Kent councillors decide there is no climate emergency

Plus Medway school u-turns on Reform essay contest, more from KCC this week, news in brief, and more

Sep 19, 2025

A meeting of Kent County Council yesterday saw tempers flare inside and outside the chamber as the Reform administration voted to rescind Kent’s climate emergency. We’ve got the full details of the motion, the debate, and what it means for Kent below. Further down, we have news of a Medway school being forced into a u-turn after trying to run an essay contest with a Reform shirt as a prize, more happenings at KCC, news in brief, and more.

Kent councillors decide there is no climate emergency

Kent County Council has scrapped its declaration of a climate emergency, making Kent one of the few places in the country to row back from acknowledging the crisis.

Reform councillors put forward the motion at yesterday’s county council meeting. The result was expected but still remarkable. Six years ago, the council had declared the issue an emergency. By Thursday afternoon, it decided it no longer was.

The mood was set before councillors even entered the chamber. Around 30 climate campaigners turned up outside County Hall to oppose the Reform motion. They were met by three counter-protestors with a banner calling climate change a hoax. Voices were raised, and at one point, a protester tried to drag the hoax banner down. Inside, the tension carried into the chamber.

Chair Cllr Palmer opened by chastising members for their behaviour at the last meeting. He cited councillors storming out, slamming doors and using “foul and abusive language.” He called for civility, which lasted for all of a few minutes.

As council leader Cllr Linden Kemkaran delivered her report, she spoke about migrant arrivals and “civil unrest” over accommodation before arguing that “more jobs and fewer rights” was a sensible economic approach. She went on to repeat her view that a single countywide unitary was the only model for local government reform, and finished by invoking the recent death of Charlie Kirk as a call for civility in politics.

Opposition leaders pounced. Cllr Hook for the Lib Dems said it was “odd” to invoke Kirk’s death in the chamber when Cllr Kemkaran had previously said Ukraine was “too far away to care about.” He accused Reform of wanting to centralise power at County Hall. Cllr Hood for the Greens reminded the chamber that five Reform councillors had recently posed with a man waving a neo-Nazi flag. Cllr Rayner for the Conservatives said his group would only back reorganisation tied to a mayoral model.

Labour’s Cllr Brady mocked “a lot of hot air in the chamber.” Chair Cllr Palmer immediately quipped that he too felt the hot air after Brady spoke. An odd remark given the supposed impartial role of a Chair who had told councillors to treat each other with respect only an hour earlier.

There were other clashes. Cllr Kemkaran accused Cllr Hood of turning up to a meeting on violence against women and girls with “six foot men pretending to be women.” Seconds later, she suggested Cllr Jeffrey’s scarf made him a “supporter of Hamas.” Cllr Palmer asked her to “reflect on the comment,” though there was no further action.

After lunch, where Reform councillors largely headed to Wetherspoons, the big moment arrived.

The Reform motion itself was sprawling and littered with junk science. It argued that Kent’s 2019 climate emergency had achieved ‘no discernible effect on the world’s climate’ and pushed the line that human-driven climate change is ‘unproven.’ Its background notes leaned heavily on organisations like the Heartland Institute in the US and the Global Warming Policy Foundation in the UK. Both groups are long associated with climate denial and fossil fuel interests, and have been repeatedly criticised for presenting one-sided or misleading information as if it were science.

The motion cited a 2022 ‘World Climate Declaration’ signed by a small pool of climate sceptics, alongside a grab-bag of contrarian sources, including Climate: The Movie, a film fact-checked for spreading misinformation and conspiracy theories. It painted carbon dioxide as ‘plant food,’ suggested weather stations were unreliable, and argued that past warming was good for civilisation. It also slipped into the language of conspiracy theories, warning that net zero would mean ‘15-minute cities,’ rationing flights, bans on red meat, and ‘anti-human’ agendas pushed by unelected global bodies.

The motion’s conclusion was straightforward: Kent should be ‘open-minded but sceptical’ of climate science, welcome more debate, and rescind the climate emergency declaration .

