"More Efficient" Future

Tunbridge Wells MP Mike Martin of the Liberal Democrats has said local government changes in Kent will overall be "a good thing."

Mike Martin was speaking in an interview with Martin Webber on the Friday drivetime programme on West Kent Radio on 21st March.

Mike Martin criticised the current arrangement of having two different local authorities in each area with overlapping responsibilities.

He said: "It will be a good thing at the end of the process. Particularly what I'm excited about is the fact that we will only have one layer of local government."

Mike Martin continued: "At the moment you have Tunbridge Wells Borough Council and Kent County Council. And to get anything done, inevitably you need to speak to both levels of government which just adds extra layers into any decision or anything that you are trying to get done."

He concluded: "So overall I think the idea of having one layer of local government - like all London Boroughs have had for a long long time - is a much more effective way of delivering services and also it is cheaper, frankly because it is more efficient."

In his interview Mike Martin also spoke about defence issues.  He said the US was no longer interested in the defence of Europe so the U.K. needed to boost its defence spending to 3% of national output in the time of this parliament.

You can listen to the 6 minute section with Mike Martin talking about housebuilding, local government and airport expansion here:

Mike Martin was speaking on the same day that Kent County Council issued a document setting out to government four options for the shape of the new unitary authorities to be in place in three years time.  

The only option that would see every unitary authority reach the minimum size set by the government (half a million people) was the one with the county split into three authorities. This plan is shown below.

When asked if having Tonbridge and Tunbridge Wells run by a local authority based in Maidstone would make democracy more remote from voters, Mike Martin responded:  "Kent County Council is already based in Maidstone and it has to deal with the whole span of Kent rather than to just deal with that smaller area (of West Kent)."

Mike was asked about transport projects such as segregated safe cycle lanes, which haven't got built in West Kent but are now common in London.

He responded: "That's a perfect example of something that will be easier (with these new unitaries).  So (with) traffic congestion, at the moment car parking is dealt with at the Borough level, but buses are at county level while cycle lanes are split between the two." 

He continued: "So if you are trying to have a holistic strategy to deal with congestion in somewhere like Tunbridge Wells it is very very difficult because you are dealing with two layers of government."

All four options for new authorities set out by Kent County Council are illustrated here:

Asked about the likely big Gatwick expansion, he suggested aircraft noise issues were now being considered more closely.  He wanted more noise monitors in the area, as there is currently only one noise monitor in the whole of Tunbridge Wells constituency. He said: "We would want many more (noise monitors) for them to understand what the noise environment is and to minimise that noise."

The first section of Mike Martin's interview covered how he had felt when being elected an MP, how he had approached building a team to support him and life in the House of Commons. He also talked about the chances of peace in Ukraine and UK defence spending. Listen here: