Rochester governance review consultation results and conclusion

Medway Council decided last night that the community governance arrangements in Rochester should not be changed – that a Town Council is not created in Rochester.

After receiving a petition from 1,623 people in the area the council undertook a Community Governance Review to consider establishing a Town Council for Rochester. A cross-party working group held a 12-week consultation exercise, including a survey, aimed at all 23,000 electors in the area. More than half of the respondents said they were happy with the existing community governance arrangements and felt that another layer of bureaucracy would be of no benefit.

The council considered the group’s recommendations at its meeting on 25 January.

Cllr Rupert Turpin, Medway Council’s Portfolio Holder for Business Management, thanked everyone involved in the petition and those who responded to the consultation. He said: “It was helpful to review the existing arrangements for community governance in the area but we have concluded that we should keep our existing arrangements, which is what the majority of responders thought. We found evidence of ongoing investment in the local area and there is an extensive and comprehensive network of local associations and partnerships to address local issues. The proposal for a new Town Council in Rochester would not be viable as local people did not consider that it would improve their representation, but rather create duplication of effort and increase bureaucracy.”