Nine things Medway learnt from the General Election
Plus new Medway summertime fun bus, a review of Avenue Tennis' restaurant, our weekly events guide, news in brief, and more
We’ve had a week to process the General Election, and following a couple of non-politics posts, we’ve got one final roundup before we move on and never speak of this again. With the benefit of hindsight, we’re looking at the lessons we can learn from the results in Medway last week. Further down, we have news of Medway Council’s new summertime fun bus and what it might mean for the future, a review the restaurant at Avenue Tennis, our weekly events guide, news in brief, and more.
Nine things Medway learnt from the General Election
It’s been a week since Medway elected three new MPs and chose three Labour representatives for the first time since 2005. Now that the dust has settled and we’ve managed to catch up on our sleep a little bit, let’s ponder the lessons that can be taken away from a dramatic General Election in Medway.
Labour did what they needed to
Of course, the big story of the night was that, after being swept from power on the national wave of 2010, Labour were able to return to power both nationally and across all three Medway seats. Labour’s campaign was regularly described as boring by this publication, and while it certainly wasn’t flashy, it did get the job done. All three Medway seats switched from the Conservatives to Labour, even if the party only seriously pushed for two of them. With Chatham and Aylesford not a serious target and minimal campaigning efforts in the seat, the national winds were enough to carry them home.
But their majorities look shaky
While there is no taking away from Labour’s calculated achievements, there should perhaps be a note of caution about their results. The party scored 35.8% of the vote across Medway, barely any more than in their 2017 defeat. As a result, their majorities are hardly large, ranging between 2,000 and 4,000. Given the size of the Conservative majorities they were overturning, these figures may be expected, but it suggests work will need to be done to hold on to the seats if the national mood starts to turn against them.
The Conservatives got punished
Results across the country implied that while few were necessarily enthusiastic about a Labour government, they were very enthusiastic about punishing the Conservatives. This was evident in Medway, where they plummeted from 62.4% of the vote to 28.6%. There were small signs of a personal vote benefiting the incumbents (Chatham and Aylesford fell more dramatically without Tracey Crouch), but it wasn’t enough to stop a drop of over 30% of the vote across every constituency.
But there might be a route back for them
Despite their lowest vote share in over 200 years of Medway elections, it might not be all doom and gloom for the Conservatives. Even with the collapse in their vote, the lack of increase for Labour means they still finished only 7% behind the new governing party. This is not an insurmountable number to overturn, though much will depend on how the party moves forward. Of course, that discussion also has the spectre of Nigel Farage’s upstarts looming over their shoulder, which brings us to…
Reform break through
Perhaps the most surprising story of the night in Medway was just how well Reform managed to poll in the end despite a lack of any serious ground campaign. Their best result seeing them only 4,000 votes away from winning in Chatham and Aylesford, turning the seat into a relatively tight three way marginal in the process. This success may not last, and it is remarkable how similar Reform’s vote share in this election (23%) was to UKIP’s push in 2015 (23.7%). The party will now be hoping that they can capitalise on their small successes and not fizzle out in the way the former party did last time around.
Greens cement their status
One of the stories from last year’s local elections was how the Green Party leapt into third place, overtaking the Lib Dems. This is not something they had achieved in any previous General Election, having never received more than 2.4% of the vote. This time, they leapt to 5.8%, a modest figure certainly but a big gain for a small party with limited resources. It also saw them come out ahead of the Lib Dems in all three Medway constituencies and retain all three deposits, which will be taken as a big win for the Greens.
There’s still work to do for the Lib Dems
While the Lib Dems have climbed back from their historic low results of 2015 and 2017, they managed to see their vote share drop from 2019’s 6.4% to 5.1% across Medway. While the party nationally ran a hyper-targeted campaign and was never seriously fighting in Medway, they must be disappointed to be going backwards and only managing to retain two of their deposits. They seem upbeat about their council prospects for 2027, but it’s hard to see where that is coming from at the moment.
Smaller parties didn’t trouble the electorate
Despite several smaller party candidates being on the ballot, none gained more than 0.8% of the vote. The Workers Party were ‘best of the rest’ in their seats, while independent Peter Cook did best in Gillingham and Rainham. At the other end of the spectrum, it was down to the SDP to bring up the rear in both of their seats despite their cheerful campaign.
Medway is quite good at election counts
We’ve covered enough elections in our time that we’re used to the drill at Medway Council now, and by and large, they are pretty good at running election counts. There were no big dramas at this count, and all three results were in by a relatively timely 4.30am. Information was delivered clearly to candidates and media in the room (the fancy new data screens were great), staff were suspiciously upbeat given the hour, and a range of drinks and snacks were available. Now, if they could have just got the TV on in time for us to see the national exit poll at 10pm, it would have been perfect…
In brief
🧶 Several Medway locations have been yarn-bombed to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Chatham Historic Dockyard Trust. Unravel and Unwind have spruced up locations across Medway, with the most prominent being the new cape on the Thomas Waghorn statue in Chatham.
👮 Policing of town centres and public spaces in Medway is set to become more visible to make the towns safer for women and girls. Measures will also include the deployment of plain-clothes officers at night.
👨🏫 New Chatham and Aylesford MP Tris Osborne has spoken to the Mirror about teaching Geography one day and being an MP the next.
🛒 Carpetright is set to enter administration, putting all its stores at risk of closure. The chain currently has an outlet on Gillingham Business Park.
🐍 A potentially illegal snake and reptile market due to be held in Rainham tomorrow has been cancelled. Leigh Academy Rainham cancelled the booking after The Animal Protection Agency raised concerns.
