When the leader of Medway Council steps down on Thursday, May 4 – the day of the local elections – it will herald a new era for the Towns.

As he prepares to call time on a political career spanning decades, Conservative Cllr Alan Jarrett sat down with Local Democracy Reporter Katie May Nelson to reveal what he sees as his achievements, his regrets, and what he has to say to his critics.

The unitary authority was formed in 1998 and Cllr Jarrett has spent 23 of those years as either leader or deputy leader.

Its chief executive, Neil Davies, will also be leaving at the end of June, marking a changing of the guard for the council which serves about 280,000 people.

In recent years, the authority has had to grapple with challenges around its outdated Local Plan, rifts within the ruling party, and a poorly-rated children's services department.

But there has also been major regeneration going on including projects at Rochester Riverside, Innovation Park Medway, and new homes in Chatham which the council insists is the Towns' emerging city centre.

Here Cllr Jarrett tackles some of the issues which have pervaded his time at the top.

Housing and regeneration

In 2021 the ruling Conservatives dramatically pulled the plug on a vote for its draft Local Plan citing a lack of "political consensus".

It comes as it continues to grapple with the government-set challenge of having to deliver 28,475 new homes by 2040.

"The fact that a small number of members in the group stopped me having a sufficient political consensus to do that is to be regretted," said cllr Jarrett.

"We didn't vote on it, but it was quite plain that sufficient members of my group and Labour would not support the Local Plan. It had the potential to bring the administration down."

More recently, the council announced it was pausing £63 million plans to build a new railway station on the Hoo Peninsula.

Cllr Jarrett explained: "It was perfectly viable until we had the Ukraine war, until we had the crash in the economy, which was partly due to the war and the legacy from Covid."

'It had the potential to bring the administration down'

The thorny issue of housing has also caused Cllr Jarrett to have spats with residents.

"Medway needs more housing for our own people, for our own families growing up," he said. "But the problem with that is you can't constrain housebuilders to who they sell houses to.

"And of course you get a lot of people moving in from outside because our house prices are really competitive in comparison to London or other parts of Kent."

It's fair to say Cllr Jarrett has been at loggerheads with his own party – including Rochester and Strood MP Kelly Tolhurst – over the planned closure of the Docks in 2025 to make way for 3,625 homes.

Cllr Jarrett says those who oppose him are guilty of "parochialism".

"What they sought to do is to take one chunk of housing allocation out of the Local Plan process, without replacing it with anything and therefore leaving us with a big gap.

"They have wrecked the Local Plan under my watch and be careful what you wish for, because they're going to have to sort it out, not me.

Innovation Park Medway

Innovation Park Medway (IPM), the council's flagship business park, is crucial to boosting the economy in the Towns.

But the project, which aims at providing scores of highly-skilled jobs when it opens at Rochester Airport, has been marred by delays.

The council sought £20 million from the government's Levelling Up fund to facilitate a "gateway building" to form part of the development, but its bid was unsuccessful.

Despite this Cllr Jarrett remains optimistic about the project.

"I think there's only two or three tenants signed up so far, and the progress isn't where I'd like it to be because of the near miss we had with a recession," said Cllr Jarrett.

"We could have perhaps let half of it by now, but then we wouldn't have hit our important targets for growth or good quality jobs, all the reasons we set out to create IPM in the first place."

Children's services

Medway council was rocked by an 'Inadequate' rating of its children's services department in 2019 and has been attempting to turn things around ever since.

A government-appointed inspector was drafted in to keep an eye on things and monitoring visits have shown improvements.

But Cllr Jarrett says senior councillors such as himself were unaware the ship was headed for an iceberg.

"I think the organisation didn't know how bad things were and I think we were being ill advised by certain senior officers at the time, none of whom work for Medway any longer," he said.

"I was told on several occasions in the lead up to the inspection that things were not great but things were not bad either and we would stay in 'Requires improvement', which is not the best place to be, but it's not the worst either."

He added: "We must never forget it's not about politics or money, it's about children's lives and wellbeing, so the consequence was we had to spend vast sums of money to make improvements we needed to make.

"For the next leader of the council, one of the early joys he'll have is the next inspection probably in July or around that time. I fully expect that to show an improvement. But we'll get no thanks for that."

Election predictions

Cllr Jarrett - who currently represents Lordswood and Capstone - believes the boundary review will play a part in May's local elections

"The people I talk to are pleased with what we've done for Medway," said Cllr Jarrett.

"I think the boundary review has changed the dynamic significantly. Without it [the review] I'd be really confident about the Conservatives winning on May 4.

Despite this he still thinks "it's going to be very tight" and there will be "shock results".

"There's always high-profile people who lose their seats for one reason or another, so it will be interesting to see who those are," he added.

And while he won't be pressed into saying who he thinks will succeed him he does have some words of advice and wished them success..

"I think you've got to have a good team around you," he said. "You've got to have an absolute determination to focus on the policies the group agrees and not allow yourself to be blown off course."