Cllr Alan Jarrett is the Leader of Medway Council
There was real sadness following this year’s local election results back in May. It was something of a car crash for us Conservatives, with hundreds of hard-working and dedicated councillors losing their seats. Most of these losses were undeserved, with the electorate lashing out in response to perceived failings at national government level. Ever thus!
The recent picture in by-elections has been equally bleak, with many Conservative seats being lost. Despite that, there is a modicum of encouragement in the results, for it has been a mixed picture with no country-wide upsurge in support for one party or another. Many of the results smack of protest voting, with the main beneficiary being the anyone-but-Conservative Party…
Political changes at national level may correct this trajectory, but not unless there are policy changes to match. It would be wrong – indeed reprehensible – to lay all the blame at the door of the outgoing Prime Minister, as tempting as that may be for some! Not least because he made such an impact in winning – in particular so many of those ‘Red Wall’ seats in the north.
In politics, it is not always necessary to count our blessings, but that was certainly how it felt in Medway once we saw the results from this round of local elections. Had Medway gone to the polls this May then it may have been a real struggle to maintain the control we have enjoyed since 2000. As things stand, we will ask the electorate for a new mandate in 2023.
This election may be more difficult to call, not least because of extensive boundary changes. The slightly unusual feature of these changes is an increase in the number of councillors to be returned in Medway from the current 55 to 59. The other unusual feature is the introduction of three single member wards.
Despite boundary changes and bluster from opposition parties, there is much to applaud in Medway. Over the last 22 years, Medway Conservatives have worked hard to build a bigger and better Medway – a far cry from the dark days of Labour whose big idea for balancing budgets was a massive reduction in the street cleaning budget.
For all the current relative – and no doubt transient – unpopularity of the Conservative Party nationally, there is real cause for optimism, and for that we need to look back on our results in 2019. That had not been a great year for Conservatives across Kent, with four District Leaders losing their seats and councils changing hands. Medway bucked that Kent-wide trend, losing only one seat from our overall majority.
I believe the reasons for that were clear. Medway Conservatives put Medway people first, even when that meant disagreeing with some national policies. There was no slavish following of the national party line; instead our determination was to do what was best for Medway. That won us our majority in 2019, and that holds good today.
For us that means maintaining the lowest Council Tax in Kent; retention and indeed enhancement of our grammar schools; investing in services for the most vulnerable; changing our entire stock of street lighting to LED; and arguably the biggest of them all, maintaining weekly collection of all house waste, including green waste and all recycling. All these, and more, come at a cost, with tight financial control the key to effective and sustainable service delivery.
But not every cloud in Medway has a silver lining. In particular, there have been rows locally over Medway’s huge housing target of over 28,000 new homes, and for that we have had to be clear that those housing targets start from Westminster, not Medway. That may be a game-changer come 2023 in some wards, but we will maintain the line that for the genesis for this number, residents need to look beyond the Conservative-run council.
Our inadequate rating for Children’s Services is not exactly a badge of honour, which has required additional investment of over £22 million over the last three years. But we remain determined to invest in our vulnerable children and adults, and despite the financial constraints that investment will continue. Part of that debate has been around government demands that Medway takes more Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASCs). Our argument has been that we are already beyond our capacity to take more UASCs – with some of Medway’s children being placed out of area due to those capacity issues, with the societal and financial problems those bring. So, we will be debating that in the High Court via a judicial review against the government.
Our successes have included acquiring additional resources, with tens of millions being invested in Medway over the last few years. Whether it be Enterprise Zone status for our airport; the redevelopment of our waterfronts, providing new housing and jobs; or taking a leading role in the integration of Health and Social Care, Medway is at the cutting edge of local government in England.
Of course, there will be challenges ahead, but with a track record of achievement across Medway we have a strong foundation from which to go forward. We will be faced with an opposition which has voted against every positive change we have brought forward and remains demonstrably bereft of ideas. Medway’s future will be best secured by the Conservatives.