Reform councillors lined up to support it. Proposer Cllr Hespe said climate change was “not settled science.” Cllr Moat claimed the declaration had cost “tens of millions.” Cllr Fothergill said the earth was “evolving naturally.” Cllr Foster accused campaigners of wanting to “take steak off our plates.” Cllr Williams dismissed “scare stories about disappearing polar bears” and called climate education in schools “indoctrination.”

Opposition responses were scathing. Cllr Stepto of the Greens asked if the motion had been “written by David Icke or the Reform agitprop department.” Lib Dem Cllr Moreland said fossil fuel companies were recycling tobacco-style tactics to undermine science. Cllr Ricketts, another Lib Dem, joked that all it took to undermine decades of consensus was someone with a YouTube account, and warned it was “perilous to bury your head in the sand” when sea levels are rising. Cllr Hudson, a Conservative, opposed rescinding the declaration and told Reform to stop chasing headlines.

Green Cllr Jeffrey said 97% of scientists agreed on the climate crisis, and the rest were “in the pocket of fossil fuel companies like Reform.” He added that the climate breakdown would increase migration, which is ironic given “Reform’s hatred of migrants.” Cllr Palmer demanded an apology. Cllr Jeffrey refused, while one Reform councillor shot back that they were married to a child of Windrush.

Tempers flared before Cllr Palmer pushed the chamber to a vote. Reform carried the day, winning 50 votes to 21. Kent County Council no longer recognises a climate emergency.

The rest of the meeting never reached the same heat. A Green motion to cut pesticide use and encourage biodiversity was voted down by the same margin. A Lib Dem vaccine motion, slightly watered down to broaden support, passed unanimously. Reform councillors lined up to praise it. Labour’s Cllr Nolan reminded the chamber that science on vaccines “is not debatable,” a perhaps pointed comment given Cllr Kemkaran’s recent musings about covid jabs and the royal family.

But it was the climate motion that will have the largest impact. By the close of the meeting, Reform had overturned the policy and declared that Kent no longer faces a climate emergency. The decision may prove symbolic rather than practical, but its message is clear: Kent has stepped away from the national consensus.

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What else is happening at KCC this week?

Hope not Hate has published a set of remarkable quotes from Reform’s southeast organiser, Adam Wordsworth, who describes Kent’s Reform councillors as “all wankers” who “hate” and “fight with each other.” Blimey.
Kent County Council is forecasting a £27.9m overspend for 2025–26, mainly due to pressures in adult social care and undelivered savings. The school’s budget deficit is also set to rise to £125.6m, driven by high demand for special needs provision despite additional government funding. The capital programme is broadly on track, but reserves will be needed to cover the shortfall.
Ashford East Reform councillor Dean Burns has spoken out after his drink was spiked while visiting the pub, telling the Local Democracy Reporting Service that the incident left him with anxiety and depression.
Former leader of Kent County Council, Roger Gough, has written to the Financial Times to call the alleged savings that Reform have found at KCC ‘performative’ and ‘insubstantial.’

School backtracks on Reform contest after row over neutrality

A Medway school has been forced into a U-turn after it planned to award a Nigel Farage football shirt as an essay prize, following a story exclusively revealed by our sister title Local Authority.

Sir Joseph Williamson’s Mathematical School in Rochester, known locally as Rochester Math, told GCSE Citizenship students earlier this month that they could enter a 1,000 word essay competition on the title ‘evaluate the view that Reform have obliterated the two-party system.’ The winner will receive a Reform football shirt printed with ‘Farage 10’ on the back, to be presented in person by Kent County Council leader Linden Kemkaran during a visit to the school on 1 October.

The plan sparked immediate concern about political impartiality in the classroom. Parents and students questioned why overtly political merchandise was being used as a prize and why an active party leader would be involved in presenting it.

After our reporting and national coverage in Politico, the New World, the Daily Mail, and others, the school backtracked. In a statement, it said:

“Following the response to this particular competition, the school will no longer be awarding the original prize. We recognise our responsibility to be impartial, but recognise too that we need to be seen to be impartial. As a result of this we will no longer award any party political items as part of politics competitions or events. The visit and essay competition will go ahead.”

