Kent County Council prepares for its final election
Plus Operation Brock returns, Kent April Fools, news in brief, and more
Welcome to the very first edition of the Kent Current. Local news is important, but recent years have seen it in retreat, with cuts to local newsrooms, the drive to digital, and a broken advertising model pushing outlets to publish more and more content that somehow has less and less value.
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Let’s get to the first edition, where we look at Kent’s upcoming local elections, the return of Operation Brock on the M20, some of Kent’s April Fools, our news in brief roundup, and more.
Thanks again for being here.
Ed Jennings
Editor, the Kent Current
In one month, Kent elects its final county council
Politics is often said to be cyclical. One party is in charge for a while, people get tired of them, another party takes over until people get tired of them too, and the first party takes control again. It’s a pattern seen everywhere, from national politics to local councils.
Kent seems oddly immune to the national mood and natural swings, though. Other than an odd four years between 1993 and 1997, the Conservatives have held overall control of the county. They held it through the governments of Wilson, Callaghan, Thatcher, Blair, Brown, Cameron, and the regular rotation of Prime Ministers that followed. Making a point to buck the national trend, control was only lost during the years of Major before the Tories swept back into control of Kent at the same time as Tony Blair walked into Downing Street.
Their grip on power is such that opposition parties rarely make it out of single figures within the 81-seat chamber. In the most recent 2021 local elections, the party lost five seats but still held 62, over three-quarters of the representation in the county.
Kent will go to the polls in one month to elect a new county council. Could this be the election where the dominance of the Conservatives finally buckles?
In recent weeks, we’ve spoken to several politicians and followers of Kent politics, and the conclusion is that no one seems to have any idea what will happen.
There is at least some consensus: The Conservatives are in trouble. Seemingly seeing the writing on the wall, scores of their existing councillors have chosen not to stand again rather than fight and risk losing. In contrast, others have jumped ship to Reform, to sit as independents, or in one case, to join the Heritage Party.
Quite how bad things are for the party won’t be clear for a month. The last time the party faced a serious insurgency was in 2013, when they lost 27 seats on the council, mainly to UKIP, who became the official opposition. However, the Tories still managed to cling on to a small majority. UKIP, being UKIP, tore itself apart in the following years, allowing the Conservatives to reclaim 23 seats in the 2017 election.
So if there is a challenge to the Conservatives, where will it come from, and will it be strong enough to actually put them at risk of losing the council? And if so, who will be the main beneficiaries?
Given the past events above and the national mood, Reform would seem to be the best placed to make sweeping gains, but is it as straightforward as that? The party currently has only two seats on KCC, winning its first last year and welcoming a defector from the Conservatives more recently. Another attempted to make the same move but has yet to pass Reform’s vetting processes.
Internally, the party seem bullish about their chances. KentOnline recently reported a poll by Electoral Calculus that would see Reform take control of the council. Party leader Nigel Farage held a rally of 900 activists in Kent on Friday and visited Hythe, where a man called him a ‘twat.’ Farage said he was optimistic about the party’s chances in the county's coastal areas.
Questions still remain about the party's professionalism in terms of candidate selection and electioneering. This week, a Reform candidate in Birchington found themselves in hot water after posting on social media about wanting to move to London and how Hertfordshire has ‘more opportunities and is better than Kent.’
Officially, the Lib Dems are currently the second largest party on Kent County Council, even though their number only consists of six. Like Reform, they also seem bullish about their chances to take seats from the Conservatives, particularly in the traditional Tory heartlands of Kent around Tunbridge Wells, as well as in Maidstone and around Canterbury.
Unlike some of the more optimistic Reform activists, the Lib Dems are under no illusion that they can sweep to power in Kent with an overall majority. Still, they expect to take 15 to 20 seats, putting them in a prime position for forming a progressive coalition should the numbers add up.
