Kent edges toward a three-way split
Plus the latest from KCC, a 'national protest' in Dover, latest MP interest declarations, news in brief, and more
With the end of Kent County Council, Medway Council, and the 12 districts of the county on the horizon, discussion about what will replace them continues at pace. After not revealing a preference until now, a report from Kent County Council suggests splitting the county into three might be the way to go, but are things so simple? Further down, we have the latest happenings at KCC, on the ground reporting of the ‘Great British National Protest’ in Dover last weekend from Local Democracy Reporter Daniel Esson, the latest entries from Kent MPs in their Register of Interests, news in brief, and more.
Kent edges toward a three-way split
Kent County Council has released its internal options appraisal for local government reorganisation. While it insists no final decisions have been made, the message between the lines seems clear: the three-way split leads the pack.
The report, which weighs up six potential ways to restructure Kent and Medway’s local government system, uses government criteria to score each model on things like financial resilience, service efficiency, democratic accountability, and readiness for devolution. The option that comes out on top is the one already championed by a handful of West Kent councils (and for some reason, Canterbury): a new structure of three unitary authorities covering North, East and West Kent.
In this model, Medway joins Gravesham, Dartford and Swale to form a North Kent authority. Maidstone, Sevenoaks, Tonbridge & Malling, and Tunbridge Wells make up the West, and the East takes in Canterbury, Thanet, Dover, Folkestone & Hythe and Ashford. Each area ends up with a population between 550,000 and 660,000, which fits neatly with the government’s preferred size for new authorities.
KCC’s scoring matrix gives this Option 1 the highest marks across the board. It’s supposedly financially sustainable, operationally deliverable, and does the best job of setting Kent up for future devolution. It also avoids some of the more surreal cartographic experiments floated in other proposals, which range from splitting natural communities to inventing entirely new ones that seem to exist only on paper.
Other options don’t fare so well. A four-unitary model that separates the county into North, East, South and West struggles with population imbalances, high transition costs, and unclear service boundaries. More experimental proposals that carve out so-called ‘Mid-Kent’ authorities are treated with polite scepticism. And while a two-unitary model performs better financially, it raises concerns about democratic distance, with each authority serving close to a million people. A single mega-unitary for all of Kent and Medway was also assessed, but only as a benchmark. It’s the most efficient on paper, but nobody seriously believes a 1.9 million-resident council is going to fly with ministers or with Medway, which has made clear it has no interest in being reabsorbed into the Kent mothership.
All this analysis is being presented as neutral groundwork ahead of final decisions in the autumn. But with Option 1 scoring highest on every major front, and aligning neatly with the model already being pushed by five district councils, it’s not difficult to guess where the county council is heading.
Not everyone is on board. Medway Council leader Vince Maple has made a case for a four-authority solution, arguing that smaller councils mean better representation and stronger local democracy. Under the three-unitary model, councillor-to-resident ratios could rise to over 6,000 to one, a significant jump from the current figures in both Medway and the districts. Maple has written to the minister to make the case for four authorities, and hinted that future proposals could involve boundary tweaks to avoid some of the more illogical arrangements currently in place. Whether that means a redrawing of Medway’s famously odd borders remains to be seen.
The political situation has also shifted. Kent is now run by a Reform administration that hasn’t exactly rushed to embrace the reorganisation process. With their general suspicion of central government diktats and bureaucratic reshuffles, it’s still not entirely clear whether Reform will back any of the models on the table, let alone help push one through.
There isn’t much time left to figure it out. All councils across Kent and Medway have until 28 November to submit final business cases to the government. KCC has already asked for an extension to allow more public engagement, but that request was refused. The work is now being carried out at pace, with consultants from KPMG building the shared evidence base, and each of the 14 authorities involved preparing to take a position.
Whether those positions will align is another matter entirely. The process began with a rare outbreak of harmony as Kent’s councils agreed that the current two-tier system is no longer fit for purpose. Since then, the consensus has begun to fray, with local loyalties, party politics, and practical realities pulling different councils in different directions.
What KCC’s report does offer, though, is a sense of where the numbers are pointing. The three-unitary model may not be perfect, but it’s coherent, cost-effective, and most closely matches the structure ministers say they want. With or without a public consensus, it’s becoming the option to beat.
What else is happening at KCC this week?
Politico came to the recent full council meeting at County Hall, providing a sketch of the proceedings and insight into what is happening behind the scenes. It reveals some of the internal fighting within the Reform group and the friction between elected councillors and officers at the council.
