No delay to Council Shake Up

A request by Reform UK for a delay to the first stage of Kent's local government reorganisation has been turned down.

Kent County Council's leader, Linden Kemkaran, disclosed she has been verbally given a “hard no” from the minister driving the changes.

Cllr Kemkaran, who represents Maidstone south east, insisted the November 28 deadline was “almost impossible” to meet, asking for it to be delayed until the end of March.

Local government minister Jim McMahon is overseeing an overhaul of the way councils are to be run in the future.

All 14 councils – including Kent County Council (KCC), Medway and all the borough and district authorities – would effectively abolish themselves and be replaced by a smaller number of much larger unitary bodies.

Kent may also get an elected mayor as party of Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner’s ‘Devolution Revolution’.

Council leaders are being asked to come up with an agreed plan on how Kent will look in the future.

Cllr Kemkaran spoke at a flag raising ceremony outside County Hall in Maidstone to mark Armed Forces Day (see below).

Hinting there may be further discussions on the extension, said: “It was a verbal, hard ‘no’ – at the moment.”

Council leaders in Kent were told via a webinar with government officials that the government intended to adhere to the existing timetable.

Cllr Kemkaran, who took over as the KCC leader on May 22 after the landslide Reform UK victory earlier in the month, wrote to Mr McMahon: “Appropriate engagement with residents on future local government structures in a county region of almost 1.9m people is a huge undertaking, and to do it meaningfully will require time over the summer and early autumn to then influence each council’s position on their preferred option, which makes the deadline of 28 November almost impossible to meet.

“I recognise that this may require you to reissue the statutory invite to all Kent Councils, but believe that if we are to rebuild public trust in our politics and political institutions, such important matters should be taken forward transparently and honestly with the residents we serve, and who fund their current and future councils through their taxes.”

Green Party leader of Maidstone Borough Council, Cllr Stuart Jeffery, confirmed government officials had turned down the KCC leader’s request.

He said: “I think that local government reorganisation is not everyone’s choice but it’s happening and we have to make the best of it.

“We can’t delay stuff because it just causes anxiety and confusion.

“We have to get it over and done with and I am pleased there is no delay even if it puts a bit of extra pressure on us all.”

Mr McMahon’s department has been approached for comment.

Reform UK won 57 of KCC’s 81 seats in May but will have to carry out the government’s wishes for the changes in this four year term, possibly within three years.

KCC’s former Conservative leader Roger Gough, who lost his seat at the election, had hoped Kent would be accepted into the first batch of English counties to be fast-tracked through. The government rejected Kent’s application.

Those councils accepted on the fast-track system avoided having to hold elections.

At the flag raising ceremony at County Hall this morning (June 24), KCC chairman Cllr Richard Palmer, a former serviceman, paid tribute to military personnel and urged people to “never forget the price of peace”.

Among the guests were High Sheriff of Kent Jonathan Neame and Deputy Lieutenant of Kent, Victoria Wallace.

Former KCC chairman Gary Cooke, who stood down before the election, Liberal Democrat deputy opposition leader Cllr Richard Streatfeild and Maidstone mayor Cllr Martin Round were also at the ceremony.