A mayor for Kent, subject to further confusion
Plus 22 Kent Police officers barred, Folkestone housing concerns, another regeneration delay and a £15m Faversham brewery
Kent could get an elected mayor, although nobody yet knows what councils would sit underneath the position. We unpack the latest twist in local government reorganisation, plus a Reform councillor at a far-right rally, 22 Kent Police officers barred from the profession, another Folkestone regeneration delay and a £15m new brewery in Faversham.
Catch Up
Dr Jane Secker had always wanted to write a history book. The opportunity arrived when she was asked to help complete Griselda Mussett’s unfinished work on the women who shaped Faversham, shortly before Griselda died. Steven spoke to Jane about rescuing the project, navigating its copyright problems and the Faversham Society archive still waiting to be properly explored.
Steven Keevil
Elsewhere, common sense was having a difficult week. Coldblow level crossing near Deal was temporarily closed after railway officials recorded near misses, motorcycles using pedestrian gates and 138 cases of dogs wandering off their leads beside the tracks. We looked at why crossings across Kent still rely on people following basic instructions, despite considerable evidence that some won't.
Kings Hill took things a stage further, turning Halloween into a public order operation involving extra police, private security, dispersal powers and a road closure. We traced how an evening generally associated with children demanding Haribo reached the point where one of the main roads into the community had to be closed.
Ed Jennings
A mayor for Kent, subject to further confusion
Kent’s council reorganisation has been going on long enough for a decision to be made, paused and withdrawn, without any councils actually being reorganised. Last week, the government added the prospect of an elected mayor to the proceedings, potentially giving Kent and Medway more control over transport, housing and investment. For the moment, it has given everyone another announcement to untangle.
The Budget included an announcement that Kent and Medway will have a Strategic Authority, a regional body taking on some powers and funding from Whitehall. It will have an elected mayor if the outcome of local government reorganisation, or LGR, is “compatible.” Otherwise, it will be a Foundation Strategic Authority, without a mayor. What makes a council arrangement compatible with a mayor remains unexplained.
This qualification became more significant the following day, when ministers formally withdrew their July decision to replace Kent’s 14 councils with four new authorities. Those councils would take over the services currently divided between KCC, Medway and the districts, from social care and highways to planning and bin collections. A mayoral authority would operate across their boundaries, handling wider issues such as transport, skills and economic development.
Readers who remember us reporting that the council plan had been paused in September may reasonably wonder what has changed. The distinction is that July’s decision remained in place during the pause. It has now been formally withdrawn, and ministers say every proposal is back under consideration. The four council map could return, but it cannot currently be treated as the agreed destination.
Despite this uncertainty, leaders in both KCC and Medway have welcomed the prospect of a mayor. Medway’s Vince Maple called the announcement “brilliant news” and said he hoped the LGR outcome would unlock “full mayoral devolution”. KCC’s Linden Kemkaran went further, saying “we need an elected Mayor of Kent and Medway” to help secure investment and greater powers.
That enthusiasm is worth comparing with County Hall’s position earlier this year. In March, Kemkaran declined to support an application for a Foundation Strategic Authority. KCC’s preferred solution was one enormous unitary council covering Kent and Medway, which it argued could itself take on devolved powers without needing another organisation above it.
The report setting out her position warned of the additional cost and governance burden of a separate authority. Supporting an application, it said, would undermine KCC’s own business case for a single council. County Hall argued for more powers while dispensing with the extra regional layer.
The report did leave room for reconsideration once ministers had decided on LGR, so this was never an outright rejection of devolution. Nevertheless, the contrast is substantial. The leader who argued a separate authority would be unnecessary under her preferred model now says Kent needs an elected mayor. Her latest statement does not explain how that mayor would fit with KCC’s single-council proposal, which is, on paper, back among the options being considered.
There is less movement in the Liberal Democrat position. Antony Hook told us before last year’s county elections that he supported devolution but opposed a mayor because it concentrated too much power in one individual. Responding to the Budget, he said it raised “far more questions than it answers” and warned against another costly tier of government.
A mayor could give Kent a stronger voice on transport, housing and investment, which deserves a proper debate once the government supplies enough detail to have one. For now, ministers promise an LGR outcome early next year, elections to new councils in 2028 and their arrival in April 2029, a year later than originally planned. After months of proposals, consultations and announcements, we still do not know what the councils will look like. We do now know they might sit beneath a mayor, provided they turn out to be compatible with one. For now though, the announcements continue to arrive rather faster than the answers.