KCC’s Cabinet Member for Environment, David Wimble, talked rubbish this week. Responding to a question on the council’s household waste sites, which were under threat of closure from the previous administration, he made it clear they were safe under his watch “subject to some act of God.”
The Liberal Democrats at Swale Borough Council are proposing a motion next week on ‘fighting back against censorship in our libraries,’ requesting that Swale push back against KCC and write to the Education Secretary to raise concerns about the recent issues with books on trans issues being relocated.
Ashford Central Reform councillor Pamela Williams has defended describing a halal meat shop opening in the town as a “takeover.” She described this as “absolutely acceptable language coming from a councillor.”
Coming up on Saturday: This weekend, our big sit-down interview is with the new leader of Kent County Council, Reform’s Linden Kemkaran. It’s an extensive, wide-ranging conversation about her life, career, politics, and running the UK’s biggest local council. As always, our full interviews are only for our paid supporters, so please consider becoming one if you aren’t already.
‘The Great British National Protest’ rolls into Dover
by Daniel Esson, Local Democracy Reporter
To at least 90% of the public, protests are somewhere between oddity and annoyance. One billing itself as ‘the Great British National Protest’ came to Dover on Saturday.
It was one of many such demos organised over the past few months by ex-British Army soldier Richard Donaldson, who has shrunk from any precise political label and disavowed the term far-right, clearly astute to the connotations it carries. In Dover on Saturday, he was joined by a bodyguard wearing a thick tactical vest adorned with pockets and Union Jacks, which I overheard him describe as ‘stab and slash proof.’
Less militaristic in fashion sense were the two Reform Kent county councillors for Dover whom I ran into: Paul King and Albert Thorpe, positioned on the outer edge of the crowd, half-listening to feverish speeches. They both stressed their attendance was to “show solidarity” with the public who are vexed by illegal immigration, and that there were many members of their local Reform branch present.
Cllr King reiterated to me that the gathering overall was not far-right. It was at this point our conversation was interrupted by an elderly couple from Leeds, who wanted to share Cllr King’s sentiment and disavow the term. But the husband then proceeded to complain about being surrounded by ‘p***s’ in his hometown. His wife then detailed her belief in the Agenda 2030 conspiracy theory and that the government is trying to start a civil war.
The paralysing awkwardness of this situation was not lost on the Reform councillors, who tried to steer the conversation back towards more mainstream concerns.
Half an hour earlier, I had interviewed Jason Withey, flying the flag of Patriotic Alternative. He said he was there because “this is a far-right protest and I’m far-right.” His party is avowedly white-supremacist and led by the former leader of the Youth BNP. His hat bore the slogan “remigration,” a newish buzzword on the extreme right referring to mass deportations of not only immigrants, but anyone who is not ethnically British.
He has also been identified by Hope Not Hate as a regular attendee of events of this sort, and once posted on Facebook a picture of a swastika birthday cake he had made himself.
This is not to say that the Reform councillors there are themselves extremists. Indeed, Steve Dand, organiser of the Unite the Right march, held to support Mr Donaldson’s protest on the seafront, said: “We are right-wing, not far-right. Unfortunately, we can’t stop one person with a flag.”
Many of those taking part in the march chanted “stop the boats, send them home,” alongside another shout of “Keir Starmer is a w****r.”
Asked if he supported Reform, Mr Dand, from Lincolnshire, said: “I’m not political. I don’t vote. At the moment, I don’t know who to trust. A lot of people in my groups are Reform. I don’t agree with Labour.” The radical and extreme ends of politics have always existed in a tension with the relative mainstream.
There was no counter-protest organised on Saturday, likely because many who would attend were instead at a Palestine demonstration in London. But at counter-protests of the left, the same tension between fringe and mainstream leaps out at you.
Run-of-the-mill centre-left Labour members end up marching in the same columns as black-hooded self-described ‘anarcho-communists’ and people who think it is racist for nation states to have and enforce borders.
One local Reform member I know even told me beforehand of her hope that one attendee at previous protests wouldn’t be present. Face tattooed, voice hoarse and wearing a St George’s flag as a cape, at a demo in Dover some months ago, he became rather aggressive with police while confronting counter-protesters.
