No Support for Kent LGR Position

County Councillor Tim Prater has blasted Kent County Council wasting time and money working on further developing its own proposal for Kent Local Government Reorganisation despite their plan having NO support amongst other local councils.

In a question by Lib Dem Councillor Tim Prater to County Council Leader Linden Kemkaran, at the Full Council meeting of 19 September, Tim asked:

“Can the Leader tell us how many of the other 13 Kent Council Leaders support her in asking the appointed consultants to consider the case for a single Unitary Authority for Kent?”

The Leader's response was stark:

“Thank you for your question. The answer is simply that there are none.”

Tim Prater commented:

"We always knew that the Kent County Council proposal for a single local Council in Kent to replace the current Kent County, Medway Unitary and 12 District and Borough Councils in Kent was unpopular, but to have no other support is shocking.

"The final decision will be made by ministers, but they won't back a proposal that doesn't meet its criteria. The Kent proposal does not meet its criteria.

"They won't select a proposal that has support from only one Council voice in Kent. The Kent proposal has no support outside Kent County Council.

“Despite this total lack of support, Kent have decided to dedicate internal staff time and resources to continuing to gather information and make a case for its proposal, which will run into tens of thousands of pounds of time and resource. It is like sending decorators in to paint the Titanic ballroom after the ship had sunk.

“It's over. Let it go. Instead of wasting time on a plan no-one likes, they should get around the table with other leaders and seek to make one of the plans with some cross-county support acceptable to all. The only point of this reorganisation, if there is one, is to be ready for the devolution of serious power to Kent from Whitehall. Lets make that happen: not waste time on a scheme that would explicitly block that.”