In brief
🧒 Is Medway really one of the hardest places to grow up in England?
🕵️ Undercover in an extremist religious sect in Broadstairs.
➡️ Searchlight has identified Kent Reform councillor Paul Chamberlain as attending last week's Kent Nationalist Movement rally in Herne Bay.
👮 22 Kent Police officers were barred from the profession in 2025/26, double that of the previous year.
🏘️ Developer Taylor Wimpey faces criticism after removing all affordable homes from its redevelopment of Napier Barracks in Folkestone.
🚧 Folkestone's £22m Levelling Up project to regenerate the town centre has been delayed again.
⚡ The government has granted permission for the National Grid Sea Link project between Kent and Suffolk.
🚆 The railway between Tonbridge and Wadhurst has reopened after nine days of essential repairs.
📷 Kent County Council libraries now offer thermal imaging cameras, in case you want to live out your Call of Duty fantasies.
🍻 Shepherd Neame plans to build a new £15m brewery in Faversham.
🍗 Popeyes is taking over the old Pizza Hut at Westwood Cross.
🚂 The Romney, Hythe and Dymchurch Railway turns 100 next year.
📰 The Guardian had a lovely time visiting the Darent Valley.
🎃 A very big pumpkin.
Council matters
Meetings this week
- Canterbury: Cabinet meets tonight (Tuesday) to discuss finances, water, and homelessness.
- Thanet: Cabinet will hold an extraordinary meeting on Wednesday to discuss Pride in Place funding, social housing, and property disposals.
- Kent: County Council meets on Thursday to debate scrapping translation services, the RNLI, and minerals.
- Sevenoaks: Development Management Committee will return once again to an 810-home development on a closed golf course in Halstead on Thursday.
- Swale: Planning Committee will finally decide on a 2,500-home development west of Bobbing on Thursday.
New planning applications
- Dartford: Creation of electric charging hub for HGVs.
- Maidstone: Conversion of commercial building in Albion Place into 16 flats.
- Medway: Demolition of four buildings at Medway Maritime Hospital.
- Tunbridge Wells: Installation of new lifts and footbridge at High Brooms station.
Property of the week
This terraced house is on Harbour Street in Whitstable, where offers over £300,000 might actually get you a house in the middle of one of Kent’s most expensive seaside towns. The period property sits among the shops and restaurants of Harbour Street, just a couple of minutes from the beach, and comes with two double bedrooms, an additional loft room, a long lounge and dining area, and a small courtyard garden. There are exposed brick fireplaces and wooden floors, although the estate agent acknowledges it needs some updating, which is refreshingly straightforward by property listing standards. It’s not enormous, the windows are largely single-glazed, and the bathroom is downstairs, but the location is doing a fair amount of heavy lifting here. For anyone who's spent time looking at Whitstable property prices and wondered whether they’ve accidentally added an extra zero, this is at least relatively approachable.
Events
🎤 Wed 4 Nov - Mark Thomas: 40 in Stand-Up Years // Political comedian celebrates four decades on the mic. Gulbenkian Theatre, Canterbury. Tickets £21.25. Also at Astor Theatre, Deal on 6 Nov.
🎨 5 - 7 Nov - Cranbrook Art Show // Long-running exhibition bringing together contemporary painters, printmakers, ceramicists and sculptors from Kent and beyond. Vestry Hall, Cranbrook. Free.
🎬 6 - 8 Nov - Folkestone Film Festival // Three days of independent short films, filmmaker discussions, networking and a Sunday gala selected from more than 600 submissions. Various locations, Folkestone. Screenings from £5, day passes £12.
🎭 Sat 7 Nov - Women of Deal // Community play recovering the overlooked lives of Deal’s women through surviving letters, journals and local history. Astor Theatre, Deal. Tickets £18.
🏁 7 - 8 Nov - Rallycross and Fireworks // More than 75 races under floodlights, followed by a Saturday night fireworks display. Lydden Hill Race Circuit, Wootton. Tickets from £15.99.
🤼 Sun 8 Nov - UKPW Showcase 2026 // End-of-year professional wrestling show featuring championship matches, high-flying action and concluding rivalries. Westgate Hall, Canterbury. Tickets from £13.20.
Footnotes
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