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Catch up with all the latest political news across the county with Meghan Shaw.
This week we took a look at some of the biggest political stories this year.
This week we took a look at some of the biggest political stories this year.
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TVTranscript
00:19Hello and welcome to the Kent Politics Show here on KNTV. I'm Megan Shaw and let's take a look at
00:24some of the highlights over the past few months. For the second time in a month new Prime Minister
00:30Andy Burnham has visited Kent but this time to Dover to discuss the small boats. We're just going
00:37to be relentless. People want to see this issue addressed. I heard that on the doorsteps in Maker
00:41Field but we also need to build a system that offers safe routes for people as well because
00:45that also takes away the selling point of the gangs. So on every level we've got to come at this.
00:52But his visit quickly drew criticism with Kent County Council leader Lyndon Kim Caron questioning
00:57the Prime Minister's priorities in a post on social media. Meanwhile Reform UK say that if they were
01:03elected they would deploy Royal Navy ships to intercept small boats in the Channel and send
01:08back to France. Since becoming Prime Minister two weeks ago over 2,000 people have crossed the
01:13English Channel in small boats and the latest figures show the small boats crossing are down
01:18by 43%. Immigration is one of the biggest issues still debated in politics today and during a recent
01:25visit to Dover Prime Minister Andy Burnham gave his strongest message on the topic yet saying that the
01:31new administration will be relentless in tackling the small boats. So now for many people the focus
01:37is shifting to whether or not the new Prime Minister can make good on his promise.
01:41I don't believe it. They're not relentless about anything except taxing people and taking more
01:49money off working people. I don't think he'll succeed unless he has a great deal more help from
01:57the European nations. Obviously France don't want them there so they're quite happy for them to come over
02:03to us. I think it's like a massive diversion from what the real problems are. We want to misdirect
02:13our attention for how things are getting expensive, how hard life is getting rather than taking
02:20responsibility for themselves. As a strong supporter of Burnham's policies, Medway's own council leader
02:27says the government's focus is the right one. I mean it was only last year that Nigel Farage was on
02:31the clifftops himself singing the same message so how is this any different? Well look of course we
02:36are in governance we've got to deliver and if you look at the numbers both the numbers of prosecutions
02:41but the number of people traveling across the English Channel the numbers crossing are down
02:47numbers being enforced are up. For Kent when many of these crossings first reach British shores
02:52the Prime Minister insists a new approach will work but with small boats continuing to arrive
02:57pressure remains to turn those promises into results. Nayla Mahamud for KMTB in Dover.
03:05It's all smiles here at Chilmington Green after months of campaigning to bring public transport
03:11to this secondary school. Over the last month we've covered the concerns and fears of parents here
03:17whose children were forced to walk along unlit pathways and near busy roads to get to school from
03:25Ashford. Following our coverage stagecoach have announced they will run a twice daily service
03:30from the Singleton suburb. And now we've got a safe way of getting our children to school
03:35especially with September coming with the winter months and yeah couldn't be happier it's brilliant
03:40news. Yeah just a serious just felt disbelief initially and but absolutely overjoyed to the
03:47announcement. It just gives them there a bit of independence back as well for the kids because
03:51they should be able to make their own way to and from school. The service is being operated by
03:55stagecoach without any financial support from Kent County Council. The authority had previously said
04:03there was a safe and viable route from Ashford to the isolated school and that its safety had even
04:10been assessed twice. Once the parents work out they can put their kids on a safe bus route to school
04:15each
04:15day a lot of the traffic that comes up and down this link road will start to decrease and people
04:20will get on green you know and sensible transport to get their kids to school and that's what we
04:26want. We don't want secondary school kids being dropped at school we want them getting there
04:30themselves safely and getting on a bus and the reason we did this was because the walking route was not
04:35safe. Stagecoach says it's excited to step in and run a much sought after service and with hundreds of
04:43pupils at the school campaigners say demand will only grow in the coming years. Olly Lida at Chilmington Green
04:53St Margaret's Bay in Dover is usually more familiar with holiday makers than policy makers
05:00but the leader of the Liberal Democrats has become the latest politician to take a trip to the beach to
05:06announce his plans that he believes will stop the so-called small boats crisis. This is the only way
05:13to solve the problem and by the way it would save the taxpayer billions. The Lib Dems plan is to
05:19join
05:19a new EU migration pact that would allow the UK to return asylum seekers to the first EU country that
05:28they
05:28entered. Within the last six months both Reform UK's Nigel Farage and Prime Minister Andy Burnham have
05:35headed to the port town to air out their migration plans but Dover isn't exactly a Liberal Democrat
05:41stronghold. Has Dover become this sort of theatrical performative place for politicians to come down
05:48and talk about small boat crossings is that fair? No the small boats crossing crisis is something that
05:55I think worries people in Dover I think it worries people across Kent and across the country we need to
05:59solve it. Now the rain might have come out for Ed Davey but will the support
06:05for his new plan here in Dover. I went to go speak to people up and down St Margaret's Bay
06:11to see if they really think his plans could change the tide. I don't think he'll do anything at all
06:17to stop the small boats crisis I don't believe anything he says. Why's that? Because he's just full of rubbish.
