Medway budget meeting offers glimpse of the future
Plus Cllr Gulvin's questionable 'jokes', UCA sends materials to landfill, and decision looms for Medway's journalism school
After more than a year of Medway Council edging ever closer to the bankruptcy abyss, the authority was able to pass a budget last week following government intervention. Good news certainly, but what are the consequences for residents? During that budget meeting, Conservative leader Adrian Gulvin made some ‘jokes’ that have raised some eyebrows. More on those further down, along with news of tons of material from UCA’s abandoned campus being sent to landfill, and a looming decision on the future of Medway’s journalism school.
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Medway budget meeting offers glimpse of the future
Following a cliffhanger finale to the first season of Medway Labour’s administration of Medway Council, the authority has been able to pass a balanced budget that should avoid the threat of bankruptcy through the coming year.
Official word came that the government had granted Medway exceptional financial powers on the morning of the budget. These powers effectively allow Medway to borrow money to cover the day-to-day spending of the council. This is usually forbidden by law, but as money has largely run out otherwise, this was the only way to survive.
As a result, the budget that had been proposed earlier in the month passed with no last minute changes, a theme that was all too common within the previous administration.
The passed budget does mean that Medway residents will end up paying more for less, which given the state of local government finances is becoming standard up and down the country.
Key points of the agreed budget:
Council tax is set to rise by 4.994%, which raises the average bill for a band D property to just over £1,750 per year.
Free swimming for under 16s and over 60s will be scrapped, replaced with a new concessionary scheme for most.
Memberships and usage fees at council-run sports facilities will increase.
Rochester Visitor’s Centre will close.
Summer Dicken’s Festival and the English Festival are scrapped.
Parking charges will increase, by up to 86% in some circumstances.
Parking charges will be introduced at Riverside Country Park and Capstone Country Park.
Visitors will have to pay to enter the Guildhall Museum.
The budget, which council leader Vince Maple described as the "most challenging budget in the history of Medway Council", also included £22m in spending to repair and refurbish Gun Wharf, the council headquarters which recently had dangerous concrete found in its roof. Despite the challenges, Cllr Maple said the budget offers "the headroom to bring forward schemes which will improve services alongside saving taxpayers funding."
Leader of the opposition Cllr Adrian Gulvin began his speech by highlighting that the entire budget is predicated on "being bailed out by the Conservative government". He said he did not believe it was right that the council should be able to borrow to cover day-to-day costs, adding that while he does believe Medway has a strong case to go to the government for additional support, he didn't believe this budget is as efficient as it could be as spending is increasing by 12.9% from last year. He also made some rather questionable ‘jokes’, but more on those further down.
Despite this, the Conservative group did not offer any serious alternative to the budget, instead offering an amendment that centred around restoring free swimming for under 16s and over 60s, something that is likely to prove one of the more unpopular decisions of the budget. The Conservatives didn’t have the numbers to make this stick though, meaning the debate quickly returned to the main budget.
In the end, the vote broadly ended along party lines, with every Labour councillor supporting the budget and every Conservative opposing it. A more mixed bag was found on the independent benches, with the Independent Group holding a free vote on the issue, meaning leader Cllr George Crozer voted in favour while deputy leader Cllr Michael Pearce voted against. Recently departed Conservative deputy leader turned independent Cllr Elizabeth Turpin opposed the budget, while independent Cllr Chris Spalding was barred from voting over unpaid council tax.
Still, for better or worse, Medway Council has managed to pass a balanced budget for the year ahead. After a few months to breathe, by the summer attention will start turning toward whether or not they can do so again next year…
Cllr Gulvin’s questionable ‘jokes’
With a new administration and a new opposition in the past year, there was hope that Medway Council might see a higher calibre of debate than we’ve seen in previous years, but alas, this budget meeting demonstrated that this isn’t the case.
While questionable comments appeared from both sides of the chamber (Labour’s Cllr Joanne Howcroft-Scott telling the Conservative’s Cllr George Perfect to “go to bed” wasn’t particularly edifying), it was Conservative Leader of the Opposition Cllr Adrian Gulvin that received most of the attention. During a debate on the repair and refurbishment of Gun Wharf, Cllr Gulvin claimed that asking Historic England to remove the listed status of the building would be akin to asking “the Taliban to hold a drinks’ party”.
With recent comments from former Conservative MP Lee Anderson fresh in the mind, one might expect councillors to make slightly more appropriate comments, but here we are.
Labour’s Cllr Naushabah Khan described the comments as “highly inappropriate” in a statement:
It was highly inappropriate for Cllr Gulvin to make the comments he did in the council chamber. This is a public meeting which is meant to be inclusive.
Casual Islamophobia is not ok, cannot be normalised and needs to be called out. If comments of this nature had been targeted at any other community then, rightly so, they would not have been accepted as appropriate.
I raised my concerns about the comments at time and directly asked Cllr Gulvin to apologise. I also shared my frustrations on social media. He did not respond to this request.
We reached out to the Medway Conservative Group for any comment on the issue, and they told us that would be putting out a statement refuting Cllr Khan’s “outrageous Islamophobia allegation” in the coming days.
