Maidstone Council to Be Abolished in April 2028

Maidstone Borough Council will cease to exist on 1 April 2028, and a new West Kent Council covering Maidstone, Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Malling and Tunbridge Wells will take its place.

The dates are set out in a report going to councillors on 1 September. It asks the Climate Transition, Corporate and Environmental Services Policy Advisory Committee to back the setting up of a joint committee to run the handover. Cabinet considers it on 16 September and full Council decides on 30 September.

Anyone who wants to speak on that item at the 1 September meeting has to register by 4pm on Thursday 27 August, by calling 01622 602899 or emailing committee@maidstone.gov.uk.

What the Secretary of State decided

Steve Reed, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, wrote to leaders across Kent and Medway on 16 July confirming which reorganisation option he had picked. Fourteen councils become four.

The four new unitary authorities will be:

• West Kent: Maidstone, Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Malling, Tunbridge Wells
• North Kent: Dartford, Gravesham, Medway
• Mid Kent: Ashford, Folkestone and Hythe, Swale
• East Kent: Canterbury, Dover, Thanet

The letter describes West Kent as “a hub for professional services, life sciences and creative industries with vibrant town centres and strong residential markets”.

The Secretary of State rejected a rival plan for a single Kent-wide council. He had “significant concerns about the size of the proposed new council, which would have a very large population at over 1.9 million”. That, he wrote, was “far exceeding the 500,000 guiding principle” and would have made it “by far the biggest council in the country”.

Kent County Council goes too. A unitary council does everything: the borough’s bins, planning and council tax collection, and the county’s schools, social care, roads and libraries, all under one authority.

The dates that matter

The legal instrument is a Structural Changes Order, which needs the approval of both Houses of Parliament. The report expects it to be laid in January 2027 and to come into force in March 2027.

Two things follow from that order that residents will notice.

Elections on 6 May 2027. The report says the order is expected to provide for elections to the shadow authorities on that date. West Kent’s wards will be based on Kent County Council divisions, with multi-member divisions split first. Maidstone Central is named as an example of a division that would be divided.

By-elections stop in late 2027. Every borough councillor keeps their seat until the council is abolished in April 2028. But if a seat falls vacant after 30 September 2027, no by-election will be held, unless vacancies reach a third or more of the seats.

The joint committee, and what it can and cannot do

Until the shadow authority meets, a West Kent Joint Committee oversees the preparation. The government wants these set up voluntarily now, ahead of the order, to buy more preparation time.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government wrote again on 20 July setting the membership. For West Kent it is 8 members from Kent County Council and 8 from the district councils, which means two representatives each. Maidstone’s two would be the Leader and the Deputy Leader of the borough council.

The committee’s job is narrow. According to the government guidance reproduced in the report, joint committees prepare an implementation plan, create a team of officers and draft a code of conduct. They explicitly do not:

• recruit or appoint to senior posts
• design or implement the operating model of the new organisation
• consider, set or develop budgets for the new council
• make decisions about service delivery or policy

The implementation team leader for each area is to be the head of paid service of Kent County Council. The joint committee is dissolved the day after the new shadow authority first meets.

The report is candid that Maidstone has not seen the draft order. Officers write that the terms of reference “mirror the relevant provisions we expect to be contained in the SCO”, based on orders already made elsewhere in England.

What it will cost, and what is not yet known

On money, the report says only that “there is likely to be some expenditure incurred by the servicing and expenses of the West Kent Joint Committee” and that chief finance officers across the affected councils are still discussing how to split it. No figure is given.

Several things are genuinely undecided at this point, and it is worth being clear about them:

• The ward boundaries for West Kent are described as expected, not fixed.
• The order itself has not been published, let alone approved by Parliament.
• Nothing has been said about where the new council will be based, what it will be called in law, or which offices and depots it will keep.
• Council tax across four merging areas will have to be equalised, and that has not been addressed.

The Secretary of State’s letter also points to “neighbourhood area committees” as part of what made his chosen option attractive. Maidstone already has a shadow town council, which met on 29 July and is recruiting a town clerk.

What it means for you

Nothing changes yet. Your bins, your council tax bill and your planning applications are handled by Maidstone Borough Council for the rest of this year, next year, and until 31 March 2028.

Your next council election is different. On 6 May 2027 you will be voting for a shadow West Kent authority, not for Maidstone borough, and probably in a ward drawn from county council divisions rather than the borough wards you know.

Your borough councillor stays in post until April 2028. After 30 September 2027, though, a vacancy in your ward will most likely be left unfilled.

If you want to influence the handover, the 1 September committee is the first public step in Maidstone, followed by Cabinet on 16 September and full Council on 30 September. The registration deadline to speak on 1 September is 4pm on Thursday 27 August.

Our guides to Maidstone council tax bands, bin collection days and planning applications cover the services the borough still runs today, and we will update them as responsibilities move.

Sources: Local Government Reorganisation, Establishment of West Kent Joint Committee, report to Maidstone Borough Council’s Climate Transition, Corporate and Environmental Services Policy Advisory Committee, 1 September 2026; letter from the Secretary of State, 16 July 2026; agenda and appendices. Checked 24 August 2026.