06:25Even if it was decided it was necessary for some of them or many of them to go back to
06:31their homes
06:32it's just not that easy. Many of their countries won't accept them. Many of them have nothing to go
06:39back to except destitution. Europe should be working together to get rid of them all together.
06:44Ed Davey's not going to get rid of them. No one's going to get rid of them. The only person
06:49that's got a chance
06:50is Nigel Flourge. If it was easy we'd be doing it. The politicians want to please the people because
06:57they want to get re-elected and they want to win votes. It won't be long until Kent will be
07:01headed
07:01to the polling booth to vote for their new councils. But is this yet another major party leader trying
07:08to win over the White Cliffs? Megan Shaw in Dover. Disgruntled dog walkers in a park in Sittingbourne
07:15town. Worried their days enjoying the open space might be numbered. Three acres of nature in Riddles
07:22Road is under threat after being enjoyed for the last 75 years. Now that Kent County Council,
07:29who own the land, has decided to sell up shop. But locals are far from wagging their tails over the
07:36decision. The communication we've had on that has been non-existent. There's been no formal communication
07:40with residents. So we're now taking it ourselves to inform the local community. This space of land
07:45is probably the last bastion of green space that we've got in the area. We have construction to the
07:50east, construction to the west and this last green oasis is all really we've got left. Residents
07:56in particular fear the land might be lost to housing developers and feel there's already enough
08:02construction work going on around them. We're becoming a bit of a concrete jungle around here.
08:10This is the only free space around here. There are probably plenty of other places
08:18that across Sittingbourne that could have houses built on them just fine. But if this was a huge
08:25piece of land I might feel differently because obviously people do need houses to live on. But
08:31it's not really. It's just going to be a small development and it's going to rob the residents
08:36of this immediate area of a green space that is walkable. This forms part of a larger trend of
08:43the council selling off its assets such as buildings and artwork to try raise money. Yet the Labour MP for
08:50the area, Kevin McKenna, argues that the council shouldn't be selling off assets when it won't exist in
08:57a few years when new councils under local government reorganisation take over. A Kent County Council
09:04spokesperson said we are presently inviting comments on the proposed disposal of open space land at
09:11Riddles Road in Borden. The land was declared surplus in July 2026 meaning KCC has no operational use for the
09:19land. But no decision has yet been made. Megan Shaw in Sittingbourne.
09:31In the end there were just 34 votes in it. A hotly contested by-election for Guston, Kingsdown and St.
09:44Margaret's at Cliff. This by-election has been described as the fight for the right with the
09:50Conservatives facing down Reform UK and restored Britain in their first big election contest here
09:58in the county. But looking left, the Green Party managed to edge them all out in a very narrow victory.
10:06I think the Green Party is absolutely burgeoning as more and more people see the light and realise
10:12that we mustn't condescendingly look after poor old nature. That we are a part of nature. We are a part
10:21of the world and we're only going to save ourselves by appreciating our situation. So I just don't feel
10:29the right wing comes into it. With a 45% turnout, the count was a nail-biter. One which the
10:35reform UK candidate James DeFriend did not attend due to childcare duties. In the end he got 733 votes
10:45to the Greens, 767. Reform UK has pointed the finger to restore Britain, eating into their vote
10:53share. The hard right party managed to secure more than 10% of the vote, one of its best ever
11:00electoral
11:01performances.
11:02This spitting the vote concept, I don't buy into it, we're different parties. The reality is we probably
11:08took a chunk out of the reform vote, which for us as a party demonstrates that we are here, we're
11:15here to
11:15stay and we're pleased with that.
11:19The Conservatives trailed the third place in the contest, Labour even further behind in fourth.
11:25For the Greens though, this was a big night. Not only their first ever councillor on the White Cliffs,
11:32but the second time it has beaten Reform UK in a by-election it was tipped to win after trouncing
11:39the right wing party in Margate back in April. But even then there's no doubt that this victory
11:46came down to the tightest of margins.
12:25The Conservatives for the Greens, it seems to come here to be a fair to see.
12:26That's a very good idea.
12:26I think our Regards are, um, or would you like to have another draft.
12:29There are a couple, that's a good idea.
12:29I'm going to buy this as an international team in the Irish Club.
12:29I'm going to buy this as well.
12:34And I'm going to buy this as well.
12:35I'm going to buy this as an international team.
