Nigel Farage puts a Reform-led council’s “slow start” down to his party being a “rethink” on local government, in the wake of cancelled meetings.
At the local elections on May 1, Reform won 57 of the 81 seats on offer at Kent County Council (KCC), which led to many “shocked” new councillors.
Since then, KCC opposition leader Antony Hook says “most committees have not met once”, adding that no “key” decisions have been taken.
On Monday, Mr Farage arrived at Kent County Council and was met by KCC leader Linden Kemkaran for an update on the authority’s work.
After the meeting, he told the PA news agency: “I’m very proud of the election result, the stunning number of seats that we won – way more than we thought – and so there were an awful lot of shocked new councillors walking in here a few weeks ago.
“We’ve established a cabinet, we’ve got a full council meeting on Thursday at which our first big savings will be announced.
“This whole, ‘oh, you’re very slow at getting going’ = we’re not a continuum, we’re not here to do exactly what was done before. We’re a rethink on the way local government in Kent works, we’re getting bedded in, we’re making progress.”
On Kent County Council’s website, its meetings calendar shows that almost 50% of the meetings in June and July were cancelled.
Ms Kemkaran pointed out that these were meetings set up by the previous administration and there was “no way” the new Reform councillors could have stuck to the schedule.
She said: “Those meetings were set for May and June, clearly, 57 new councillors, to get appointed to cabinet, to deputy cabinet, to get to grips with their portfolio.
“Clearly there was no way on God’s earth, with the greatest will in the world, we were going to be able to get all the cabinets and the committee places sorted out.”
She added that it would “take time” for councillors to “work out how to do their jobs” in the new administration.
The leader of KCC’s opposition, Mr Hook, said: “The election was on May 1 – we are two months in, and most committees have not met once.
“No key decisions have been taken. Real people are suffering while Reform councillors dither, delay and do anything except the job they were elected to do.
“The problems are urgent and Liberal Democrats demand action to improve services people depend on.”
During his visit, Mr Farage also criticised the UK Government plan to restructure local government and told his party councillors to “fight tooth and nail” against the plans.
“If people out there in the street knew what was being proposed they would be against it, so we will launch a campaign on this, an education campaign,” said Mr Farage.
He added: “If the county feel as strongly as I do, well, we may well take that to a referendum.”
Kent and Medway were not selected to be to be a part of the Government’s Devolution Priority Programme, which would include a mayor.
However, there are moves towards turning their two-tier systems of district and county council into divided unitary authorities, which KCC’s Reform council leader called “a bit communistic”.
Ms Kemkaran told PA: “I worry that local government reorganisation, carving us up into unitary authorities, it’s a bit… it just strikes me as a little bit communistic.
“You know, you’re taking the power away from people to elect their district councillors, their county councillors, their town councillors, and you’re basically passing it up the chain.”
The Government has argued that unitary local government can enhance accountability by making it easier for residents to understand who is responsible for public services and local decisions.
