The 186 people that want to run Medway

With one month to the local elections, just who are our candidates?

Local elections take place in Medway in exactly one month, meaning the campaign is now fully ramping up. In a departure from our usual format, today I’m going to look at who the candidates are across Medway, those that have stepped up and put themselves forward to run our local council. And there are definitely some characters.

Before we start, don’t forget that we’ll be holding a debate between the parties that could take control of Medway Council in less than two weeks.

On 19 April at MidKent College in Gillingham, we'll be asking Alan Jarrett of the Conservatives and Vince Maple of Labour a range of your questions covering the important issues in Medway - housing, education, health, the environment, and so much more.

By booking a ticket - either free or with an optional donation that helps us cover the costs of the event - you will have the ability to submit a question for the leaders. We can't guarantee we'll ask them all, but we will be selecting as broad a cross-section of them as possible ahead of the event.

Tickets for this has been more popular than we expected, and booking is essential if you wish to attend. We’re down to the final few tickets now, so please don’t hang around if you’d like to join us.

The 186 people that want to run Medway

With local elections in Medway one month away, the full candidate lists were published by Medway Council yesterday, giving us insight into exactly who wants to try their luck at becoming a councillor this year.

Overall, 186 individuals have put themselves forward, and they will fight it out for the 59 seats available on the newly reshaped Medway Council.

There are representatives from 8 different political parties, and 8 independent candidates spread across the 24 wards that are set to be contested.

For the political parties, only the Conservatives and Labour have managed to field candidates across all 59 available seats. The Liberal Democrats have managed 28, the Greens 25, with Reform UK, the SDP, and the Christian People’s Alliance putting forward 2, as well as one lonely Heritage Party candidate.

This picture varies from ward to ward though, with some places having as few as four candidates to choose between, while others have a dozen.

So let’s take a look at who is standing across our towns.