A message from your County Councillor - April 2021

APRIL NEWSLETTER

This will be my last report as your County Councillor. Little was I to know when I confirmed to my Political Party early in 2020 that I did not wish to be considered for reselection that my last meeting actually in County Hall would be on the 17 th March 2020. Since then all meetings have been virtual online.

Even saying goodbye to many of my Parish Councils online has been disrupted by the period of Mourning for His Royal Highness Philip, Duke of Edinborough.

This has led to the postponement of 8 Parish Councils due to legality of issuing Summons to Meetings. There is then the at present inability legally to hold online meetings after 7th May. With the best will in the world I cannot attend between five and ten Parish Councils on the same evening in any meaningful way.

I trust my successor, whoever she or he may be, will remember when applying for committees the importance of rural road speeds and flooding, both surface and potential tidal to the Communities of this ward. Also the large number of unauthorised waste tips in parts of the Ward. This is why I have continued as a Member of the Regulation Committee, Kent Flood Risk Management Committee and Environment & Transport Committee among many others.

I wish all my Communities well, especially their hard working and often undervalued Parish Councils.

ANDREW BOWLES

KCC Member – Swale East