It wasn’t the only questionable comment Cllr Gulvin made in his speech though, asking if a budget increase in “organisational culture” meant the council was about to “employ ten diversity officers”, a common trope of the GB News brigade. His comments seemingly ignored the fact the amount of money he was talking about was £30,000, which would barely be enough to pay one.
A source within the administration was blunt in responding to Cllr Gulvin’s comments: “We obviously can’t afford ten diversity officers”.
Still, given the Conservative Group now consists of 21 men and zero women, maybe some more diversity wouldn’t be a bad thing.
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UCA sends materials to landfill for no good reason
The University of the Creative Arts leaving Medway last year left a big hole in the creative and student populations of our towns. While the new Medway School of Art has stepped in to somewhat fill the gap, the loss of a large higher education facility from our towns will be felt for some time.
The campus is now closed though, so thoughts start to turn to what happens next. The building occupies a prominent location overlooking Chatham and Rochester and is ripe for redevelopment. Indeed, the site was marketed last year with an informal plan to convert it into 128 homes, though other uses were also being considered.
The site is now ‘under offer’, though it remains unclear if any have yet been accepted. Things are happening on site though, as removal companies have been sent in to strip the building and dispose of everything that has been left.
Several local educational, charity, and social enterprise groups approached UCA about purchasing or donating for equipment and supplies that had been left on the campus in the months since the campus closed, but the organisation has seemingly not been receptive to this. Suddenly, on Thursday of last week, word came that a removal firm was starting to strip the building, and permission was granted to take items, though with a very limited time window of a couple of days.
As a result, while some schools and organisations have managed to take some items from the site, many valuable creative resources like tables and jewellery-making stations have had to be left because there simply wasn’t the time or resources to remove them. Despite repeated requests over months, these items will now be scrapped. As one person within the third sector told us, “It’s extremely disappointing, but unfortunately a reflection of how UCA have been throughout this whole process.”
Organisations that have been able to salvage items are grateful they have been allowed to, and it is positive that not everything on the site has ended up on the scrap heap, but it is unfortunate that UCA didn’t engage further with the local community to stop so many useful resources going to waste.
Decision looms for Medway’s journalism school
We regularly bang the drum about the perilous state of local journalism, but compared to much of the country, Kent and Medway don’t have it all that bad. We still have a local press via the KM Group with several local democracy reporters that, while not perfect, hasn’t been gobbled up by the grim cost-cutters at companies like Reach. In KMTV, we also have a dedicated local tv station that does great work covering local issues and politics. We also have, by any standard, an exemplary journalism school in the Centre for Journalism, operated by the University of Kent on their Medway campus.
We reported recently that the university was sadly seeking to close that school in a round of significant cuts, which will impact journalism on both a local and national level. So many CfJ graduates go on to work for our local media and many make the subsequent step up, now holding major positions at national and international titles.
Last week, CfJ submitted their ‘counter-proposal’ to the university in an attempt to survive. It was heartening just how many journalists rallied against the proposed closure, helping the school make their case, but it remains to be seen whether this will change the future of the school.
Can you help us? We’re working on an in-depth story on the state of higher education in Medway following the news of these cuts and the recent closure of the University of the Creative Arts. We’re eager to speak to anyone with knowledge of the sector locally, and present and past employees of Medway’s HE campuses. If you’d be interested in talking to us, please email hello@localauthority.news - Thanks!
In brief
🚧 Part of Frindsbury Hill closed on Sunday as a result of an emergency water leak. Medway Council said they “hoped the road can be reopened as soon as possible”, before it closes for 15 weeks from this coming Monday (11 Mar).
🚆 Rail services have resumed following a landslip at Newington. Engineers from Network Rail have rebuilt the embankment following a week of disruption for services through Medway.
💅 The Body Shop at Hempstead Valley is set to close in the next few weeks. The chain’s only Medway store faces the axe following the company entering administration.
✍️ Medway Council Leader Vince Maple was among more than 170 council leaders signing a letter to the government calling for the Household Support Fund to be continued. The scheme to support those struggling with the cost of living is set to end on 31 March and the leaders are warning about a “cliff-edge in provision”.
📸 An ANPR camera erected to enforce a School Street in Chatham has mysteriously fallen down. Pictures of the camera show it seemingly been cut off from its base a week before enforcement was due to begin.
More Authority
Our paid supporters receive extra editions of Local Authority every week. Last week’s budget bonanza led to a lot of politics, with the Deputy Leader of the Conservative Group suddenly resigning, and we talked with former council leader Alan Jarrett about the process for setting a budget from his years of experience.
Over the weekend, things got a little bit lighter, with the first of our new creative editions highlighting work from Medway writers and artists. Then on Sunday, we sat down with Patrick Fysh, co-owner of Medway’s newest independent bookshop, Store 104.
"We were very keen not to just replicate something”
For World Book Day, Steven sat down in the non-fiction section of Store 104 with co-owner Patrick Fysh to discuss being part of Rochester High Street’s retail heritage, opening a new business during covid, and if you should judge a book by its cover.
Footnotes
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Music that soundtracked the creation of this edition: Balance by Sound of Rum, You Are Who You Hang Out With by The Front Bottoms, and From Caplan to Belsize by Muncie Girls.