North Kent Council: Dartford Asks for 19 Seats, Not 18

Dartford and its neighbours say the government’s plan for the new North Kent Council would leave voters here with 16% electoral inequality. They have asked for the council to have 84 councillors instead of 81.

The detail is in a Local Government Reorganisation update going to Dartford Borough Council’s Overview and Scrutiny Committee on Tuesday 8 September. (Local Government Reorganisation Update, Overview and Scrutiny Committee, 8 September 2026)

The business case ministers picked in July proposed 81 councillors for North Kent, split 48 to Medway, 15 to Gravesham and 18 to Dartford. The report says that when officers checked it against the actual electorate, using December 2025 figures, the split produced “a significant 16% electoral inequality” between Medway and the Dartford and Gravesham side.

The three North Kent authorities “unanimously agreed” to ask for 84 seats instead:

Dartford’s chief executive has already sent in proposed interim wards, drawn from the borough’s existing wards, after consulting the council leader and the shadow leader. The report is clear about who decides: “The final decision remains with the Minister.”

Medway gets half the seats on the committee that plans it

Before the new council exists, a Joint Committee runs the preparation. The government settled its make-up in a letter to the Kent authorities, and it did not accept what the Kent chief executives had asked for. This report dates that letter 20 July; the version the government published, which we reported in August, is dated 22 July.

The Joint Committee will have 16 councillors. Half of them, eight, represent Medway Council. Kent County Council gets four. Dartford and Gravesham get four between them. The chair will be a Medway member.

The Kent chief executives had proposed equal representation across the districts, the county and Medway. They also asked for a deputy senior responsible officer for the whole Kent programme, and for each area’s “Place Lead” to be chosen locally. Ministers said no on both counts for North Kent: the Place Lead here will come from Medway. The report says the Kent chiefs “have collectively now written back to the MHCLG setting out their unanimous position”, and adds, plainly, “It remains to be seen whether this is accepted.”

The dates that have firmed up

• The Structural Changes Order, the law that creates the new councils and abolishes the old ones, is expected in force in early 2027. The report gives two dates for this and does not reconcile them: one paragraph says the Order “will come into force in March 2027”, a later one that it is “anticipated that the Order will be made, and so come into force, in early 2027”.
• The Joint Committee starts once the Order is in force, around March 2027. Kent leaders have agreed voluntary arrangements to keep work moving until then, and a report on those goes to Dartford’s Cabinet this month.
• Elections in May 2027 will be to the new shadow council, not to Dartford Borough Council.
• Dartford Borough Council is abolished on 1 April 2028, and runs services until that day.

The Order has several stages left. Before it is formally laid, ministers send the draft informally to legal advisers to the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments. After that it goes through:

• the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments
• the Lords’ Secondary Legislation Scrutiny Committee
• a debate by a committee of each House
• approval motions in both Houses

What it is costing Dartford

The government is paying £900,000 per new unitary towards transition costs, £3.6m across Kent and Medway, plus up to £150,000 each for the practical demands around adult and children’s services.

The council’s own assessment is that this is not enough. The report states the grant “is unlikely to cover the full costs that will be incurred”, and sets out two other pots:

• Dartford has budgeted a £1,500,000 contribution this financial year to a reorganisation reserve, agreed in the February 2026 budget papers, for its own share of the costs.
• The Kent Business Rates Pool closed on 31 March 2026 leaving £978,591 unallocated, and it was agreed that this residual goes towards LGR costs across Kent and Medway.

The report also names the hardest part of the work, and it is not bins: pulling apart county-wide services, “particularly adults and children’s services”. Some may have to stay as shared arrangements across the whole of Kent.

All 14 councils have asked for an elected mayor

There is a second change moving alongside this one. On 5 August 2026 the leaders and chief executives of all 14 Kent and Medway councils wrote jointly to the Prime Minister. The letter backed a Mayoral Strategic Authority for the area, and proposed that it start on the same day as the new councils, 1 April 2028.

That followed the government’s “Rewiring the State” statement of 31 July, which said areas wanting to start with a mayor should be able to do so rather than passing through a non-mayoral stage first. Civil servants have confirmed the 5 August letter counts as the area’s formal position, and the report says announcements on the next wave of strategic authorities are expected from September.

What it means for you

• Your vote next May is for a different council. There will be no Dartford Borough Council election in 2027; the poll will elect North Kent councillors on interim wards built from existing borough wards.
• How many councillors Dartford gets is still open. The ask is 19; the minister decides.
• Dartford is a minority voice in the planning stage. Four seats out of 16, shared with Gravesham, on a committee chaired by Medway.
• Council tax harmonisation is still unaddressed. Nothing in this report says how the different rates in Dartford, Gravesham and Medway will be brought together. Our Dartford council tax bands page carries the current figures.

The committee meets at 7pm on 8 September at the Civic Centre, Home Gardens, and the papers are published in full. (Agenda, Overview and Scrutiny Committee, 8 September 2026)

Background: Dartford Council abolished 1 April 2028, what happens next.