Three Medway by-elections set for February
Plus devolution inches closer, the myth of the Young Mayor, big plans, news in brief, and more
We love the smell of democracy in the morning. Since the General Election, it has been inevitable that Medway would face three by-elections, and now, the trigger has finally been pulled with the three Medway MPs resigning their council seats. Further down, the government White Paper on English Devolution came out this week, so we look at what it might mean for Medway. Plus, a weird story about the council supposedly spending £35k on a ‘Young Mayor’, some big planning applications, news in brief, and more.
By-elections set for February
Parts of Medway are set to go to the polls in February following the resignation of three councillors.
Three Medway councillors—Lauren Edwards, Tristan Osborne, and Naushabah Khan—have resigned from their council roles following their election to parliament as MPs for Medway constituencies.
While there is no formal rule forbidding an MP from also being a councillor, it arguably isn’t practical to fulfil both roles simultaneously.
As a result, three Medway Council seats are now vacant, leading to by-elections for each. Local Authority understands that the by-elections will be held on 6 February after all three councillors submitted their resignations yesterday (Monday 16 Dec).
Edwards and Osborne both represented Rochester East & Warren Wood, leading to a double by-election in the seat, while Khan’s seat in Gillingham South will also see a by-election on the same day.
Labour’s candidates for the by-elections are Liubov Nestorov in Gillingham South, with Robert Wyatt and Caroyn Hart in Rochester East & Warren Wood. Nestorov is the wife of current Mayor of Medway Marian Nestorov, with Wyatt and Hart being relatively unknown figures within the party, though Wyatt stood in Strood Rural in 2023.
It is unclear at this point who opposition parties will put forward. One rumour is that former Conservative MP for Rochester and Strood Kelly Tolhurst will be on the ballot in the Rochester East & Warren Wood by-election. With a narrative taking hold that Edwards has been largely absent since being elected, Tolhurst could provide the kind of spoiler that ruins Labour’s day.
Elsewhere, it will be interesting to see who Reform put forward and what kind of organisation they have. Modelling for Medway shows them potentially performing well, and the party recently took a by-election win on Kent County Council, showing they can find wins when they put the work in.
The by-elections come against an increasingly challenging numbers game for Medway’s Labour administration. After winning 33 of the 59 seats on offer in last year’s local elections, two suspensions from the party have seen that drop to 31. Now, with three seats facing by-elections, the party faces the prospect of potentially losing its majority, shifting the council to No Overall Control.
On paper, both wards look pretty safe for Labour to retain. In the 2023 elections, Khan was over 1,000 votes ahead of the closest opposition candidate, while in Rochester East & Warren Wood, Labour was, on average, around 600 votes ahead.
However, by-elections can be tricky, and it’s hard to argue that after a few months in power, Labour doesn’t seem hugely popular with the electorate. While they still seem like the likely winner in each seat, it wouldn’t necessarily take much for things to go awry.
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Devolution inches closer
Yesterday finally saw the publication of the government’s eagerly awaited White Paper on English Devolution, which intends to change the way areas of England are governed dramatically.
There’s a lot to take in within the plans, with the paper proposing restructuring local government and broader strategic authorities.
While the paper doesn’t put forward finalised plans for each area, it is clear that the intent is for councils like Medway to no longer exist. The paper pushes for a move toward unitary councils covering populations of at least 500,000 people. As it stands, Medway has a population of a little under 300,000. As such, Medway will likely need to merge with other surrounding authorities. It is unclear at this time what this will likely look like, but a new authority consisting of what is currently Gravesham, Medway, and Swale doesn’t seem impossible.
The plan for broader strategic authorities, which will cover larger regions, is also included. These will be run by an elected mayor and a combined authority made up of the new unitaries underneath. This is likely to be a combined authority between Kent and Medway, meaning that a Mayor of Kent is on the cards. The combined authority would control big issues like infrastructure planning and transport, with the elected mayor also including the current Police and Crime Commissioner role.
For now, the government is effectively handing the changes over to local areas to organise between themselves. Areas that work together to create the new combined authorities will see significant new powers and funding settlements, so there is an incentive to do so. The government is clear that this is the direction of travel for everyone though, and they will step in to force the issue if local areas don’t get themselves together.
Devolution and local government reorganisation will likely be among the big stories over the coming year. While we can’t say what Medway and the wider Kent map will look like, it’s clear that things will be very different.
