Voice of the Opposition

Medway Council Leader of the Opposition Adrian Gulvin on housebuilding, rowdy council meetings, and working with the new administration

At the turn of the decade, we used to run Voice of the Leader and Voice of the Opposition columns on our old The Political Medway website. With a new look Medway Council, a new leader, and a new opposition, we decided it was time to bring it back. Every quarter, Medway Council Leader Vince Maple and Conservative Leader of the Opposition Adrian Gulvin will write an exclusive column for Local Authority.

Today, we welcome Adrian Gulvin’s column, following Vince Maple’s edition yesterday.

Voice of the Opposition

by Adrian Gulvin, Conservative Leader of the Opposition at Medway Council

Cllr Adrian Gulvin

I'm sorry to have to say that Labour's promise of a more inclusive and open style of council governance has been very much forgotten already.

Within days of taking control of the administration, the pride flag raising ceremony, which was promoted on the council’s social media pages, took place with no opposition members present. When I enquired why no opposition members had been invited, I was told that it was an administrative error. No apology for this has been made, despite by being a one-party event, it was in blatant breach of the council's constitution.

Cllr Maple has attempted to blame the loss of the HIF funding all on the previous Conservative administration. Trying to find the truth of the matter has proved to be difficult, as Cllr Maple refuses to release the letter from Homes England explaining the decision. He claims that it is a complicated issue and that we would not understand it without explanation. That is condescending, to say the least, as well as not being inclusive and open.

Whilst losing any investment into Medway is disappointing, what has now become apparent is that the £170m HIF funding, whilst sounding a very large sum of money, was totally insufficient to provide the necessary infrastructure needed to build the amount of homes stated, even before the effects of recent high inflation.

The first project to fall out of the programme was the rail connection to Strood, then the railway element was taken our altogether. So, the most environmentally friendly transport system was removed, just leaving road improvements, and it now appears these would not all be possible to achieve.

Kelly Tolhurst MP, and my Conservative Group colleagues Liz Turpin, John Williams and Gary Etheridge, did try and point out the failings of the project, but they were not listened to, for which I must take some of the blame as well.

Going forward, we still have to find space in Medway to build new homes. We have far too many people in their thirties still living in their childhood bedrooms. People having their own homes is a basic need which we should all try and support.

The Conservative Group will work with our three MPs, the Labour administration, and independent councillors to get the funding and land allocations needed to do this, without harming our rural and urban areas.

Looking back to the council meeting last week, one thing that has not changed since the election is the rowdy behaviour. Despite the best efforts of the Mayor, who I believe is doing a splendid job, the meeting was noisy and fractious. The Labour Group’s behaviour towards the independent members was particularly disappointing, attempting to intimidate and shout them down is not being inclusive.

It was also disappointing to see an independent member's motion amended in a manner which totally negated the intention of the motion. If this carries on, the council meetings will end up with four pro-Labour motions again, hardly being inclusive.

Cllr Adrian Gulvin is the Leader of the Opposition at Medway Council and Conservative councillor for Lordswood and Walderslade.