Elsewhere, Labour is confident that its group will reach double figures, though seeing where many opportunities exist for them to win is quite challenging. The party is likely to be bogged down fighting for the same kinds of seats that Reform is targeting, and it’s too early to know which way such a battle might go.
Also aiming for double figures are the Greens, who currently hold five seats and have a grouping of six, with Mike Baldock of the Swale Independents, who they have chosen to stand against in this election. The party sees chances to make gains around Maidstone, where they hold the district council, and other parts of the county.
There will be independents on ballots too, and in a world where distrust of mainstream parties is higher than ever, they may be able to pick up some wins. Existing independents Mike Baldock and Mike Whiting in Swale will be looking to hold their seats, as will former Labour councillor Barry Lewis, who was kicked out of the party last year.
Inevitably, not all parties will be able to do as well as they hope. But if each party makes gains, and the Conservatives, as expected, hold on to a core of their seats, Kent could end up with up to five parties with notable numbers of councillors. It’s difficult to see any stable coalition being negotiated from that, particularly as other parties will unlikely be particularly inclined to work with either the Conservatives or Reform.
This will make the next few years of Kent politics fascinating because of the elephant looming over the chamber. This is likely to be the final set of Kent County Council elections, with the government planning to have local government reorganisation completed by 2028, which would see the 135-year-old Kent County Council abolished and replaced with three or four unitary councils across the county. Following that process, Kent is also likely to receive devolved powers and an elected mayor, something they were aiming for next year but that the government rejected earlier this year.
It will be quite a ride for the 81 councillors of Kent who need to steer the county through that process.
We’d love to hear from anyone with news of the upcoming elections. If you want to share some political gossip, what’s going on in your patch of Kent, or anything else, you can email us via hello AT kentcurrent DOT news.
Brock return a hint of things to come?
Operation Brock will return to the M20 between Maidstone and Ashford tomorrow (Thu 3 Apr) in anticipation of additional traffic travelling to the Port of Dover.
The process involves sectioning off part of the motorway to provide capacity for HGVs to queue on their way to the port. This is put in place to stop a build-up of traffic more locally around Dover and Folkestone, which inevitably causes issues.
It comes at a time when the implementation of the system is being used on a regular basis in anticipation of bigger periods. The decision to implement Brock is down to the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum, a partnership of agencies including Kent County Council, National Highways, and Kent Police.
KMRF Strategic Lead for border disruption, Simon Jones, said:
“If Op Brock is not in use and there are delays at the Port of Dover, this has a knock-on effect on the surrounding roads – causing unjustified disruption to local communities.
“This decision is not taken lightly and is informed by data which tells us we are very likely to see increased traffic heading to Europe.
“As always, we will do everything we can to enable people to get where they want to be as safely and as quickly as possible. Until more permanent solutions are found to tackle disruption on Kent’s roads, Operation Brock is the only tool we have to keep traffic moving through the county.”
The system will be in place for a number of weeks and is only likely to be stood down following the Easter period.
Ashford MP Sojan Joseph told KentLive that he was “extremely disappointed” by the news, adding that:
"Looking at the available numbers between 2017 to 2019 – before Operation Brock was first deployed, there were more road users on the M20, and we didn’t need to resort to emergency measures. The Port of Dover and Channel Tunnel must try to operate as ‘business as usual’ over potentially busy periods to avoid disruptions like this.
If only someone could figure out what happened after 2019 that slowed down border crossings, causing a backlog of traffic.
There is a concern that this could only be the tip of the iceberg, with the EU set to finally implement their Entry/Exit System (EES) in October. This will require all non-EU nationals entering the Schengen area to provide fingerprints and have their photo taken before crossing the border once every three years.
This will inevitably cause further delays at both the Port of Dover and the Channel Tunnel, though each are installing additional infrastructure in an effort to minimise the delays. Whether or not it will be enough to stop further use of Operation Brock across the middle of the county remains to be seen.
Kent’s April Fools
Despite living in a world of misinformation, companies and organisations spend 1 April each year putting out elaborate April Fools posts. It’s a delicate balance to get right, as the prank needs to be believable enough but obviously enough of a joke to be recognised as such.
