Kent’s “cuppa and a chat” got awkward
An awkward show of cooperation at County Hall, plus council meetings, protests, planning news and the latest news from across Kent
Today's Kent Current looks at how a meeting billed as a friendly “cuppa and a chat” between Kent County Council and local MPs unravelled into a public dispute about attendance, effort and political optics. We also track a busy few days across the county, from council rows and planning battles to protests and culture. Let's get into it.
The awkward politics behind Kent’s “cuppa and a chat”
Kent County Council’s Reform leadership framed a recent meeting with MPs as an attempt to draw a line under party politics and start the year on a more collaborative footing.
In public posts ahead of the meeting, KCC leader Linden Kemkaran said she wanted to “kick off 2026 by putting party politics aside” and working together to serve Kent residents. Instead, what followed was a case study in awkward optics, mixed messages and a public argument about who bothered to turn up.
A meeting framed as cooperation
Kemkaran invited all 18 Kent MPs to County Hall for what she described as an informal, cross-party meeting, a “cuppa and a chat” aimed at putting party politics aside in the interests of residents.
The meeting went ahead on Friday, but with limited attendance. Four MPs were present in person, with one leaving early.
Those who attended were Labour MPs Tristan Osborne, Lauren Sullivan and Tony Vaughan, alongside Liberal Democrat MP Mike Martin. No Conservative MPs attended.
The photo released afterwards shows the MPs flanked by a much larger Reform cabinet contingent inside County Hall, with the council’s leadership and senior members dominating the frame.
Whatever the intention, the image does little to sell the meeting as relaxed or informal. The MPs appear stiff and visibly outnumbered, reading less like enthusiastic collaborators and more like participants in a slightly awkward hostage video. It is not the kind of photo that signals easy political chemistry.
That sense of imbalance would soon be reflected in the political reaction.
From cooperation to complaints
Kemkaran initially struck a conciliatory tone. In a post following the meeting, she said the council was “glad” that MPs had either attended or sent aides, and listed the issues discussed, including the recent water crisis, the draft budget, income-generating schemes, adult social care, and SEND provision.
The message was clear. This was about seriousness, delivery and cooperation.
That framing did not last.
Reform Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport, Peter Osborne, who styles himself 'Pot Hole Pete' on X, publicly complained that only four MPs had “actually” turned up and that one had left early. “At least we tried,” he added, with a shrug emoji.
Yesterday we invited all 18 MPs in Kent to meet with us to discuss any issues they had, shame only 4 out of the 18 actually came, and one of them left early. At least we tried I guess 🤷♂️
— Cllr Peter Osborne (Pot Hole Pete) (@CllrPOsborne) January 24, 2026
Cabinet Member for Economic Development and Special Projects David Wimble went further, describing the turnout as “pretty poor, by any measure.” While publicly thanking Tony Vaughan for attending briefly despite being “normally” one of his biggest critics, Wimble also suggested that most MPs had failed to engage at all.
Local Reform groups sharpened the tone further. Reform Sevenoaks and Swanley accused Conservative MP Laura Trott of choosing not to attend or contribute, calling it a “missed opportunity” and arguing that being an MP “is more than a title, it is a duty.” The post criticised both Conservatives and Labour, framing the meeting as evidence that neither party could be relied on to “put Kent first.”
That criticism was quickly challenged. Dartford Borough Council councillor George Holt responded publicly, saying Trott had long-standing commitments with local schools and questioning whether she was expected to “drop everything” for a meeting organised at relatively short notice. He argued that MPs’ diaries were routinely full, and turned the criticism back on Reform, suggesting the same standards were not always met by its councillors or MPs.
What had been presented as an olive branch was now a public political dividing line.
Two very different versions of events
MPs, particularly on the Labour benches, offered a different account.
Five Labour MPs wrote to Kemkaran jointly ahead of the meeting to explain that they could not attend due to long-standing diary commitments. Several cited meetings and visits directly related to Kent issues, including SEND provision, transport and regeneration.
They said the invitation had come at short notice and that offers to join the meeting remotely had not been taken up.
Dartford MP Jim Dickson echoed that account publicly when sharing the letter on Facebook. He said he had offered to join online between visits and meetings but “didn’t receive a response”, adding that he would continue raising Dartford residents’ concerns about KCC services regardless.
Not all MPs struck a critical note. Lauren Sullivan, one of those who attended, described the meeting as “insightful and lively,” saying discussions ranged from transport and roads to SEND and adult social care. She thanked councillors and officers for organising the session and said she would continue pressing KCC to deliver the best possible services for local communities.
The result was two competing narratives playing out in public. One of MPs failing to engage, and another of a meeting organised too quickly and inflexibly to secure broad attendance.
Why this was always going to be awkward
The meeting also came just a week after a very public row between Kemkaran and Mike Martin, sparked by a ministerial visit to Tunbridge Wells during the ongoing water crisis.
Kemkaran accused Martin of excluding KCC officers, including the county’s director of public health, from a closed meeting with the Defra Secretary of State. She argued that KCC, as Kent’s adult social care authority, education authority and lead agency for major incident response, had been deliberately sidelined.
