Thanet Greens welcome the emerging debate about the future of Kent
County Council (KCC). In collaboration with community organisations, residents
and business groups, and other political parties, we will play a full and
active role in developing ideas for a new system of government which might
ultimately replace KCC.
For many years Greens have argued that KCC is too large and unwieldy and
lacks any real connection and accountability to the people it serves. We
believe that local government should, by definition, be based as close to its
electors as possible.
This is why we think it’s sensible for Thanet District Council to join
with Dover or Canterbury councils to create a unitary authority covering a
population of 250,000 – 300,000 people; rather than setting up an East Kent
super council comprising of Shepway, Dover, Thanet and Canterbury councils to
serve over 700,000 people, as favoured by both Labour and the Tories. Mega-councils
on this scale would be just as inaccessible, out of touch and unwieldy as KCC.
In any event the Greens will be arguing for a referendum so that the
people can decide for themselves what form of government will replace KCC,
rather than having what might be an unpopular or unworkable system imposed from
above by Kent’s political elite. Thanet Greens also believe that if there is to be a fundamental restructuring of local government in Kent, the new councils created by this process should be elected on the basis of proportional representation ensuring that everybody’s vote really counts. We believe that the voting age for these new council should be reduced to 16 and that the new councils are run by a cross party committee system rather than the uncountable, secretive, single party Cabinet systems of governance which are a sad feature of most of Kent’s Town Halls.
Thanet Greens believe that the abolition of old fashioned, out of touch KCC could herald a modern, dynamic system of local government in Kent which could be the envy of the rest of the country.
