The submission reflects the concerns of Kent County Council, Medway Council, and all district and borough councils in the county. Rather than putting forward a definitive roadmap for unitarisation, the response highlights a range of unanswered questions. Chief among them is the issue of funding.

Will the government assist with the costs of transition, or will local authorities be left to foot the bill? Many councils in Kent are already facing significant financial pressures, and without government support, reorganisation could put further strain on services. There is also uncertainty around whether the government will provide financial relief to help clear existing council debts, an issue that has been exacerbated by rising demand for local services and ongoing budget constraints.

Although no firm decisions have been made on how Kent’s local government should be structured, four key options are being explored in more detail. These options would determine how Kent’s districts and Medway are grouped together into new unitary authorities, potentially replacing the existing county and district system. However, with so many factors at play – including public service boundaries, local identities, and financial sustainability – there is still much to be decided before any final plans can be submitted ahead of the November deadline.

As the process unfolds, it is likely that new restrictions and challenges will emerge. The government’s response to Kent’s submission will be key in determining what is possible and what compromises may be required. For now, local councils and residents are left waiting for further clarity on what the future of Kent’s local government will look like.

I sincerely hope Kent’s response gets some clear answers from government, as the public will finally be given a chance to have their say on these plans over the summer. I firmly believe we should all have been given more opportunity to have a say before progressing this far, and hope that the responses to the consultation will be given the weight they deserve. Time will tell.

With so much still up in the air, one thing remains clear: this reorganisation will have a lasting impact on how services are delivered in Kent for years to come. Ensuring that the new structure is properly thought through and adequately funded will be essential to avoiding unnecessary disruption and ensuring the best possible outcomes for residents.

Rich Lehmann
rich.lehmann@kent.gov.uk

Promoted by T. Valentine on behalf of R.Lehmann (Swale Green Party) c/o PO Box 78066, London, SE16 9GQ

The post Rich Lehmann’s Councillor’s Report March 2025 appeared first on Swale.

These plans, if they go ahead, will completely change the landscape of local government in Kent and the other remaining areas with county councils over the next few years. And at an extraordinary KCC full council meeting on Thursday 10th January, the administration group voted to sign Kent up to this process, and also to write to government with a request to be on the ‘fast-track’, and start the process as soon as possible.

Sadly this decision appears to be primarily driven by the poor financial state of both KCC and Medway, and the fact that the government only appear to be willing to offer additional financial support to those areas buying in to their chosen policy direction.

One of the upshots of this request is that being on the fast-track could see the cancellation of this May’s KCC elections. A move which many at the meeting on 10th January strongly opposed (sadly my, and other’s, attempts to convince the council to express a preference NOT to cancel the elections were voted down).

I strongly believe that the cancellation of elections should not be allowed to happen. The primary argument for cancelling them appears to be that it would enable the mayoral elections to take place as soon as possible, and that council staff would be tied up for the eight week election period if elections were being held.

If those weeks are needed to get a mayoral election set up for May 2026, then the government should have started this process last October, rather than in mid-December. If the amount of work needed is such that the 68 week timeline between now and next May is that tight, it suggests to me that things are being rushed, and are at risk of not being done with the necessary due diligence for a project of this magnitude.

Should Kent’s fast-track application be accepted, we will almost certainly be electing the first ever mayor of Kent next year.

A number of concerns were raised at the meeting about this direction, from all sides of the chamber. The directly elected mayor model concentrates a huge amount of power into the hands of one individual, and the way they are elected often means there’s very little that can be done (barring a custodial prison sentence) to remove one once they are elected.

There is also the fact that they will be able to charge a council tax precept, so any potential reduction in council tax which might occur as a result of streamlining the county and district councils into unitary authorities may end up being wiped out by the increase.

This wouldn’t be quite so much of an issue if it wasn’t for the fact that there have been numerous cases of directly elected mayors spending tens of millions of pounds on vanity projects. Most notably Boris Johnson’s attempts to build a ‘garden bridge’ over the Thames, which saw £43m of taxpayers money spent before the project was finally abandoned. One of the key reasons costs can spiral on vanity projects is that mayors do not receive the same level of oversight and scrutiny as council administrations do.

The second part of this huge project will be Local Government Reorganisation, which will likely take place in 2027 or 2028. I will write an update on this next month.

