by business editor Trevor Sturgess

Kent TV, the internet channel paid for by Kent County Council taxpayers, has failed to fulfil its early promise and needs radical reform, according to one of its own governors.

Martin Jackson, the respected media pundit and founder of former Kent television broadcaster TVS, claims the service is “largely perceived as a creature of the county council which is not surprising as the governors are chaired by the chief executive of KCC and peopled in the main by public sector bureaucrats.”

The board of governors - set up to ensure impartiality and adjudicate on complaints - had been “largely redundant.”

He writes: “Radical reform is vital. A new board, shorn of its public sector placement but representative of the wider Kent business community, and with real teeth over finance as well as programming is needed.”

Mr Jackson, from Hawkhurst, has been a governor for more than a year and launches his broadside in the latest issue of Kent Business, out this week with the Kent Messenger, Medway Messenger, Kentish Gazette and Kentish Express.

He says changes need to be made to the station that has cost taxpayers £1.6m and is produced by Sir Bob Geldof’s Ten Alps company.

Mr Jackson adds: “Despite attracting a substantial audience, now climbing towards an impressive two million, Kent TV has not fulfilled its early promise.”

Roger Gough, KCC’s Cabinet member for Corporate Support Services and Performance Management said the community channel had received more than two million hits since its launch two years ago.

“Kent TV provides the county with an innovative and effective way of communicating with residents of all ages and we are very proud of its achievements,” he said.

However, KCC backed the call for board changes. “We agree with Martin Jackson that the Board of Governors of Kent TV needs strengthening. This was a recommendation of an independent review we commissioned and we plan to act on this in the near future.”

• Read Martin Jackson’s hard-hitting column in Kent Business, out this week with the Kent Messenger, Medway Messenger, Kentish Express and Kentish Gazette.