Cllr Alan Jarrett is the Chief of Medway Council
There was actual disappointment following this 12 months’s native election outcomes again in Could. It was one thing of a automobile crash for us Conservatives, with lots of of hard-working and devoted councillors shedding their seats. Most of those losses had been undeserved, with the voters lashing out in response to perceived failings at nationwide authorities stage. Ever thus!
The latest image in by-elections has been equally bleak, with many Conservative seats being misplaced. Regardless of that, there’s a modicum of encouragement within the outcomes, for it has been a blended image with no country-wide upsurge in help for one occasion or one other. Most of the outcomes smack of protest voting, with the primary beneficiary being the anyone-but-Conservative Celebration…
Political modifications at nationwide stage might right this trajectory, however not except there are coverage modifications to match. It could be improper – certainly reprehensible – to put all of the blame on the door of the outgoing Prime Minister, as tempting as which may be for some! Not least as a result of he made such an impression in successful – specifically so lots of these ‘Crimson Wall’ seats within the north.
In politics, it isn’t all the time essential to depend our blessings, however that was definitely the way it felt in Medway as soon as we noticed the outcomes from this spherical of native elections. Had Medway gone to the polls this Could then it could have been an actual wrestle to keep up the management we’ve loved since 2000. As issues stand, we’ll ask the voters for a brand new mandate in 2023.
This election could also be harder to name, not least due to in depth boundary modifications. The marginally uncommon function of those modifications is a rise within the variety of councillors to be returned in Medway from the present 55 to 59. The opposite uncommon function is the introduction of three single member wards.
Regardless of boundary modifications and bluster from opposition events, there’s a lot to applaud in Medway. During the last 22 years, Medway Conservatives have labored exhausting to construct a much bigger and higher Medway – a far cry from the darkish days of Labour whose huge concept for balancing budgets was an enormous discount on the street cleansing funds.
For all the present relative – and little doubt transient – unpopularity of the Conservative Celebration nationally, there’s actual trigger for optimism, and for that we have to look again on our leads to 2019. That had not been an important 12 months for Conservatives throughout Kent, with 4 District Leaders shedding their seats and councils altering fingers. Medway bucked that Kent-wide development, shedding just one seat from our general majority.
I imagine the explanations for that had been clear. Medway Conservatives put Medway individuals first, even when that meant disagreeing with some nationwide insurance policies. There was no slavish following of the nationwide occasion line; as an alternative our dedication was to do what was finest for Medway. That gained us our majority in 2019, and that holds good in the present day.
For us which means sustaining the bottom Council Tax in Kent; retention and certainly enhancement of our grammar colleges; investing in providers for essentially the most susceptible; altering our complete inventory of road lighting to LED; and arguably the most important of all of them, sustaining weekly assortment of all home waste, together with inexperienced waste and all recycling. All these, and extra, come at a price, with tight monetary management the important thing to efficient and sustainable service supply.
However not each cloud in Medway has a silver lining. Specifically, there have been rows domestically over Medway’s big housing goal of over 28,000 new properties, and for that we’ve needed to be clear that these housing targets begin from Westminster, not Medway. Which may be a game-changer come 2023 in some wards, however we’ll preserve the road that for the genesis for this quantity, residents have to look past the Conservative-run council.
Our insufficient ranking for Youngsters’s Providers just isn’t precisely a badge of honour, which has required extra funding of over £22 million during the last three years. However we stay decided to put money into our susceptible kids and adults, and regardless of the monetary constraints that funding will proceed. A part of that debate has been round authorities calls for that Medway takes extra Unaccompanied Asylum In search of Youngsters (UASCs). Our argument has been that we’re already past our capability to take extra UASCs – with a few of Medway’s kids being positioned out of space on account of these capability points, with the societal and monetary issues these carry. So, we shall be debating that within the Excessive Courtroom through a judicial evaluate towards the federal government.
Our successes have included buying extra sources, with tens of hundreds of thousands being invested in Medway over the previous few years. Whether or not it’s Enterprise Zone standing for our airport; the redevelopment of our waterfronts, offering new housing and jobs; or taking a number one position within the integration of Well being and Social Care, Medway is on the slicing fringe of native authorities in England.
After all, there shall be challenges forward, however with a observe file of feat throughout Medway we’ve a powerful basis from which to go ahead. We shall be confronted with an opposition which has voted towards each constructive change we’ve introduced ahead and stays demonstrably bereft of concepts. Medway’s future shall be finest secured by the Conservatives.
