Goodbye from us, Hello to Local Authority

Hello. Just a quick post to say we – quite obviously – aren’t doing much as The Political Medway anymore, but there’s also something new and exciting to share.

Unfortunately we’re no longer in a position to carry on this project in the way we started. Anyone following us in the past year or two will have noticed that we are no longer putting out the kind of content we were able to in the past. Part of this is time (we both have day jobs) and part is that we’ve never found a way to make this sustainable. Also we’re very tired.

This entire project has been held together by us giving hours of our time for free to keep it running, and the things that need paying for have been just about covered by the generous souls that have donated over the year. To those people we are eternally grateful. Neither of us are in a position to put the kind of time needed to keep this thing running anymore. We really wish we were, but we just aren’t. As such, we have wound up most elements of The Political Medway.

The main website will be mothballed, other social channels wound up, with just the Twitter account being retained. Most of our engagement comes via Twitter these days, and it’s the easiest for us to keep going, so we’ll still be tweeting any relevant Medway politics news there.

So what are we up to now?

Steve is spending time working with Second Chance Medway, a charity supporting people in Medway with housing and food insecurity. He’s also training to be a host for a FoodCycle project in Sittingbourne. He’s also a trustee for a new SEND college teaching catering to 18-25 year old special needs students. All very worthy, I’m sure you’ll agree.

As for me, I can’t let this kind of thing go, so I’ve launched Local Authority, a new newsletter for Medway covering local politics, news, culture, and more.

It’s free to sign up and you’ll get all of the latest Medway news delivered to your inbox every Friday. There is an option to join as a paid supporter, where you’ll get an extra newsletter every Tuesday and the good feeling that comes from supporting independent local news.

If you enjoyed what we did with The Political Medway, I think you’ll probably like this too, so it would be great to have you on board. You can read it and sign up here: https://localauthority.substack.com/

Conservative councillor investigated by police

Stuart Tranter
Cllr Stuart Tranter

Rochester West councillor Stuart Tranter is facing a police investigation following a confrontation over a parking space.

The incident took place on Tuesday afternoon outside Kings School in Rochester.

It is alleged that Cllr Tranter confronted a woman collecting her children from the school. Kent Online have published accounts from both the woman involved and Cllr Tranter.

Continue reading “Conservative councillor investigated by police”

New boundaries for Medway announced

Proposed Medway ward map

Following an extensive consultation process, the Boundary Commission has published a final proposed redrawing of the Medway Council map, which once approved by parliament, will take effect from the 2023 local elections.

Medway was long overdue for a review of its electoral boundaries, with many parts of the area growing significantly since they were last changed two decades ago, meaning some areas faced underrepresentation on the existing map.

Boundary reviews have to attempt to balance creating equal representation between areas, as well as maintaining coherent communities so their representation is not split between different councillors. Unsurprisingly, this task can be challenging, and many people will have differing views of what each local community looks like.

Continue reading “New boundaries for Medway announced”

Medway Councillor and Deputy Mayor Steve Iles expelled from Conservatives over social media posts

The Deputy Mayor of Medway Councillor Steve Iles has been expelled from the Conservative Party after being named by LBC as being a part of a dossier handed to them containing Islamophobic content posted by councillors across the country.

Continue reading “Medway Councillor and Deputy Mayor Steve Iles expelled from Conservatives over social media posts”

Chatham and Aylesford Labour share antisemitic post, no one even notices

There’s been a lot of media attention on apparently antisemitic acts and comments from certain people within the Labour Party over recent years, but thankfully this is not something we have thus far had to cover here in Medway.

Unfortunately, the Chatham and Aylesford Labour Party have stupidly shared the above post on their Facebook page for the last four months, seemingly without anyone in the party noticing, question it’s existence, or taking actions to remove it.

Continue reading “Chatham and Aylesford Labour share antisemitic post, no one even notices”

It never ends: General Election set for 12 December

Once more unto the breach, dear friends.

After seeming imminent for about a year now, the House of Commons today voted to move forward with a General Election on 12 December in attempt to break the current parliamentary deadlock.

Of course, we’ll be providing full coverage of this election from the Medway perspective in the coming weeks.

For now, we’d like to remind you to ensure that you are registered to vote. Under the current system, you need to register again each time you move, so please check now that you are properly registered even if you think that you are.

So far, the majority of local political parties have so far selected their candidates for this election. Assuming all three Conservative MPs seek re-election, we also have confirmed Liberal Democrat and Brexit Party candidates. So far, Labour is the only main party to not offer any candidates, despite being the main opposition party in Medway.

This election will be the eighth time Medway has gone to the polls since we started this stupid website less than five years ago, so strap in and follow along. It’s going to be a long six weeks.