Man set to become Kent County Council leader named
Published: 12:32, 04 October 2019
Updated: 15:43, 04 October 2019
The new leader of Kent County Council is set to be Roger Gough.
Cllr Gough won a four-way battle for the conservative group leadership.
He is now due to be voted in to what is regarded as one of the top political roles in local government, heading the largest county council in the country, on October 17.
Cllr Peter Oakford, Cllr Roger Gough, Cllr Mike Whiting and Cllr Nick Chard were vying for the job, which Cllr Paul Carter announced he was leaving last month.
Cllr Oakford is the current deputy leader of the council and has responsibility for finance. He was first elected in 2013 and represents the Tunbridge Wells North division.
Before becoming deputy leader, he had a spell as the cabinet member in charge of specialist children’s services at a time when the authority was dealing with the challenge of looking after large numbers of unaccompanied asylum seeker children.
Cllr Roger Gough, who was elected to the council in 2005, is the cabinet member for children’s services. He represents the Sevenoaks North and Darent Valley division.
He took a key role in the creation of a new grammar school annexe in Sevenoaks, the first “new” selective school to be opened for decades.
Cllr Nick Chard, who represents Sevenoaks West, was first elected to the council in 2005. He had a long spell as the cabinet member for finance before falling out with Cllr Carter and was unsuccessful in a leadership bid in 2011.
Cllr Mike Whiting, cabinet member for highways, was elected to Swale West in 2017.
Cllr Gough said: "I am delighted. I think we have had a good and fair contest. An important priority will be to build on what we have done so far in protecting our invisible and sensitive services. many of these things this council does people don’t actually see but they are really really important. I think that it is very important that people recognise that this is a council which has a very clear view of where Kent as a council is going but is visible in day to day life.”
"He said he was determined to continue to focus on reducing the gap between East and West Kent in terms of deprivation and prosperity.
"A lot has been done in East Kent, there has been quite a lot of successful regeneration. Clearly there is a long way to go on that so it is an important priority. We will do everything that we can do to enhance skills levels and opportunities to help bridge that gap."
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Paul Francis