The school, which operates under the Leigh Academies Trust and is rated ‘outstanding’ by Ofsted, originally defended the competition as part of a wider programme of political engagement. Principal Mr Hodges had said essay contests were an established feature of the curriculum and listed past prizes, including cardboard cut-outs of Jeremy Corbyn and Rishi Sunak, copies of Vince Cable’s book, and Vote Labour leaflets. He said excluding Reform UK would not be impartial and insisted the school took its obligations “extremely seriously.”

That explanation was contradicted by students, who said they had not seen similar competitions linked to other party visits, and by politicians named by the school. Labour MP Naushabah Khan’s office said they had no knowledge of any such contest, and Medway Council leader Vince Maple told Local Authority: “I’ve spoken at lots of politics and citizenship classes but never offered or been asked for a prize.”

After further questions, the school said it did not keep records of competitions and confirmed it had never been offered a shirt by a political party. It later announced a Labour-linked essay contest with a novelty mug as a prize, but this was only advertised to students after the Reform contest became public.

Government rules state schools must avoid promoting partisan political views and take steps to ensure balanced treatment of political issues. Inviting politicians is encouraged, but offering party merchandise as prizes falls into far greyer territory.

The Reform leader will still be welcomed into a Medway classroom next month. Whether pupils remember her speech or the Farage shirt that never was is another question.

In brief

🗂️ Sevenoaks is set to begin consultation on its new Local Plan. The plan would largely see the rural sections of the district left alone, but with extensive development to the north of Sevenoaks, as well as around Swanley, Edenbridge, and New Ash Green. The most significant move, though, is a proposed 2,500 home development on Pedham Place golf course.

🗳️ Tunbridge Wells is set to participate in a government pilot of flexible voting during its 2026 local elections. The scheme will allow voters to visit central voting hubs in Tunbridge Wells, Paddock Wood, and Cranbrook on the weekend before the election to cast their votes, alongside the usual on the day method and postal voting.

🏗️ Planning officers at Ashford Borough Council are recommending that a 180 home development in Willesborough be approved. In Maidstone, officers recommend a 100 home development in Lenham also be approved.

🏨 In Gravesend, a proposal to convert a former Premier Inn into a 46 person HMO is set to be rejected, with officers claiming that losing a hotel would be too detrimental, as well as the impact on neighbouring properties.

👮 A Strood man has been charged under Section 4A of the Public Order Act following disorder at the far-right Unite the Kingdom rally in London last weekend. Aaron Wren of Kingswear Gardens has been released on bail but will return to Highbury Magistrates Court on 29 September.

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 Anti-immigration protestors are set to march through Canterbury on Saturday. At the same time, residents in Faversham are using the time to remove the flags that have been left across their town. Meanwhile, Medway Council broke with Kent County Council and Kent Police to say that they will begin removing flags in a pretty blunt video.

🚓 A Whitstable restaurant faces a licence review following a Home Office immigration raid. When officers visited the Star of Bengal last year, they found two people working there illegally, one of whom wasn’t being paid.

📱 A woman from Kent has been kicked out of her market stall at Petticoat Lane Emporium in Folkestone after posting a controversial video about the death of Charlie Kirk.

🏢 Locate in Kent, the organisation working to encourage businesses to base themselves in the county, has entered liquidation. It comes just two weeks after Visit Kent, a similar body to encourage tourism in the county, also collapsed.

🧑‍⚕️ Nearly half of the first intake of Kent and Medway Medical School students have chosen to stay and work locally.

🩺 That is good news, because GP teams in Kent and Medway had their busiest ever July this year, with 960,000 appointments.

🏥 The William Harvey Hospital in Ashford became so overwhelmed with patients this week that the Costa Coffee near the entrance was turned into a makeshift ward.

🌳 The Kent Wildlife Trust has purchased 400 acres of land near Lamberhurst as part of an ambitious rewilding project.

More Currents

Earlier this week, writer and podcaster James O’Malley wrote for us about Kent’s housing crisis and how the only solution is to build, however unpopular that might be.