It's about politics in Medway
Following a pretty terrible General Election result for Labour, the party is now in the process of selecting a new leader. We decided to reach out to Medway councillors from all parties to ask them where they think it went wrong for Labour, and who should take control going forwards.
As usual, we told all of them that we would publish their responses unedited. You can find them below in the order they were received.
Continue reading “iFAQ: What next for Labour?”
The polls have closed in today’s General Election, and we are settled in at Medway Park for the count. We’ll be bringing you the results as they come in throughout the night.
For up to the minute coverage, we recommend you follow us on Twitter. The latest tweets are embedded below, but if you click through to Twitter you’ll be able to see everything.
Results will unfortunately take some time, with the count to set to conclude around 6am. It’ll be a long night, so feel free to buy us a coffee.
Live results
Chatham and Aylesford
Tracey Crouch (Con): 28,856
Vince Maple (Lab): 10,316
Dave Naghi (Lib Dem): 2,866
Geoff Wilkinson (Green): 1,090
John Gibson (CPA): 212
Gillingham and Rainham
Rehman Chishti (Con): 28,173
Andy Stamp (Lab): 13,064
Alan Bullion (Lib Dem): 2,503
George Salomon (Green): 1,043
Rob McCulloch Martin (UKIP): 837
Peter Cook (Ind): 229
Roger Peacock (CPA): 119
Rochester and Strood
Kelly Tolhurst (Con): 31,151
Teresa Murray (Lab): 14,079
Graham Colley (Lib Dem): 3,717
Sonia Hyner (Green): 1,312
Roy Freshwater (UKIP): 1,080
Chris Spalding (Ind): 587
It is General Election day across the country, but most importantly for us, here in Medway.
Across the authority, voters have the chance to elect the three MPs that will represent us in Parliament for the next five four three two however many years until we do this again.
Polling stations are now open and remain open until 10pm.
If you have received your polling card, you will know where you need to go to vote. If you are registered to vote but have not received your card, you do not need it to vote. Just go to your polling station, confirm your name and address, and you will be allowed to vote. No ID is required.
If you do not know the location of your polling station, you can call Medway Council on 01634 332030 and they will tell you where to go.
If you have a postal vote, but did not remember to return it in time, you can drop it in to your polling station up until polls close at 10pm.
You may find people outside of your polling station who ask to see your polling card. These people are activists for political parties and you absolutely do not have to engage with them.
To find a list of your candidates, Medway Elects have a handy tool where you enter your postcode and it brings up their details.
Once the polls close at 10pm, we will begin our #MedwayElects19 coverage through the night as the results come in, so be sure to check back later for that.
Medway was recently awarded a £170m grant from the Housing Infrastructure Fund to unlock future housing developments on the Hoo peninsula. While homes are desperately needed in Medway, these developments are very unpopular around the peninsula due to a perception of over-development. As such we decided to ask if this was the best use of the funding, or could it have been better spent in other parts of Medway.
It was recently announced that Medway has been awarded £170m from the Housing Infrastructure Fund to unlock future developments on the Hoo peninsula. Do you feel that this is the best use of this money, or do you feel that other parts of Medway could have benefited from access to these funds? If so, how?
As usual, we told all of them that we would publish their responses unedited. You can find them below in the order they were received.
Continue reading “iFAQ: Housing infrastructure fun”
Look, we’re all trying to deal with this General Election in our own way. We’re now covering our eighth Medway wide poll in the five years we’ve been doing this thing, and mostly just wondering when we’ll be allowed to rest. But whether we like or not, another General Election is upon us. It’s all been a bit rushed, and a number of last minute selections have had to take place. As such, we decided to try to get to know our General Election candidates a little more by sending them a couple of straightforward questions.
As usual, we told all of them that we would publish their responses unedited. You can find them below, grouped by the constituency each of them are standing in.
Continue reading “iFAQ: Who are you and why are you standing?”
Don’t let it ever be said that Medway doesn’t like to try and punch above it’s weight. Despite not being a city and having hardly any culture, councillors of all colours have thrown their weight behind a campaign for Medway to become the UK City of Culture in 2025. There seems to be a lot of mixed messages about what this actually means, so we decided to ask every councillor the following question:
If Medway wins it’s 2025 City of Culture bid, what benefits would this bring to residents of your ward and the wider area?
As usual, we told all of them that we would publish their responses unedited. You can find them below in the order they were received.
Continue reading “iFAQ: What benefits does a City of Culture bring anyway?”
Following recent debates over the amount of development on the peninsula area of Medway, Cllr Ron Sands has proposed that the area should be designated a National Park. An interesting idea, we decided to email a range of political voices – other councillors, former councillors for the area, and other parties – to gauge their support for the idea.
Cllr Sands has recently proposed the designation of the Peninsula as a National Park. Do you believe this would be a positive development for the area?
As usual, we told all of them that we would publish their responses unedited. You can find them below in the order they were received.
Continue reading “iFAQ: Peninsula national park?”
For our iFAQ this week, we decided to ask councillors about the use of language at Medway Council chambers, following discussions about what is appropriate in our national politics. As such, we sent the following question to every Medway councillor:
Given recent debates in Parliament about the use of language in politics, do you feel that language at Medway Council meetings is always appropriate, or would an element of moderation improve our political discourse?
As usual, we told all of them that we would publish their responses unedited. You can find them below in the order they were received.
Continue reading “iFAQ: Language in the chamber”
Yes, we’re all sick of Brexit. But as we hurtle closer to October 31 and a potential no deal, the potential consequences of that are facing us down. All three Medway MPs have endorsed the Prime Minister’s position of embracing no deal if necessary, and a number of Medway Conservative councillors have also expressed support. As such, for our iFAQ this week, we started by asking our three MPs a simple question:
What are the benefits to Medway residents of a no deal Brexit?
As usual, we told all of them that we would publish their responses unedited. You can find them below in the order they were received:
Continue reading “iFAQ: The benefits of a no deal Brexit”
Last night was the latest full Medway Council meeting, the first featuring the new lineup of councillors elected back in May. If you didn’t fancy giving up four hours of your life on a Thursday to pop along, we’ve got all of the highlights below:
Continue reading “Recap: The July full Medway Council meeting”