12:35You're going to buy this for one of our best practices.
12:37But then I'm going to buy this for a while, and because I want to buy this.
12:45.
13:15.
13:45.
14:15.
15:08Home to rare farmland birds, protected wildlife, and now, potentially, a national energy
15:15converter station.
15:18Construction on Minster Marshes is part of the National Grid's C-Link plan to create
15:23an undersea electricity link between Kent and Suffolk.
15:27John Rothman, who lives next to the marshes, isn't happy about the proposals.
15:32Like any development of that sort, when you're building on farmland and what is probably a
15:38nature reserve, one sort or another, it can never be good.
15:42It's all about money, it's never about anything else.
15:44So, right behind me here on Minster Marshes, you can see the proposed site for the converter
15:50station and what seems to be two bridges being built, one on each side of the site, connecting
15:56it to the surrounding marshes.
15:58The proposed location sits within 20 metres of a site of special scientific interest,
16:04a status given to areas valuable for their wildlife, plants or the make-up of the land.
16:09And local campaign group Save Minster Marshes are particularly concerned about the impact
16:15on the wildlife.
16:16It's the most environmentally damaging site out of any of them.
16:21You know, there's just hundreds and hundreds of different species of birds.
16:24There's lots of schedule 1 birds like long-eared owls and marsh harriers.
16:30I mean, water voles, beavers, you name it.
16:34Fears about what the current work at the site could mean have even reached Parliament.
16:39Can I direct his attention to the predatory activities of another private company, National Grid,
16:47who are seeking to pre-empt the construction of a station on the Minster Marshes.
16:57The National Grid say they are developing the Sea Link proposals responsibly,
17:01accounting for the local environment and community feedback.
17:04In a statement, they said the current work near Minster is limited to archaeological excavation
17:09and other early investigative activity, which is approved by the local authority.
17:15They added that any permanent infrastructure would still need development consent from the Secretary of State.
17:21The Secretary of State for Energy Security and Net Zero will announce her decision at the end of October.
17:27And in a statement, her department said that they are reversing decades of underinvestments
17:32to upgrade the grid, building an energy system that can bring down bills for good.
17:36They added that all projects are subject to a rigorous planning process
17:40in which the views and interests of the local community are considered.
17:45Residents and MPs have just under eight weeks before they find out about the future of Thanet's Minster Marshes.
17:52Sophie Denny for KMTV in Thanet.
17:57I think we've got to fight for this last remaining piece of religion because it's actually in Thanet.
18:02A packed hall on a weekday evening.
18:04Drawing attendees from all ages with one thing in common.
18:09To save oak and wood.
18:14With Kent County Council's plans to quarry on ancient woodland outside of Maidstone squeezed through,
18:20it's now up to a planning inspectorate to decide if the development can commence.
18:25But campaigners aren't willing to go down without a fight.
18:30We're in a consultation phase here, so we've invited as many residents, local residents as possible, to come to this
18:37meeting to learn more about the woodland, the threat, the existential threat to this woodland and how that they can
18:44help.
18:45It isn't uncommon for planning applications to receive objections, but campaigners at this meeting receive specific legal advice on how
18:54to get a planning inspectorate to listen.
18:56That is why you would make a personal submission.
18:59Alongside environmental groups warning what the demolition of the woods might mean for the county.
19:05They're a really sort of enigmatic species.
19:08And for future generations.
19:14The council have a duty to ensure Kent has the materials it needs to build houses and infrastructure.
19:20And Kentish Ragstone in particular being important in repairing historic buildings like Canterbury Cathedral.
19:27So do campaigners really believe they've got the power to overturn these plans?
19:32Yes, because we've got two clear chances to do that.
19:37One is because the planning inspector will review the plans in depth and be looking at the arguments we're putting
19:44forward.
19:45And we believe that the plan is not legally sound because it breaks the national planning policy framework.
19:53The second hurdle will be a vote at full council in 18 months time.
20:00Now there already is an existing ragstone quarry in the area operated by Gallagher.
20:06And they'd be the contractors should this expansion go ahead.
20:09That means that where I am stood right now might one day be the middle of a mining site.
20:15When I contacted Gallagher they said that they felt that KCC's mineral sites plan is sound.
20:21And that they're happy to go ahead as planned depending on a successful consultation.
20:26Kent County Council is urging the public to take part in the ongoing consultation.
20:31And stressed that the Kent mineral sites plan isn't a planning application.
20:36But rather a legal requirement that there's a steady and adequate supply of materials that the county needs.
20:43But the consultation doesn't close until early October.
20:47And for the friends of Oakham Wood Campaign Group.
20:50The road ahead is so long they could risk losing the wood for the trees.
20:55Megan Shaw, Embalming.
20:59It's been months of maps, money and meetings.