Rich Lehmann
rich.lehmann@kent.gov.uk

The post Rich Lehmann’s Councillor’s Report January 2025 appeared first on Swale.

Statement from the Green Party Group at Swale Borough Council .

We have taken the difficult decision to leave the coalition, over our fundamental differences to the Labour Party’s approach to planning, housing, and environmental priorities.

Our departure stems from Labour’s revisions to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF), which fail to address the urgent need to protect nature and deliver social housing that meets genuine local needs. Instead, these revisions perpetuate the ‘developer’s charter’ introduced by their Conservative predecessors, putting profit above people and the planet.

We are particularly disappointed by the failure of our Labour councillor colleagues to distance themselves from their party’s position on housing, or from the Labour MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey, Kevin McKenna. His last-minute intervention to call in the Highsted Park application was not only full of inaccuracies, but also left the council powerless to make the decision that should have been their democratic right. This undermines both local decision-making and the trust of our residents, and the cost to defend the position arrived at by the council’s planning officers¹ in the forthcoming enquiry will put a significant strain on the council’s finances.

Furthermore, we cannot support the coalition partners’ decision to put their support behind a local plan option which would funnel the borough’s housing allocation disproportionately towards the eastern end of Swale. This approach ignores the need for fair and equitable distribution of housing across the area, creating imbalances that would harm communities and further strain already stretched local resources.

In Swale we have 7,047 houses which developers have been granted permission to build, but have not yet been built out, as well as hundreds of empty homes. We have a borough which is exceptionally constrained ² with very large proportions either being in the Kent Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, (National Landscapes), or on flood plains. The majority of the remainder is grade one farming land, which we believe should be considered essential to the future food security of the UK.

The NPPF does not appear to adequately account for any of these factors, and makes no discernible attempt to address the real cause of the housing crisis, which is that the majority of young people living and working in Swale cannot afford to buy the vast majority of houses which are currently being built here³.

Cllr Alastair Gould, who will be stepping down from his role on the Planning and Transportation Policy Working Group, which is responsible for the Local Plan, said “Labour have made clear their willingness to prioritise housing and growth over preservation of the environment, and this short- sighted treatment of our planetary home is completely against Green Party principles, and is not something I am willing to be involved in leading.”

Cllr Rich Lehmann said “The Green Party in Swale will remain committed to putting people and the planet first. We will continue to fight for truly sustainable housing solutions, fair policies that respect local communities, and the urgent protection of our natural environment. Although we are no longer part of the coalition, we will remain a vocal and active presence on Swale Borough Council, holding those in power to account and advocating for a better future for all.”

Green Group councillors Alastair Gould, Rich Lehmann and Terry Thompson

¹ This decision was recommended for refusal by the council’s planning officers for numerous valid reasons, not least the unresolved issues relating to the application hinging on a new motorway junction on the M2 which would be in direct violation of current National Highways policy.

² Following work undertaken by members of Swale Green Party, we estimate that almost 74% of Swale’s area is very highly constrained and 16% is Best and Most Versatile farmland (it is no coincidence that the National Fruit Collection was established on the edge of Faversham). Almost all of the remaining land is either already built upon, or is ancient woodland and its surroundings, a vital biodiversity habitat.

³ The median salary for people working in Swale is £33.5k. Two incomes at this salary would give purchasing power of around £300,000. The median house price for new builds currently on the market in Swale is £430,000.

The post Swale Green Party withdraw from the coalition at Swale Borough Council to take a stand for nature and for local democracy appeared first on Swale.

Like many, I was disheartened to see the result of the US election. Aside from the fact that the re-election of President Trump is of huge concern to many (with more than half of the respondents to a YouGov poll yesterday believing that Trump’s second term will be bad for the UK), it’s likely his second term in power will have a number of direct and indirect impacts on the residents of Kent.

During Trump’s first term as president he not only tore up the rulebooks on ethics in politics, he tore up 74 different regulations on environmental protection, including measures to limit air and water pollution, as well as withdrawing from the Paris Agreement and lifting bans on oil and gas exploration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Unsurprising for a man who once claimed that global warming was a hoax created by the Chinese to reduce the competitiveness of US manufacturing.

