KCC councillor jailed, triggering by-election
Cliftonville will head to the polls as Kent wrestles with budgets and infrastructure
A Kent County Council councillor has been jailed, triggering a by-election in Cliftonville and closing a long-running, uncomfortable chapter for the division. Today's Kent Current looks at what happens next, alongside a county-wide round of budget meetings, fresh water supply problems, and a mix of the politics, planning and local stories shaping Kent right now...
Cliftonville by-election triggered as KCC councillor jailed
Kent county councillor for Cliftonville, Daniel Taylor, has been sentenced to 12 months in prison at Margate Magistrates’ Court for controlling or coercive behaviour towards his wife.
This ends a long, awkward period in which a serious criminal case was running in parallel with the day job of being a county councillor. It also forces Cliftonville straight into a by-election, whether anyone locally feels like another campaign or not.
Taylor won Cliftonville in May 2025 as part of Reform’s sweep across the council, but he did not remain a Reform councillor in any meaningful sense for long. The whip was withdrawn following his arrest, and he continued on the council as an independent.
The criminal case has been hanging over the seat for most of that time. The sentence was for controlling or coercive behaviour towards his wife. The wider case background also included allegations that he threatened to kill her and sent an offensive, indecent, obscene or menacing message. The court heard evidence of a long pattern of controlling behaviour, including friends describing him putting his wife down, accusing her of cheating and isolating her from friends.
If that sounds like a story that should have ended months ago, that is because politics and local government rarely end anything cleanly on their own. Parties can suspend people. Group leaders can withdraw whips. Colleagues can stop making eye contact. But none of that, on its own, removes someone from office. Until the legal line is crossed, the seat remains occupied.
Which is why the detail from a week before sentencing is going to stick.
Taylor attended the county council’s budget meeting on 12 February. He even spoke in that debate, including defending Reform, and it landed with the sort of silence usually reserved for a bad joke in a meeting you can’t leave.
Then, a week later, he was sentenced. Within that same week, he was also taken into custody for breaching bail conditions, suggesting he had quite a rollercoaster week. After sentencing, the seat became vacant through his immediate disqualification from the role.
There is a temptation, in a case like this, to treat the political bit as gossip and the court bit as the real story. In practice, Cliftonville has been living with both at once. For months, the division had a councillor suspended by the party he was elected for, who was barely present in the council's political life but still technically held the seat. That is not a neat situation for residents, and it is not a great look for the institution either.
Now comes the by-election. There will be a new contest, a new set of leaflets, and the usual round of promises about potholes, school places and 'standing up for local people.' The difference this time is that nobody gets to pretend this is a normal election. It is a forced reset.
For Reform, it is especially awkward. The party won Cliftonville in the 2025 wave, but the councillor did not spend most of the year as a functioning Reform representative. So the pitch cannot honestly be 'keep what you’ve got.' It is closer to give us another go, with someone else, and judge the party on what it does when it is not dealing with the fallout from its own candidate choices.
For everyone else, the opening is obvious. This is a seat where voters can send a very blunt message about competence and judgment, without needing to buy into anyone’s wider ideological project. That is often what by-elections are really for. Not a grand political realignment, but the chance to give someone a kicking.
For Cliftonville residents, the point is not the chessboard. It is that representation is supposed to be boring and dependable. Someone shows up, argues your corner, takes the casework, and does the unglamorous stuff without becoming the story. Over the past year, the seat has done the opposite. The by-election is a chance to put it back where it should have been all along, on the problems in the division, and not the problems of the person holding it.
Three big reads
1️⃣ The Telegraph has been talking to residents in Tunbridge Wells behind a £1.5m fundraising effort to try and bring the town's Commons into public ownership.
2️⃣ The tycoon behind Kent's Big Motoring World claims he has been wrongfully sacked from his own company after he made a series of offensive comments toward Asian and female members of staff.
3️⃣ Chatham Town women's team got knocked out of the FA Cup by Birmingham City on Saturday, but the Guardian has been profiling the semi-professional team following their incredible run.
Council matters
Meetings this week, and there's definitely a trend:
- Canterbury: Council meets tonight (Monday) to debate the new budget, as well as a motion on everyone's favourite utility company, South East Water.
- Dartford: Council gets together tonight (Monday) for, and this will become very familiar here, a budget meeting.
- Gravesham: Council meets on Tuesday, and of course, it's for the budget.
