessible and available. Which is important because democracy is not rocking up every four years to put a cross in a box. That's important. I'd always encourage people to vote. But it's a process.
By the nature of big capital programmes and projects, of course, some things started before May 2023. I said it in the council chamber numerous times, and I'll say it again here. I'm never going to be churlish enough to ignore that the world existed before that date. I think the prime example of that actually was the Ofsted. People ask me, ‘What are the three proudest moments I've got as a council leader?’ One of those three is undoubtedly hearing that Ofsted outcome. But I'm the first to say we did some important work on that in opposition, and we did some important work in our very early days, but I pay tribute to everyone from Josie Iles to Clive Johnson, all of whom played their part in getting to that particular place. I take a small amount of credit, and I pay credit, particularly to Clive. We had an important conversation right at the start of that process, saying we're not going to do politics here. This is too important. We will be supportive and collaborative with the administration, and that's meant all over scrutiny, corporate parenting is all in a much better place as a result of that. Big capital projects don't happen overnight, they take time, but we're getting on, and we'll see more of that as we roll out over the next few weeks, months and years.

Since our first interview in 2023, the Conservative Group is now on their third leader. Will you be leading the Labour group into local government reorganisation?
Subject to getting rid of this chesty cough, yes, I hope so. We have our group AGM. Although the council leader is elected for a four-year period that happens at the first council meeting after any elections, the Labour Party rule book says the leader of the group has to be re-elected every year. I've put myself forward for re-election every year since I was elected. I have been elected unopposed every year.¹ It's great to have that support from my colleagues. I'm particularly proud of the working relationship I have with my friend and deputy leader. That relationship, in some quarters, can be really challenging. Teresa is, first and foremost, a friend. The work that we do is collectively to support each other. Leadership can be lonely sometimes. The fact that we've got more than a decade of working together is a positive thing, not just for the Labour group, but for Medway Council and Medway as a whole. It is absolutely my intention. As I've said elsewhere, I think it is likely that I will be the last leader of Medway Council, which again is a sentence I don't take any pleasure in saying, but I think that's likely.

Is the fact you've stood unopposed not some indictment on the lack of future leaders? Three key individuals within the group have now gone on to be MPs. What is the future leadership post-Maple?