Medway launches summertime fun bus
Buses are vital to the public transport network, even if they aren’t the most glamorous. They provide an essential way of getting around, particularly for those in lower income brackets, and they are often the only way to get from one part of our towns to another.
It also won’t be news to most people that the bus service in Medway isn’t very good. It’s unreliable, doesn’t cover vast areas, and, until relatively recently, was pretty expensive.
There are signs that the tide might be starting to turn for the humble bus though. The previous government’s £2 fare cap has been significant in keeping costs at a somewhat reasonable level, and this week, the new government rapidly committed to letting local councils take control of their services.
Medway Council recently updated its Bus Service Improvement Plan (tl;dr version: keep things as they are but slightly better), which entitles it to receive £761,000 in additional government funding for the current year to work on minor service improvements. While these sums aren’t going to revolutionise anything, they allow councils to try out new initiatives to try and boost passenger numbers.
This week, the council announced that it had commissioned two initiatives for the school summer holidays, one perhaps more helpful than the other.
The headline is that children will receive free bus travel throughout the summer holidays with a fare-paying adult (or someone with a concessionary bus pass). One adult can bring up to three children with them for free, meaning that, when combined with the fare cap, it’s possible for an adult and up to three children to get the bus for £2. This feels like a genuinely positive move, even if it only lasts from 20 July to 1 September.
Launching the Medway Council Summertime Fun Bus1 is more of a gamble, which will shuttle people around ‘key leisure destinations’ through the summer with a new service operated by Chalkwell and Nu-Venture. Those destinations? The Strand, Cozenton Park, Medway Park, Chatham Dockside, and the Riverside Country Park. In its own right, this isn’t a bad idea, but it’s unfortunate that services only loop between Chatham and Rainham, limiting the services to areas already fairly well covered by buses while doing nothing to assist potential passengers in Rochester, Strood, the peninsula, or Chatham and Gillingham suburbs. Of course, a bus can’t service everywhere, but it’s a shame more of an effort wasn’t made to make the service more of a Medway-wide loop.
Still more intriguing is the possibility that it opens up for the future. It suggests Medway Council are up for more direct tinkering with our bus services, even if it’s quite tepidly in this case. With the new powers offered by the government, maybe we can look forward to more radical changes in the future.
Out to Lunch
In which Steven Keevil assesses the lunch options available in our towns. This week, he’s been down to Avenue Tennis in Gillingham…
Avenue Tennis is located on Featherby Road in Twydall. They reliably inform me that they are the only facility in Medway offering indoor and outdoor tennis, and on multiple surfaces, no less. You will be unsurprised to hear, however, that we hadn’t gone there for the tennis. We are there for Avenue Restaurant, a stylish, open space offering snacks and full meals. Importantly, non-members are welcome.
I ordered a sandwich and chips. I received ciabatta bread layered with chargrilled sliced steak, tomato relish, crispy onions, mayonnaise, and mixed-leaf salad. The sandwich was served with a salad garnish and tortilla chips, with a side order of triple-cooked chips.
The sandwich was delicious, with well-cooked and seasoned steak, a lovely tomato relish, a well-portioned salad and non-greasy tortilla chips. The addition of the chips was a good call, as they were hot, fresh and delightful. My only minor issues were the old favourites of this column. Once again, the salad was served without a dressing, and getting a full pint of soft drink was a step too far. The relish with the sandwich was good, so perhaps an extra portion for the tortilla chips would have been even better to offer something to dip them into.
If you are looking for somewhere different to have lunch and prefer watching tennis to playing it, Avenue Tennis is highly recommended.
Events this week
🍒 The annual Vines Cherry Picnic is at The Vines in Rochester tomorrow (Sat 13 Jul). Expect live music, stalls, activities, and mountains of cherries. Free.
🛍️ Stalls will litter Rochester High Street tomorrow (Sat 13 Jul) for the monthly Rochester City Vintage & Artisan Market. Find a mix of traders selling art, crafts, jewellery, candles, and more. Free.
🦭 The Baby Seals play The Oast in Rainham tomorrow (Sat 13 Jul) as part of the latest Careful Now Promotions extravaganza. The Cambridge indiepop band will be supported by local supergroup The Treasures of Mexico. Tickets £8.
🎸 Also tomorrow (Sat 13 Jul), stalwarts of the Medway music scene Broken Banjo play a gig to say farewell to their bassist Luke at Poco Loco in Chatham. Support comes from Smile Wide, The Spike Direction Effect, Stuart Turner, and Sean Caney. Free.
📕 Rochester writer Zahra Barri is holding a launch event for her debut novel, Daughters of the Nile, on Thursday (18 Jul) at Store 104 in Rochester. Q&A, reading, drinks, and discussion led by comedian and author Sadia Azmet. Tickets £15, includes copy of book and drink.
🗣️ The first full Medway Council meeting since the General Election is on Thursday (18 Jul). Chatham Docks, pensions, and the Community Safety Partnership are all on the agenda. Free.
Footnotes
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Music that soundtracked the creation of this edition: Dissatisfactions by Onsind, Albatross: How We Failed to Save the Lone Star State With the Power of Rock and Roll by Fishboy, and Going to Hell by Lande Hekt.
Unfortunately, not the actual name. The service is rather more boringly called the 200, but if Medway Council wants to steal this name, I’m fine with it.
Salad should come with the OPTION of dressing. I have the reverse problem to your humble, behatted reviewer