2025 proved no exceptions, with organisations across the county creating pranks on their social media channels, some more successfully than others. Some of the more notable ones from across Kent:
Macknade Food Hall in Faversham said that they were rebranding as Mcnades, while it appears that their recent installation of a row of Tesla chargers in their car park is serious and not part of an elaborate joke.
Faversham Town Council announced the ‘Faversham Riviera’ project, which included the creation of a beach outside of the Guildhall and the planting of palm trees in the town centre.
Leeds Castle went all out, putting together a whole video on the archaeological discovery of a basilisk tooth on their grounds.
The Romney, Hythe & Dymchurch Railway Supporters’ Association declared they were submitting a bid to run services through the Channel Tunnel.
Folkestone Harbour Arm declared they would add more arms to the end of the structure to create the ‘Harbour Palm.’
Sittingbourne-based Cook, makers of frozen foods, revealed their new selection of frozen sandwiches.
Kent Life in Maidstone announced they would build a miniature railway to nearby Cobtree Park, which actually sounds great.
We’ll let you decide for yourselves which of these are any good.
In brief
⚡ National Grid has applied for development consent to build an onshore converter station on Minster marshes in Thanet. The 90,000 square metre complex would connect to underwater electricity cables that connect Kent and East Anglia. At the same time, campaigners against the scheme argue it would be a ‘death warrant’ for protected wildlife.
🚜 An 18-month operation led by the Environment Agency is underway to clear an illegal waste site near Ashford. More than 30,000 tons of household and construction waste was originally dumped in Hoad’s Wood in 2023.
🗣️ Ashford Borough Council will hold an extraordinary planning committee tonight (Wed 2 Apr) to debate an application for 1,000 new homes, a retail centre, a primary school, a community centre, and green spaces south of the town. The council cannot decide on the decision though, as they took too long, and the applicant has now appealed to the Planning Inspectorate, who will make the ultimate decision.
🗣️ Elsewhere, Tunbridge Wells Borough Council will hold an ordinary planning committee tonight (Wed 2 Apr) to decide on a 120-home development to the south of the town. The application includes 40% affordable housing and £2.2m in local infrastructure and services funding. Inevitably, 223 letters of objection have been received to the plans.
🛝 Two children’s centres - in Margate and Sheerness - were saved from closure by Kent County Council, only to have their funding cut by 88%.
🏗️ Work is set to start on the Sturry Link Road next year. The £41m project will provide access to hundreds of new homes around Sturry and allow traffic to bypass the level crossing in the village.
🚌 The rollout of electric buses on the Fastrack network between Dartford and Gravesend has been delayed. The route is now expected to be fully electrified by June.
☀️ Residents in Tunbridge Wells are outraged about solar panels being installed on a nearby Sainsbury’s. They claim the panels will cause glare into their properties and diminish house prices on their street, where houses sell for up to £1.3m.
🚛 Lorry drivers have rated Folkestone Services as the best in the country, with the location scoring a rating of 62 out of 100.
🏖️ Margate has been named the UK’s most desirable place to move to as if it’s 2015 all over again. Elsewhere, Canterbury has been named the most picturesque place in the UK.
🌲 The Guardian has written about the centenary of Bedgebury National Pinetum and the important work that the ‘tree zoo’ carries out. In a lovely bit of nominative determinism, the piece's writer is Patrick Barkham.
Coming Currents
Coming up this weekend, we’ll be publishing our first long-read interview. We were delighted to sit down recently with legendary illustrator and Kent resident Ralph Steadman to talk about his recent INKling exhibition at Chatham Historic Dockyard, his life, his extensive work with gonzo journalist Hunter S Thompson, and much more.
Our interviews will be mostly exclusive to our paid supporters, so if you want to receive our future discussions with the big names of Kent, please consider upgrading to support our work if you haven’t already.
Footnotes
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