Six months to redraw Kent

14 councils, a new administration, and no clear answers

If the great reorganisation of local government in Kent was supposed to be a tidy, technocratic affair involving spreadsheets, strategic planning, and polite agreement at committee meetings, it’s safe to say that ship has sailed, hit an iceberg, and is now drifting somewhere off Sheerness.

What started as a reasonably hopeful process of voluntary reform as part of a broader effort to gain more powers has become more complicated by baffling moves from the government and a new administration at Kent County Council. After some initial agreement that reorganisation and devolution were inevitable, we are now left with competing visions and a government that already seems bored with the process.

Following a joint submission from all 14 Kent councils on their progress towards reorganisation, Whitehall replied this week with a letter that, based on the response from Kent’s councils, was so diplomatic and devoid of substance it might as well have been printed in beige.

County Hall in Maidstone. Photo: stock.adobe.com

What’s the plan?

In the early stages of this saga, Kent’s 14 local authorities, a mix of a county council (Kent), a unitary authority (Medway), and 12 districts, did something quite rare in British politics: They agreed on something. Namely, that the current two-tier system of governance is no longer fit for purpose. Admittedly, they were rather strong-armed into their own abolition by the government threatening to force it through regardless. Still, they did manage to come together and begin working out what needed to happen next.