by political editor Paul Francis

The board of Kent TV has lost one of its members after a county councillor quit, saying it needed a major shake-up.

Liberal Democrat Ian Chittenden, who represents Maidstone North East, has resigned from the board today and said he shared recent criticisms levelled at the way the board worked and had misgivings over what was being achieved.

The board was set up to oversee the county council’s £1.4million Internet-based TV channel.

His departure follows a stinging attack by fellow board member Martin Jackson, who said the board had been largely redundant and lacked teeth.

Cllr Chittenden said: “If KCC does agree to continue with Kent TV, it does really have to review what the powers and expectations of governors are. I feel they are very, very limited with much of the decisions going on elsewhere. It is a very difficult position [for governors].”

While Kent TV had not done a bad job, he questioned whether it was duplicating the authority’s own website.

But he reserved his strongest comments for the way in which the council’s ruling administration had reacted to criticism made about the way in which a decision had been made to grant Kent TV a new seven-month contract.

He said the decision to stage a second meeting of the council’s cross-party watchdog scrutiny committee in August to answer criticisms was “over the top and totally unnecessary.”

Last week, board member Martin Jackson said the board of governors had been “largely redundant” and needed radical reform.

Writing in the Kent Business, the KM Group’s business paper, he said: “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.”

Cllr Roger Gough, the cabinet member in charge of Kent TV, said he was puzzled by Cllr Chittenden's timing as the council was reviewing all aspects of KentTV, including the role of governors.

He said: "The whole thing is up for review and it would be unwise to prejudge that in any way and it seems to be the most sensible thing to do have a review and then take decisions. It seems a strange time to jump ship when we examining these issues."

However, the thanked Cllr Chittenden for his work as a governor, saying it was a matter for him whether he stayed on the board.