The dispute underlined a broader tension over roles, responsibility and visibility during the crisis.
Against that backdrop, Martin’s presence at County Hall alongside a Reform cabinet he had publicly clashed with days earlier was always likely to be politically awkward, whatever the stated intentions of the meeting.
The takeaway
A meeting presented as informal cooperation quickly became a public argument about attendance and effort. Rather than smoothing relationships, it exposed how thin and unsettled the relationship between Kent's new Reform administration is, and how easily an exercise in political choreography can unravel when timing, tone and follow-through do not match the message.
Three big reads
1️⃣ The Telegraph spent an evening at The Phoenix pub in Canterbury, the day before it closed. The landlord blames a change in drinking habits, but the paper is delighted to find some regulars enthusiastically blaming the government.
2️⃣ Even the Daily Mail seems unimpressed by 'farcical' far-right protestors who spent time over the weekend yelling at a closed migrant processing centre and blocking a tourist coach from leaving the country while shouting 'go back home.'
3️⃣ 'Dickensia meets San Sebastián' is how the new look Observer brands Broadstairs, in a piece that is particularly excited about the food on offer in the town.
Council matters
Meetings this week:
- Dover: Council meets on Wednesday to debate changes at Betteshanger Park and set out the coming council year.
- Folkestone & Hythe: Council meets on Wednesday to discuss the council tax reduction scheme and refresh the safeguarding scheme.
- Maidstone: Cabinet gathers on Wednesday to talk council tax, finances, and removing traffic from Earl Street.
- Swale: Council will be held on Wednesday, where, following disorder at the previous meeting, Reform will put forward a motion on the 'border emergency.'
- Kent: Cabinet will meet on Thursday to discuss the finances at County Hall, with the budget outturn and the medium term financial plan on the agenda.
New planning applications:
- Ashford: Plans for commercial space to be demolished and replaced by 75 homes at Hamstreet.
- Dover: Office space could be converted into a pool and snooker club in Whitfield.
- Tunbridge Wells: Proposed development of 125 homes on land off the A26 south of the town.
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In brief
🫥 2025 Hiding Champion (and South East Water boss) David Hinton refused to attend a Tunbridge Wells Borough Council scrutiny committee, who understandably had a few questions for him.
🏗️ The developer behind a 5,750 scheme who tried to get out of more than 120 planning obligations has been told they must deliver what they originally promised.
🧑⚕️ The adult social care sector in Kent is seeking legal advice over concerns that Kent County Council may underfund services.
🖥️ A major IT outage hit GP surgeries across Kent and Medway last week.
🚧 One Dartford Tunnel was closed for more than a day after an oversized lorry hit and damaged vital infrastructure.
🚇 An electric HGV has travelled between the UK and France via the Channel Tunnel for the first time.
🇵🇸 Police and pro-Palestine protestors have clashed outside of a Sandwich-based subsidiary of an Israeli arms group.
🚓 A man was arrested after explosives experts were sent to a property in Folkestone.
🏰 The Citadel, a Napoleonic fort in Dover, has been purchased by a 'local investor' for £10m.
🎭 Thanet District Council has redirected £1m in funds towards the refurbishment of the Theatre Royal in Margate.
🚗 Some residents are unhappy that Ashford Borough Council will offer free parking to electric car drivers.
🍩 Residents of Cliftonville are manning the barricades over the prospect of Greggs opening in an empty shop.
🍔 In an unusual move, campaigners in Dover have argued that the town needs 'housing, not hamburgers' in a fight against a new McDonald's.
⚫ Gerry Clarkson, the former leader of Ashford Borough Council, has passed away.
🌳 A charity is trying to purchase Tunbridge Wells Commons in an effort to block development on the land.
🏖️ Proposals for a boardwalk in Walmer have been branded a 'poundshop version' of the one in Folkestone.
🐟 Captain D's, an American fast casual fish restaurant, has opened its second UK branch inside The Mall in Maidstone.
🧑🎨 Folkestone is being lined up as a potential bidder for UK Town of Culture 2028.
👩🎨 The Guardian quite likes Tracey Emin's new curated exhibition in Margate.
🧣 The i thinks winter is the best time of year to visit Margate.
🌔 Some remarkable pictures of the Northern Lights that were visible in Kent last week.
📽️ A weirdly threatening slogan was projected onto the White Cliffs of Dover to mark the finale of the Traitors.
Property of the week
This Grade II listed four-bedroom oast house on Heath Road in Barming is a striking former farm building that has come to the market for the first time in more than 55 years. Arranged around a distinctive triple-roundel layout, the house offers around 1,800 sqft of space, along with mature gardens and a setting that feels quietly rural despite its proximity to Maidstone. It’s a home with plenty of character and history, offered with no onward chain, and priced at offers over £750,000.
Events this week
🪐 Sun 1 Feb - Brian Cox // The astronomy one, not the acting one, warms up his new show. Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury. Tickets £40.
Footnotes
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