Devolution delay request gets a 'hard no'

A request by the new Reform UK leadership at Kent County Council (KCC) for a delay to the first stage of local government reorganisation has been turned down.

Council leader Linden Kemkaran said she has been verbally given a "hard no" from Local Government minister Jim McMahon to requests to delay devolution plans until March.

Ms Kemkaran made the request after saying a November 28 deadline was "almost impossible" to meet.

Government plans would see Kent's councils effectively abolish themselves and be replaced by a smaller number of much larger unitary bodies, with the chance for an elected mayor under Deputy Prime Minister Angela Rayner's "Devolution Revolution".

Council leaders in Kent were told via a webinar with government officials that the government intended to adhere to the existing timetable, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Ms Kemkaran wrote to Mr McMahon to say that plans should be delayed as they "should be taken forward transparently and honestly with the residents we serve, and who fund their current and future councils through their taxes".

Stuart Jeffery, Green Party leader of Maidstone Borough Council, said: "I think that local government reorganisation is not everyone's choice but it's happening and we have to make the best of it.

"We can't delay stuff because it just causes anxiety and confusion.

"We have to get it over and done with and I am pleased there is no delay even if it puts a bit of extra pressure on us all."

Mr McMahon's department has been approached for comment.

Reform UK won 57 of 81 seats in May but will have to carry out the government's wishes for the changes in this four year term, possibly within three years.

KCC's former Conservative leader Roger Gough, who lost his seat at the election, had hoped Kent would be accepted into the first batch of English counties to be fast-tracked through. The government rejected Kent's application.

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