The story
Under the Local Government Act 1888, Kent County Council was one of several created the following year. At the time, the administrative county differed from the historic county.
Following the initial elections and appointment of county aldermen, the council came into being on 1 April 1889, on which day it held its first official meeting at the Sessions House in Maidstone. With Lord Brabourne in the chair, Sir John Farnaby Lennard was elected as the first chairman of the council.
Boundary changes
The county council's duties at first were few, but gradually it absorbed school boards, the rural highway boards and the boards of guardians. The county council adopted the Sessions House as its meeting place.
In 1965, the London Government Act 1963 abolished the existing county of London and replaced it with a larger administrative area called Greater London, which took over the Bexley and Bromley areas from the administrative county of Kent. In 1974, the Local Government Act 1972 saw Kent re-classified as a non-metropolitan county and it gained the formerly independent county borough of Canterbury. Until 1974, the lower tier of local government had comprised numerous boroughs, urban districts and rural districts. As part of the 1974 reforms, the lower tier was reorganised into fourteen non-metropolitan districts.
In 1998, the districts of Gillingham and Rochester-upon-Medway were removed from the non-metropolitan county of Kent to become a new unitary authority called Medway, whilst remaining part of the ceremonial county of Kent.
Local government reorganisation
In December 2024, deputy prime minister Angela Rayner announced proposals for local government reorganisation (LGR).
In February 2026, KCC and Medway Council held a residents' LGR consultation regarding the abolition of the 14 existing councils and replacement with several larger unitary authorities; layouts of both three and four councils were proposed.
In July 2026, it was confirmed that in April 2028, Kent would be reconstituted into four unitary authorities. Elections for the four new shadow councils (North Kent, West Kent, Mid Kent and East Kent) will be held in April 2027, with the new councils taking charge in April 2028.
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Reform UK administration (2025–)
In the 2025 Kent County Council election, Reform UK won outright control of the council and Linden Kemkaran was elected leader. After being elected she said “we will simply put the people of Kent at the heart of everything we do”.
One key policy is a new cabinet role, held by Gravesham Councillor Matthew Fraser Moat, inspired by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) as promoted by Elon Musk.
The council will not fly the rainbow flag for Pride Month. Kemkaran said she saw having a Ukrainian flag in the council chamber as a "distraction". Kemkaran also said she intends to reduce the impact of illegal migration on residents in Kent.
In July 2025, Kemkaran shared a social media post claiming Reform had removed books containing transgender themes from the county's libraries with immediate effect. This was later found to be untrue with the challenged book simply moved from a display at the entrance to an adult section. Kent Libraries went on to post a statement that they would no longer allow displays of transgender books to be in areas accessible by children.
Suspensions and defections
In August 2025, Cliftonville councillor Daniel Taylor was suspended from the party after threatening to kill his wife. Councillor Amelia Randall defected from Reform UK to UKIP the following month, but in March 2026 left UKIP to establish her own party, Better Way Of.
In October 2025, councillor Robert Ford was suspended from Reform UK after allegations of misconduct from several women. In the same month, the council faced scrutiny after leaked footage of an August meeting showed Kemkaran shouting down other councillors using profanities, apparently over disagreements regarding the council's response to national plans for local government reform. Kemkaran said those who leaked the video were "weak" and "foolish", and accused them of "treachery". On 20 October, Reform UK announced that four councillors were being suspended: Paul Thomas, Oliver Bradshaw, Bill Barrett and Maxine Fothergill. On 27 October, Barrett, Bradshaw, Ford and Thomas, plus Brian Black, were expelled from Reform UK.
On 29 October 2025, Barrett announced a new KCC grouping named the Independent Reformers or Independent Reform Group, consisting of him and Ford; Bradshaw, Black and Thomas continued to support Reform UK and said they would not join the group. On 5 November, councillor Isabella Kemp was listed as an independent on the KCC website, having left Reform UK 10 hours before KCC was to meet. On 8 January 2026, she announced that she had joined the Independent Reformers, after being in talks to join the Liberal Democrats. On 18 February 2026, Black, Bradshaw, Ford, Fothergill, Kemp and Thomas, plus Dean Burns, joined Restore Britain, making it the third largest party on the Council.
By-election
On 9 April 2026, the Greens won the Cliftonville by-election, with Rob Yates replacing imprisoned councillor Daniel Taylor, as a Green gain from Reform.
From Wikipedia’s article on Kent Top Travel, shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.3