Many Reform members and politicians explicitly disavow the thuggish and violent trappings of the street protest scene, and are clearly aware of just how much the public abhors such things. Many on that fringe – especially the likes of Patriotic Alternative and the Homeland Party – disavow Reform right back, viewing Farage and his ilk as shilly-shallying compromisers uninterested in the explicitly ethno-nationalist politics they promote.
To make out like Reform is a party of fascists is alarmist and hysterical, and carries little weight coming from a Left which has abused that term to the point of meaninglessness.
But just as Labour and the Greens find themselves in a permanent, low-level war of position against more radical currents to their Left, Reform already find itself dancing the same tango with extreme-right protest movements.
Kent MPs receive money, trips, and tennis tickets
The Register of Members’ Financial Interests is where all MPs must register donations, gifts, and hospitality they receive. On the most recent update to the register, some Kent MPs have had some pretty substantial additions to declare:
Helen Grant (Maidstone and Malling, Conservative) received tickets twice to a tennis tournament valued at over £1,400.
Kevin McKenna (Sittingbourne and Sheppey, Labour) was part of a delegation to Israel and Palestine in May, receiving flights, accommodation, and meals valued at £2,600 paid for by Labour Friends of Israel.
Tom Tugendhat (Tonbridge, Conservative) did a one-hour speaking engagement for an investment bank and received £8,000 for his trouble.
In brief
➡️ Reform won two seats on Dartford Borough Council in by-elections last week. As a result, the party now has three seats on the Conservative-controlled council.
🇵🇸 A Canterbury woman was threatened with arrest by armed Kent Police officers for protesting in support of Palestine. Officers suggested the mere act of doing that meant she was supporting the proscribed group Palestine Action.
🏥 Emergency department staff at Maidstone Hospital are to begin wearing body-worn cameras to try to reduce the levels of violence and abuse they receive.
💷 Rents in Medway have risen faster than anywhere else in the southeast. Property costs have jumped nearly 27% in the past three years, with the average rent now being £1,243pm.
🗄️ Two big planning applications in Gravesham are set to be decided on at planning committee next week. A plan to convert a pub into a mosque is set to receive approval after receiving 249 letters of support. At the same time, officers recommend progressing a plan for 76 dwellings on Milton Place car park.
☀️ Canterbury City Council has approved a solar farm the size of 78 football pitches.
🚧 Ashford Borough Council have approved plans for a bridge between two new housing developments. The bridge is fully stepped and inaccessible to those in wheelchairs or with other mobility issues, as we wrote about previously.
🏗️ Also at Ashford, councillors approved plans to demolish Park Mall to create a car park until full regeneration plans come forward. The meeting can best be described as ‘lively.’
🏢 Maidstone Borough Council are set to spend £7.7m to improve office buildings that are only worth £4m in the first place.
🏊 Following heavy rain last weekend, 14 beaches in Kent were deemed unsuitable for swimming due to sewage overflows. Restrictions at Tankerton, Herne Bay, Deal Castle, Dymchurch, and Littlestone remained for several days.
🚕 Uber has been given a licence to operate in Tunbridge Wells. Inevitably, local taxi drivers are not happy.
🍌 In a climate sign that can only be good, a man from Deal has managed to grow bananas in his garden.
🧑🎓 The University of Kent awarded a number of honorary degrees this week, with names like singer-songwriter PinkPantheress, director Andrea Arnold, and broadcaster Iain Dale all receiving doctorates.
📰 The Folkestone Triennial is back until October. Fad magazine calls it the “strongest edition yet,” the Guardian call it “bleakly brilliant,” and the Times call it a “triumph.”
💃 The Independent came to visit Kate Bush Day on Folkestone Harbour Arm.
👃 Investigations are still ongoing to figure out why a roundabout near Aylesford has a ‘toxic’ smell. This week, the anti-skid coating added to the surface was ruled out as a possible cause.
🪻 Shrubs have been removed from the newly remodelled St George’s Street in Canterbury after too many people pissed on them.
🤬 Thanet District Council are proposing to ban swearing in public, in what is, quite frankly, a fucking ridiculous plan.
Footnotes
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You make it sound as though KCC will be deciding the reorganisation. They won’t; they are one of 14 councils in Kent that will jointly put forward an agreed proposal to the Minister. ( though each is free to make their own proposal this is not the preferred government option) The strategic partner working with all 14 councils to review options has only just been appointed. The Report you refer to was commissioned by KCC alone prior to the current administration and is not endorsed by the other 13 councils. Please don’t take your information about Local Government Reorganisation from one source.