00:00It's been months of maps, money and meetings, now all frozen by a new government announcement.
00:08I have also decided, Mr Speaker, to conduct a full review of the local government reorganisation programme,
00:15including the decisions that were announced in July of this year.
00:19It was in July when the government chose to redraw council boundaries in Kent to four large Yintry councils,
00:27which would have seen the 14 councils currently in operation scrapped in 2028.
00:33Now, with these same plans going under further review, councillors are left all over the map.
00:41And what does that even mean? Pause? Does it mean ending?
00:45I don't think these civil servants and government ministers realise just how much work has been put into it.
00:52A million pounds of taxpayers' money has been spent on a process that the government has now pressed pause on
00:58for Kent,
00:59leaving us in limbo. Again, other authorities have been cancelled completely.
01:03In Kent, we're still under review, whatever that means.
01:07You know, it's absolutely disgraceful for the government to treat the country's largest local authority,
01:12which is what Kent is, in such a shoddy, careless way.
01:16Time will tell how quickly we'll move to local government reorganisation, but there could be no doubt.
01:21It was a surprise announcement. I wasn't expecting to see that on Monday.
01:25And disappointing, because I think, rightfully, people have been planning and getting ready for those elections,
01:30which are scheduled for next May.
01:32Four counties who have previously submitted judicial reviews have had their LGR plans withdrawn,
01:39though Kent's plans are paused indefinitely, along with 13 other counties.
01:44Some councillors are more certain than others that Kent will ever see an end to its two-tier council system.
01:52You're confident local government reorganisation will eventually come to Kent?
01:57Absolutely. I think government have been very clear on their long-term ambitions
02:01to remove the two-tier system of local government.
02:05None of us are any the wiser, which I think is disgraceful, because we have got a council to run.
02:10Things seem to hang in the balance even more for parish councillors,
02:14as reviews into whether parish and town councils will need to change for a post-LGI Kent are already in
02:22process.
02:22Canterbury published its response for the first time and recommended a community council in Whitstable
02:29and a town council in Herne Bay.
02:32So my question is whether those things are going to be continued now.
02:36The government understands the amount of work the councils have already put into these new boundary lines.
02:43But for all of Kent's councillors, it seems the work is far from over.
02:48Megan Shaw in Kent.
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