Medway Council is the local authority of Medway, a local government district in the ceremonial county of Kent, England. The council is a unitary authority, being a district council which also performs the functions of a county council; it is independent from Kent County Council. The council was created on 1 April 1998 and replaced Rochester-upon-Medway City Council and Gillingham Borough Council.Finance and performance management overview and scrutinity committee: "City Status" | Medway Council
The council has been under no overall control since by-elections in February 2025, being run by a minority Labour administration. It meets at the St George's Centre in the Chatham Maritime area of the borough and has its main offices at Gun Wharf in Chatham.
History Throughout the 19th century there had been proposals to join the Medway towns under a single authority. By 1903 moves began to take place: that year saw the creation of the Borough of Gillingham, to which, in 1928, the adjoining parish of Rainham was added.
In 1944, a Medway Towns Joint Amalgamation Committee was formed by the borough corporations of Chatham, Gillingham and Rochester, to discuss the possibility of the towns forming a single county borough. In 1948 the Local Government Boundary Commission recommended that the area become a "most purposes" county borough, but the recommendation was not carried out. In 1956 the Joint Amalgamation Committee decided in favour of the amalgamation and invited representatives from Strood Rural District Council to join the committee."Medway Towns Amalgamation — Favoured by three councils", The Times, 6 November 1956 In 1960, a proposal was made by Rochester Council that the merger be effected by the city absorbing the two other towns, in order to safeguard its ancient charters and city status. This led to Gillingham Council voting to leave the committee, as it believed the three towns should go forward as equal partners."Gillingham leaving merger scheme", The Times, 3 February 1960 On 9 March, the committee held its last meeting, with the Chatham representatives voting to dissolve the body and those from Rochester voting against. The motion to disband was passed on the casting vote of the chairman, Alderman Semple from Chatham."Medway Towns split over merger — Committee disbands", The Times, 10 March 1960
Under the Local Government Act 1972, on 1 April 1974 the City of Rochester, the Borough of Chatham and part of Strood Rural District were amalgamated to form the Borough of Medway, a local government district in the county of Kent. Gillingham chose to remain separate. Under letters patent the former city council area was to continue to be styled the "City of Rochester" to "perpetuate the ancient name" and to recall "the long history and proud heritage of the said city". Letters Patent dated 18 March 1974, text also available from Medway Council archives website The city was unique, as it had no council or charter trustees and no mayor or civic head. In 1979, the Borough of Medway was renamed as Rochester-upon-Medway, and in 1982 further letters patent transferred the city status to the entire borough.Publishing Letters Patent dated 25 January 1982, text also available from Medway Council archives website
On 1 April 1998, the existing local government districts of Rochester-upon-Medway and Gillingham were abolished under the local government review and merged to become the new unitary authority of Medway, administratively independent from Kent County Council. The Lieutenancies Act 1997 was amended to keep Medway in Kent for ceremonial purposes. With effect from 1 April 1998, the incoming council changed the borough and non-metropolitan county's name from Medway Towns to just Medway.
City status Since it was the local government district of Rochester-upon-Medway that officially held city status under the 1982 letters patent, when it was abolished, it also ceased to be a city. The other local government districts with city status that were abolished around this time (Bath and Hereford) appointed charter trustees to maintain the existence of the city and the mayoralty. However, Rochester-upon-Medway City Council had decided not to and as a result their city status was rescinded. Medway Council apparently only became aware of this when they discovered that Rochester was not on the Lord Chancellor's Office's list of cities."Error costs Rochester city status", BBC news, Thursday, 16 May 2002.Medway Council – Regeneration and Community Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Report on Rochester City Status, 4 March 2003.
Medway applied for city status in the 2000 and 2002 competitions, but was unsuccessful. In 2010, it started to refer to the "City of Medway" in promotional material, but it was rebuked and instructed not to do so in future by the Advertising Standards Authority.
Medway Council made a further bid for city status in 2012, when three cities were afforded the honour as part of The Queen's Diamond Jubilee civic honours competition. Ultimately Medway was unsuccessful with the eventual winners being Chelmsford (Essex), Perth (Perthshire), and St Asaph (Denbighshire).
Abolition and replacement Under current local government reform plans, Medway Council will be abolished in 2028, with its area forming part of a new North Kent unitary authority which will also include the districts of Dartford and Gravesham. Elections to the new authority will take place in May 2027.
Governance As a unitary authority, the council provides both district-level and county-level services. Parts of the borough (generally the more rural north and south-west) are included in civil parishes, which form an additional tier of local government for their areas.
Political control Following the 2023 election, the council was under Labour majority control. Labour lost their majority following two by-elections in February 2025, both of which were won by Reform UK at the expense of Labour. Labour continued to run the council as a minority administration, partly assisted by the fact that two of the independent councillors were former Labour councillors who were suspended from the party. These two councillors have subsequently been readmitted to Labour, returning the council to a Labour majority.
The first election to the council was held in 1997. It acted as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities until the new arrangements formally came into effect on 1 April 1998. Political control of the council since 1998 has been as follows: (Put "Medway" in search box to see specific results.)
Party in controlYears 1998–2003 2003–2023 2023–2025 2025 2025-present
Leadership The role of Mayor of Medway is largely ceremonial. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The first leader, John Shaw, had been the last leader of the old Rochester-upon-Medway City Council. The leaders since 1998 have been:
Councillor Party From To John Shaw 1 April 1998 Apr 1999 Paul Godwin May 1999 May 2000 Rodney Chambers May 2000 May 2015 Alan Jarrett 27 May 2015 May 2023 Vince Maple 24 May 2023
Composition Following the 2023 election and subsequent by-elections and changes of allegiance up to July 2026, the composition of the council was:
Party Councillors 31 18 3 7Total59
Five of the independents sit together as the 'Independent Group'.
Digital services
Artificial intelligence In April 2026, Medway Council launched Agent Ex, an AI search tool developed with Jadu that replaced keyword search and provides answers from council website content using typed, spoken, or multilingual queries.
Elections
Since the last boundary changes in 2023, the council has comprised 59 councillors representing 24 wards, with each ward electing one, two or three councillors. Elections are held every four years.
Premises
Full council meetings are generally held at the St George's Centre, along with some committee meetings. It was completed in 1906 as a chapel for the Royal Naval Barracks, Chatham. The building has a Chatham postal address, but was in the borough of Gillingham prior to the creation of Medway in 1998.
The council's main offices are usually at Gun Wharf on Dock Road in Chatham. The building was completed in 1978 as offices for Lloyd's of London. They vacated it in 2006, after which the council bought the building to use as its headquarters. The building was temporarily closed in 2023 following the discovery of problems with parts of the building's reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete structure. The building is not anticipated to reopen until 2026.
Arms
Financial difficulties The council has been grappling with significant financial difficulties in recent years, leading to growing concerns about its ability to continue providing essential public services. In early 2024, the council faced a projected budget gap of £28 million for the 2024/25 financial year, with projections indicating even larger shortfalls in subsequent years. By 2025/26, the gap could reach £49 million, and by 2026/27, £65 million. This alarming situation led some to predict that the council might be forced to declare bankruptcy or issue a Section 114 order, restricting spending to only essential services. These concerns were further exacerbated by the council's rising debt levels, which had already reached £225 million by 2024, the highest of any district council in Kent. While the debt was accumulated through large capital projects aimed at regenerating Medway, such as the redevelopment of Mountbatten House and the Pentagon Shopping Centre, the financial burden has placed significant strain on the council's ability to meet its obligations.