21:03Now all frozen by a new government announcement.
21:07I have also decided Mr Speaker to conduct a full review of the local government reorganisation programme.
21:15Including the decisions that were announced in July of this year.
21:18It was in July when the government chose to redraw council boundaries in Kent to four large yintry councils.
21:26Which would have seen the 14 councils currently in operation scrapped in 2028.
21:33Now, with these same plans going under further review, councillors are left all over the map.
21:40And what does that even mean? Pause? Does it mean ending?
21:44You know, I don't think these civil servants and government ministers realise just how much work has been put into
21:51it.
21:51A million pounds of taxpayers money has been spent on a process that the government has now pressed pause on
21:58for Kent.
21:58Leaving us in limbo. Again, other authorities have been cancelled completely.
22:03In Kent, we're still under review, whatever that means.
22:06You know, it's absolutely disgraceful for the government to treat the country's largest local authority, which is what Kent is,
22:13in such a shoddy, careless way.
22:16Time will tell how quickly we'll move to local government reorganisation, but there could be no doubt it was a
22:21surprise announcement.
22:22I wasn't expecting to see that on Monday.
22:24And disappointing, because I think, rightfully, people have been planning and getting ready for those elections, which are scheduled for
22:31next May.
22:31Four counties who have previously submitted judicial reviews have had their LGR plans withdrawn.
22:38Though Kent's plans are paused indefinitely, along with 13 other counties.
22:44Some councillors are more certain than others that Kent will ever see an end to its two-tier council system.
22:52You're confident local government reorganisation will eventually come to Kent?
22:56Absolutely. I think government have been very clear on their long-term ambitions to remove the two-tier system of
23:04local government.
23:05None of us are any the wiser, which I think is disgraceful because we have got a council to run.
23:09Things seem to hang in the balance even more for parish councillors, as reviews into whether parish and town councils
23:16will need to change for a post-LGI Kent are already in process.
23:22Canterbury published its response for the first time and recommended a community council in Whitstable and a town council in
23:31Herm Bay.
23:31OK, so my question is whether those things are going to be continued now.
23:35The government understands the amount of work that councils have already put into these new boundary lines.
23:42But for all of Kent's councillors, it seems the work is far from over.
23:47Megan Shaw in Kent.
23:52I'm not scared to sit here and say, if the government do not come up with more money, we're going
23:58to have to lose staff.
24:00Words from the latest Conservative politician to leave the pack.
24:03But for Medway councillor Andrew Lawrence, it isn't for Reform UK, but to create his own new party.
24:10He's launching Medway First, a party to prioritise issues specific to the five towns and eventually to try to raise
24:18these in Parliament too.
24:19If you've walked around Medway saying to yourself, oh my God, I could run this place so much better, I
24:24want to talk to you.
24:25Because you probably can. You know, this current Labour administration and previous Conservative administrations have not improved life for Medway
24:33residents.
24:34You know, if you point to anything in Medway, what's actually changed? What's been improved?
24:40Councillor Lawrence is still a small C Conservative, but he wants his new party to focus more on ideals than
24:47party politics.
24:48With six areas of focus, from being more careful about house building, to boosting transport, to making Medway a place
24:55to be proud of.
24:56It might sound familiar to say that both Labour and Conservatives have failed Medway, as Reform canvass with a similar
25:03message.
25:04But what makes Councillor Lawrence's new party any different?
25:08This election will be an alternative to Reform, because I think Reform will do very well in Medway.
25:14But we will be caring about Medway, not caring about promoting Nigel Farage or any of the other people who
25:22run Reform.
25:23We are going to be caring about Medway.
25:25We're Medway people. We're accountable to Medway people.
25:29That's what my offer is to people who might want to come and stand with us.
25:34While County Hall's opposition is split into fairly equal groups of Tories, Lib Dems, Greens and Restore,
25:42Medway Council has remained solidly Labour versus Conservative.
25:46Could Medway First change that?
25:49Well, the leader of the Conservative group doesn't think so.
25:52I don't think that forming a new political party is what the people of Medway want to see at the
25:57moment.
25:58They want to see their councils getting on and holding the administration to account to deliver better services for people
26:04in our community.
26:05And that's what my team and I are focused on.
26:08Just before the announcement of Medway First, the government also came out and said that LGR in Kent will be
26:14put on pause,
26:16meaning that although Councillor Lawrence originally thought he'd be campaigning for seats on the new North Kent Unitary Authority,
26:23these 2027 elections will now take place in Medway Council as we already know it.
26:30But will Medway First be able to make a dent in Labour's stronghold on Medway Council?
26:37Megan Shaw in Medway.
26:42Well, that's all we've got time for here on the Kent Politics Show.
26:46We'll catch you later.
26:46See you later.