Of more direct impact to the UK, and to Kent, are his threats to impose tariffs on imports into the US, which the National Institute of Economic and Social Research (NIESR) project would half UK economic growth over the next two years, whilst pushing up interest rates and inflation, measures which are only just recovering from the brief and disastrous Truss/Kwarteng government.

The post Rich Lehmann’s Statement on the election of President Trump appeared first on Swale.

As Chair of the Environment Committee at KCC, I have been in touch with the Lower Medway Internal Drainage Board to investigate whether it would be viable to convert land currently drained using drainage ditches into salt marsh or some other habitat with a high biodiversity value.

Swale’s estuary habitats are vitally important to the conservation of wildlife on a European scale, but this is not only important for the environment, it could also reduce future flood defence costs. These habitats play an important role in reducing the energy of waves as they move inshore, so that sea defences are easier to build and maintain, and are less likely to be overtopped during storms.

A number of different schemes and funds are in place to financially compensate landowners interested in making this kind of change, and a reduction in the need for drainage ditches in Swale could potentially reduce the LMIDB’s annual bill to Swale Borough Council, which currently stands at around a million pounds per year.

Council Tax

Council Tax was debated at the November KCC full council meeting. Following recent announcements from the Welsh government that council tax will be reformed there to be made more reflective of people’s ability to pay, I submitted a motion for KCC to write to the UK government to follow suit.

Following the debate at County Hall, where almost everyone who spoke agreed that council tax was unfair and the whole system needed scrapping rather than reforming, we submitted an amended wording to our motion to scrap council tax and replace it with a new tax more reflective of people’s ability to pay. Sadly the amendment to the motion was voted down by the majority of councillors.

Seashells Children’s Centre

Following a year-long push from our group at KCC, the council agreed earlier this year to reduce the number of petition signatures required to trigger a debate at a KCC full council meeting from 10,000 down to 5,000. I was pleased that the Seashells Children Centre in Sheerness were able to meet this target with a petition to review the decision to cut funding to the children’s services they provide. A move which was also unanimously opposed by Swale Borough Council’s councillors at a recent meeting.

Children’s services are vital to ensure our children have the best start in life and grow to be happy, healthy adults, especially in areas where the need for support is greatest. I believe that cutting this funding would be very short-sighted as numerous studies have shown that the financial savings do not reflect the long-term cost to all of us if children’s needs are not met and they don’t get the necessary support.

Highsted Park

Swale’s Green councillors have released a statement regarding the Secretary of State’s decision to “call in” the planning decision on this vast development proposed East and South of Sittingbourne. We have all been shocked and angered by this move, which raises huge questions for the future of local planning, and the potential for the proposed Winterbourne Fields and Duchy developments to be similarly taken out of our hands. I am sorry to say that the future of local democracy in planning is looking very uncertain.

Our statement can be found here

Rich Lehmann
rich.lehmann@kent.gov.uk

The post Rich Lehmann’s Councillor’s report november 2024 appeared first on Swale.

Swale Council’s planning officers had recommended refusal of the application because of the terrible impact it would have on Bapchild, Teynham and the surrounding communities and countryside, but the councillors were given notice shortly before the meeting that the Secretary of State would, instead, carry out an inquiry.

Terry Thompson, our Green Party representative on the planning committee, is angry that the decision has been taken out of local control and that an application for development on high grade farmland may be permitted. He says “We are losing vast areas of agricultural land due to development and climate change. A proper study needs to be carried out to assess the value of this land in terms of national food production, local employment and the environment before any construction is carried out on Kent farmland”.

Alastair Gould, who is chair of the committee developing the new Local Plan asks, “What is the point of having a planning committee if we can’t even get to discuss the most controversial planning application on our patch, which has cross-party opposition?  If this development is given the green light, it will make a mockery of the local planning system and the development of the Local Plan”.

Rich Lehmann, leader of the Green Group on Swale Borough Council says “This will be a disaster for local communities and infrastructure. What happened to Labour’s promises of devolution and more powers for local government?

There have been over 700 objections to this planning application, including from National Highways and an agreement locally that the proposals should not go ahead. Where is local democracy in this decision”?

Promoted by T. Valentine on behalf of R.Lehmann, A.Gould & T. Thompson, (Swale Green Party) c/o PO Box 78066, London, SE16 9GQ

Image: SBC Planning Portal

The post Shock as planning decision is taken out of Councillors’ hands. appeared first on Swale.

