Ministers paused the North Kent merger on 7 September and told councils to stop implementing it. Dartford's May 2027 borough elections are back on.

The plan to abolish Dartford Borough Council and fold it into a new North Kent Council has been paused, and the council has been told to stop working on it.

The instruction came in a letter to council leaders dated 7 September 2026 from Jim McMahon OBE MP, Minister for Local Government, Devolution and Regional Growth. He is leading a review of the whole local government reorganisation programme, and he is blunt about what councils should do meanwhile:

“Until this review has concluded, I am asking you, together with your partners, to cease work on implementing the decisions that were announced in July.”

Kent and Medway’s decision was one of those July decisions. Dartford Borough Council confirmed the effect in its own statement the same day: “local government reorganisation (LGR) in Kent and Medway is to be paused pending a review” (Dartford Borough Council; letter to council leaders).

Table showing that the July 2026 Kent and Medway decision, the interim ward proposals, the Structural Changes Order, the Joint Committee and the 1 April 2028 abolition date are all on hold, while the May 2027 borough elections go ahead to existing ward boundaries
What the pause does to each date in the Kent and Medway timetable. Graphic by Dartford Online.

What is paused, and what is not

Four areas had their March decisions withdrawn outright: Essex with Southend-on-Sea and Thurrock, Hampshire with the Isle of Wight, Portsmouth and Southampton, Norfolk, and Suffolk. Kent is not in that group.

Kent and Medway sits in the second group. The letter says the review “will look at the programme as a whole and this will include reviewing the 14 decisions made in July”. Cambridgeshire and Peterborough and West Sussex, where no decision has been taken yet, are also in the review. Only Surrey is out of it, because its two new councils are “already established in law” and go live in April 2027.

So for Dartford, nothing has been cancelled. The July decision stands on paper while the review runs. What has stopped is the work of making it happen.

Your vote in May 2027 changes back

This is the part that reaches residents directly.

Under the reorganisation timetable, the borough elections due in May 2027 were to be scrapped. In their place would come elections to the new North Kent Council, with the winners serving most of their first year on a shadow authority. The council’s own report puts it plainly: “The SCO will replace any scheduled local elections in May 2027 with elections to the new councils.”

The letter reverses it: “this review means elections scheduled to take place in May 2027 will go ahead to existing council boundaries.”

In plain terms, next May you are expected to be voting for Dartford borough councillors in the wards that exist now, not for members of a council that does not yet exist.

Tonight’s committee gets a report the pause has overtaken

Dartford Borough Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee meets at 7pm tonight, Tuesday 8 September, in Room B12 at the Civic Centre. Item 14 on its agenda is a Local Government Reorganisation update, written before the announcement (agenda; LGR report).

Read now, it is a list of things that have just been suspended:

  • 1 April 2028. The report says Dartford Borough Council “will remain responsible for services in its area until it is abolished on 1 April 2028”
  • Early 2027. The Structural Changes Order, the law that creates the new councils and abolishes the old ones, was anticipated to be made then
  • March 2027. The North Kent Joint Committee, which would run the preparation, was expected to come into effect around then, with voluntary arrangements in the meantime and a report on those due at this month’s Cabinet
  • A team already hired. A Programme Director is in post, a Strategic Partner has been appointed, and Theme Boards led by Kent chief executives have been agreed

The money already committed

Dartford has budgeted £1,500,000 this financial year for a reorganisation reserve, set aside in the February 2026 budget papers for its own share of costs. The report says that figure “will need to be regularly reviewed as more certainty is known on the actual costs likely to be incurred”. Certainty is now further away than it was on Friday.

Government money was also on the table. The Secretary of State had agreed £900,000 per new unitary authority towards transition costs, which for Kent and Medway’s four new councils comes to £3,600,000, plus £150,000 per new council for the practical demands around adult and children’s services. The council’s own report warns that the grant “is unlikely to cover the full costs that will be incurred”. A further £978,591 left over when the Kent Business Rates Pool closed on 31 March 2026 had been earmarked towards reorganisation costs across Kent and Medway.

None of that money is described as withdrawn. What is unclear is what happens to it, and to the work already paid for, if the review changes course.

The argument Dartford had just won, and now cannot bank

The council had been pressing on two points, and the pause freezes both.

Seats. The business case ministers chose gave North Kent 81 councillors: 48 to Medway, 15 to Gravesham, 18 to Dartford. Officers checked that against the December 2025 electorate and found “a significant 16% electoral inequality” between Medway and the Dartford and Gravesham side. The three authorities “unanimously agreed” to ask for 84 instead, which would give Dartford 19 and Gravesham 17. Interim ward proposals went in by the 17 August deadline. The report notes: “The final decision remains with the Minister.”

Who runs the preparation. The Joint Committee was to have 16 members, eight of them from Medway, four from Kent County Council and four shared between Dartford and Gravesham, with a Medway chair and a Medway Place Lead. Kent’s chief executives wrote back objecting. The report’s verdict was already uncertain: “It remains to be seen whether this is accepted.” It is now uncertain for longer.

What the council says

Dartford Borough Council’s statement is short. Council leaders across the county “will be seeking clarity from the government on a number of issues”, and in the meantime the council remains “100% focused on delivering the best possible services for those who live, work and study in the county while supporting our staff who do an incredible job day in and day out”.

The Secretary of State, Angela Rayner, told Parliament she wanted “to satisfy myself firstly that the right process is in place, that it is robust, and of course complies with the law”, and secondly “to fully test whether our proposals for local government reorganisation meet the priorities of a new administration and a new Prime Minister”.

What it means for you

  • Your bin collections, council tax and planning applications do not change. Dartford Borough Council continues to run them exactly as now. Our guides to bin collection days, council tax bands and planning applications still apply
  • You are now expected to vote in a borough election in May 2027, in the wards that exist today, rather than in an election to a new council
  • No date has been given for the review to report. The minister says only that “next steps are communicated early and clearly to the sector”
  • Do not treat 1 April 2028 as fixed. Anything you have read, here included, that describes Dartford Borough Council ending on that date is now conditional on the outcome of this review

We reported the original decision in August and the seat dispute last week. Both of those pages describe a timetable that is now on hold.

Sources

Reported on 8 September 2026 from the minister’s letter, the council’s statement and the committee report. We will update this page when the review reports.