In a break from tradition, I’m going to deviate from my usual county councillor column this month and write a single column as a combined borough and county councillor or ‘twin hatter’ (the description used in political circles). Normal service will be resumed next month.
First of all, I’d like to say a huge thank you to the residents of Boughton and Courtenay for putting your faith in me and electing me to represent you at Swale Borough Council for the next four years.
As you may be aware, shortly after the elections I was elected to be the Chair of Swale Borough Council’s Environment Committee, a role which not only covers climate change and other ‘green’ issues, but also takes in everything from bin collections and churchyards to fly tipping and stray dogs, (and a great deal more).
After an intense first few weeks of getting to grips with the dual roles, my workload is finally beginning to settle into a routine and I’m looking forward to the coming years. I’ve found the culture at Swale Borough Council to be significantly more open and accessible than it is at Kent County Council. Senior officers are far easier to contact and more forthcoming with responses to questions and enquiries.
In the interest of balance, I should mention that there are a number of factors which may have contributed to this difference in culture. When I started at KCC in May 2021, we were only just coming out of the last Covid lockdown, masks were still commonplace and the induction day at County Hall still involved a fair amount of social distancing. The first two KCC full council meetings of the new council took place at Mote Park sports centre because the council chamber at County Hall was too small to allow councillors and staff to remain safely distanced from each other.
In addition to this, in May 2021 I was entirely new to politics. I think it’s safe to say I’ve learned more over the past two years than at any point since my mid-teens, and although I still have plenty to learn, I now know how best to get the information I need to carry out my role effectively. I have some big plans for the coming years. The biggest challenge will be finding ways to carry them out whilst working with the exceptionally tight budgets we have available.
Faversham Household Waste Recycling Centre (Tip)
Kent County Council will be launching a consultation in mid-July to look at options relating to the Household Waste Recycling Centres across the county. Unfortunately for Faversham and Swale East, the Faversham site is currently lined up for closure in all of the very limited set of ‘options’ they have proposed.
My colleague Mark Hood is on a working group at KCC which has been tasked with writing the consultation document. There is cross party consensus that a significant volume of additional information needs to be made public for the consultation to be meaningful. The cabinet member for Environment at KCC has said that she would be open to alternative suggestions, but the lack of information given currently means any alternatives put forward would be largely based on guesswork.
Swale Borough Councillor for Boughton & Courtenay
Kent County Councillor for Swale East
Kent Green Councillors' News 
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