Firstly, I am relieved to say that, for almost all areas, the bin collections have greatly improved since the September route changes. If Suez do miss your bin, please contact Swale so that any problems can be remedied as quickly as possible. Use the online form here: https://swale.gov.uk/bins-littering-and-the-environment/bins/report-a-missed-bin, or phone the council on 01795 417888.

I have been working with the Scrutiny Review Panel to look at what went wrong with the procurement and management of this contract and we are already learning lessons for a report which will be published in the coming months. These lessons can be applied to future contracts to ensure that things run smoothly with all large council contracts in the future.

EU Entry/Exit system

I attended a KCC briefing in late September on the new Entry/Exit System. A new border control system which was due to be implemented at Dover and Folkestone from 10th November and was expected to cause widespread disruption. I am pleased to report though,  that the scheme has now been delayed again (for the fifth time, I think) and this time it’s an indefinite delay, so hopefully this will be properly prepared for if it ever does go ahead and we will be spared gridlock at Brenley Corner.

Towards Zero

I am very pleased to say that at the October meeting of the Swale Environment Committee, councillors voted to install nearly 300 solar panels on the roof of Swale House. This will supply about 50% of the total electricity consumed in the building as well as creating surplus energy from April-August which can be sold back to the grid. The savings and benefits from this new energy provision will mean that the cost of the installation should be gained back in three to four years and the panels will be reducing the council’s energy bills by tens of thousands of pounds each year for the next few decades. Alongside the financial benefits, this is also a significant step towards the council’s target to be carbon neutral by 2030. Once this project is complete I hope to push for solar panels on the councils other buildings, as well as car parks where possible.

Winterbourne Fields

I spoke at the community-led meeting at Dunkirk Village Hall on Sunday 29 September about this proposed new development south of Dunkirk that is the subject of a planning application currently being assessed at Swale. I believe that the application for Winterbourne Fields is flawed for many of reasons, a number of which relate to its location.

At a time when sustainability is of ever-increasing importance, building nearly 2000 houses away from secondary schools, employment, shopping centres and other facilities makes it untenable. This alone would guarantee thousands of additional car journeys per day, which is unsustainable.

In addition to this, the location has known issues with water supply, surface water flooding and sewage disposal; as well as the loss of agricultural land, the huge disruption it would bring to the existing community, and the impact on wildlife both on the site itself and in the adjoining ancient woodlands. To even entertain the idea that this might get planning permission shows how truly broken our current planning laws are and I will argue against it at every opportunity.

Rich Lehmann
rich.lehmann@kent.gov.uk

The post COUNCILLOR’S REPORT OCTOBER 2024 appeared first on Swale.

This new allocation proposes that a very large site is built to the East of Faversham, significantly increasing the number of houses allocated for our area in the previous draft Swale Borough Local Plan and means that we will have a large majority of the additional housing in our part of the borough, well over the 45.5% previously proposed.

This level of growth around our small market town and surrounding villages is inappropriate and unsustainable, but communities are being pitted against each other as we all feel the effects of housing growth on inadequate infrastructure.

These proposals will need full council approval, and will still need to be developed with actual sites, rather than the broad direction of travel proposed by this decision, and they will go out for public consultation. I will argue strongly that this level of development will result in unacceptable harm to the scale and character of Faversham, a small market town, and to the rural villages and countryside that surrounds it.

The housing targets are handed down from central government, and may increase with the change of administration. They simply cannot be accommodated within the borough if we give proper protection to “Best and Most Versatile” agricultural land, Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty and avoid building on land subject to flooding. I have helped put these points into a robust response from Swale Borough Council to the recent consultation on the proposed changes to the National Planning and Policy framework, which governs the plan making process.

Please look out for and take the opportunity to comment on the proposed new Local Plan when it goes out for public consultation and, in the meantime, email me if you have any comments or questions about these proposals. 

Alastair Gould

Swale Borough Councillor for Boughton & Courtenay

Email: alastairgould@swale.gov.uk

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The consultation is open from now until the 8th October 2024 and more details can be found online at www.kent.gov.uk/ltp5.

Rich Lehmann
rich.lehmann@kent.gov.uk

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