The myth of the Young Mayor
It’s not often that a local politics story properly breaks through, but over the past few days, there’s a good chance you’ve heard something about Medway Council spending £35,000 on a ‘Young Mayor.’
Most of this information comes from a somewhat bewildering article by Medway’s Local Democracy Reporter Robert Boddy. KentOnline and the BBC broke the story by leading with a quote from Gillingham Street Angels Chief Executive Neil Charlick, who called the plans “madness.”
At face value, a council with limited funds spending money on such an initiative might indeed sound like madness. Except that isn’t what’s happening. Medway Council’s report on the plans makes it clear that the intent is for the role to be funded externally rather than from the council itself, and that the scheme will only be progressed if that funded is in place.
Whatever your views on the concept of a young mayor, it feels like a false premise to ask a charity boss in dispute with the council how they feel about spending that isn’t happening. The whole position might be for nothing, though. Given that both Medway’s Labour administration and Conservative opposition support the plans, it seems unlikely that the intervention will be particularly effective.
Big plans
It’s been a big week for planning applications at Medway Council, with three significant developments.
First, work is finally moving forward on the former Go Outdoors and Market Hall site at the end of The Brook in Chatham. Plans have been submitted to demolish the existing buildings and build four blocks containing 319 flats, commercial space, and residential facilities.
The plans include refurbishing the depressing multi-storey car park behind the site, which will be used to provide parking for the residents of the new development. Given the unloved state of this part of Chatham, the plans offer a way to provide new housing and renew an existing blot on the landscape, so it’s hard to imagine Medway Council finding much wrong with the idea.
Next is a reserved matters application for the land around the new Maritime Academy in Frindsbury. This one is further advanced as planning permission for the site has already been agreed upon, and this is about laying out the site's specifics. The plans propose 181 market and affordable homes, alongside a play area and little else. Given that much of the site has already been cleared for development, with a brand new school next to it, this is also likely to face little opposition from the council.
Finally, plans have been submitted to redevelop the Arethusa Venture Centre in Upnor. It’s a pretty dull application for 31 flats across two blocks, and while we can try and spin this paragraph out further, there isn’t much we can say about it.
In brief
🚧 Plans to redevelop shops and flats on Luton High Street have been rejected as they would dominate the area. Medway Council’s planning committee threw out the plans that would have seen the site turned into 24 flats, offices, and shops.
🖥️ Medway Community Healthcare (MCH) says there has been no data breach following ‘suspicious activity’ on its IT network. The saga led to significant patient delays and disruptions after the entire network was taken offline.
🏥 Medway NHS Foundation Trust has paid out £1.2m in gynaecology medical negligence claims since 2019. The settlements involved ten claims from patients who were found to have suffered negligence at the trust.
More Authority
This week's weekend interview was with Calvin Gear, chef and head brewer of Moot Brew Co Brewery & Taproom in Halling. We discuss Moot, microbrewing, whether Calvin knows who the Prime Minister is, and what he recommends cooking for Christmas dinner.
Next, we published the final Voice of the Leader column of the year from Medway Council Leader Vince Maple. He talks about local government reorganisation, changes seen in Medway over the past year, and what’s ahead for 2025.
Programming schedule: This will be the final Tuesday news briefing of the year unless anything dramatic happens over the Christmas period. We’ve still got a full schedule of content this week, including a look back at the year in Medway music, our usual Friday arts/culture briefing, and an interview with the Mayor of Medway, Marian Nestorov. After that, we’ll be going on a short break. We’ve got a couple of little pieces scheduled to fill the gap, but we won’t be publishing our usual briefing editions until we come back, hopefully fully refreshed, in the new year.
Footnotes
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Music that soundtracked the creation of this edition: Our Temperance Movement by Cats on Fire, We’re Not Talking by The Goon Sax, and Compliments Please by Self Esteem.
I had to reread the KM article again about the Youth Mayor as your take seems to have completely misunderstood it. The original article makes clear that Medway Council is seeking alternative funding. Furthermore, Neil Charlick's observation that the money could best be given to a charity seems entirely reasonable. Isn't the real point that an elected mayor. ( albeit a junior) shouldn't be up for sponsorship. Yet another nail in the coffin of local democracy! It seems that the Leader of the Conservative party can't differentiate himself from the uncritical, nodding heads of the Cabinet