Is a Kent and Medway mayor on the way?
We talk to Medway Council Leader Vince Maple about the future of Medway
New governments often want to change the way things work. Medway Council was formed at the start of the previous Labour administration in 1998. Now, we are looking at another potential upheaval in how local government functions across Medway and wider Kent.
We expect a white paper from the government that sets out the future of local government organisation. While no one can preempt its contents, it seems likely that much larger unitary authorities will be created across Kent. Kent will likely be split into three or four unitary authorities, and Medway seems destined to merge with some of its neighbours. It’s unclear at this stage exactly who, but Gravesham and Swale seem like fairly good bets, at least.
On top of this is the issue of devolution. While the local government reorganisation above will happen in some form, devolution is more fluid. Large regions are being offered further powers over wider regional matters, with the caveat of an elected mayor to oversee them. This would likely take the form of a mayor and Combined Authority model like Manchester or the West Midlands, where voters would directly elect a mayor, but the authority itself would be made up of members from the lower-tier authorities underneath it.
We know, it’s confusing.
Last year, rumours started to swirl that devolution was on the agenda for Kent. At the time, writing exclusively for us, Medway Council Leader Vince Maple made it clear that he wasn’t a fan of the idea of an elected mayor:
Be in no doubt I am an advocate for devolution, but the mayoral model is not the right one for Kent and Medway. On the thousands and thousands of doors knocked on in the May election, not one resident said they wanted another elected representative at this time.
More recently, Cllr Maple and his counterpart at Kent County Council, Cllr Roger Gough, have written to the government to express interest in additional powers being delivered to Kent, elected mayor and all.
Given the opportunity to speak to Cllr Maple this week, we asked him exactly what had led to the change of heart:
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