- Sevenoaks: Council gathers on Tuesday for, you guessed it, a budget meeting.
- Tonbridge & Malling: Council will set the budget for the coming year on Tuesday, as well as the governance arrangements for a new Tonbridge Town Council.
- Medway: Council meets for its season finale on Wednesday, where the budget for the coming year will be approved.
- Folkestone & Hythe: Council comes together on Wednesday for, surprise surprise, a budget meeting.
- Maidstone: Council sets the budget on Wednesday.
- Tunbridge Wells: Council agrees a budget on Wednesday, and debates intimidation toward councillors and the disruption of South East Water.
- Ashford: Council gathers on Thursday to debate its own budget for the coming year.
- Thanet: Council meets on Thursday, and you would never guess this, sets the budget for the coming year.
- Dover: Planning Committee will meet on Thursday to decide the fate of 30 new homes in Walmer and 11 in Great Mongeham.
New planning applications:
- Maidstone: Environmental scoping opinion for 1,110 homes, commercial use, and education facilities north of Marden.
- Maidstone: Plans for 25 homes and a children's nursery in Detling.
- Swale: Environmental scoping opinion for 240 homes east of Faversham.
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In brief
🚛 It cost £3m to run Operation Brock, the traffic management system that holds lorries waiting to cross the channel on the M20, last year.
☢️ Unsafe levels of cancer-causing radon gas have been detected at 16 UK prisons, including Sutton Park near Maidstone.
🚰 Residents in Pembury lost their water supply this week, the latest in a long line of interruptions from South East Water.
🚕 A Smarden pub running an illegal taxi service is very upset at being told to stop by the council.
🚓 Benches have been removed from the centre of Margate following antisocial behaviour.
🏢 Youth unemployment in Thanet has reached 12%, nearly double the rate for Kent as a whole.
👮 Kent Police are now making hour long documentaries on how they solved crimes.
🚏 Ashford Borough Council has stood by its decision to issue a parking fine to a broken down bus parked at a bus stop.
🚆 The rail line between Borough Green and Ashford via Maidstone East will close for nine days in May.
🚉 Conversely, rail lines through Dartford have reopened following a nine day closure.
🚫 A Folkestone restaurant that employed illegal workers has had its alcohol licence revoked following a Home Office raid.
🍩 Greggs has withdrawn a planning application for a new outlet on Northdown Road in Margate after hundreds of people signed a petition against it.
🐎 PETA has urged Canterbury City Council to block a bid for horse-drawn carriage tours.
🎤 A Margate music promoter has denied supporting hate after booking the tour of a singer who has very publicly endorsed the far-right.
✌️ Britain First fascist Paul Golding has rushed to the defence of a Faversham singer who lost bookings after attending and posing for photos at a far-right march.
🇪🇺 Look Mum No Computer, a YouTuber based in Kent, has been chosen to represent the UK in this year's Eurovision Song Contest.
📖 Canterbury Christ Church University is to lease a large section of its Canterbury library following a slump in student use.
👨🎨 David Hockney is to create a ten metre long window installation for the Turner Contemporary in Margate.
🚂 A history of Hornby in Kent.
Property of the week
This week’s property is a bit of a curveball in the best way: A Grade II listed coach house in Ramsgate, priced at £310,000, that’s leaning hard into charm and mostly getting away with it. It’s a compact two-bedroom place, but it comes with the kind of details you rarely see at this end of the market, including an original arched front door, panelled walls, exposed character throughout, and a four-piece bathroom with a freestanding bath. Outside, there’s a secluded rear courtyard, and the location sits right on the edge of King George VI Park, with both Broadstairs and central Ramsgate within easy reach. The listing also makes a big point of the history, including a link to Moses Montefiore, which is exactly the kind of detail that will either sell you instantly or have you opening a new tab to check what’s folklore and what’s fact.
Events this week
🎤 Thu 26 Feb - Sara Pascoe: I Am A Strange Gloop // Comedian performs show described as not making much sense and a bit weird. Orchard West, Dartford. Tickets £31. Also at Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury on 12 Mar
🎶 27 Feb - 1 Mar - You Are Here Festival // New independent music festival from a team of East Kent promoters. Gulbenkian Arts Centre, Canterbury. Tickets from £10.
🐉 Sat 28 Feb - Chatham Chinese Festival // Performances, market stalls, food, celebrating Medway's Chinese community. Chatham High Street. Free.
Footnotes
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