Tunbridge Wells Borough Council’s cabinet advisory board considered proposals on 8 September 2026 for the borough to join a new joint committee with four other councils to manage the transition to a single West Kent unitary authority by April 2028.

Tunbridge Wells Borough Council is being asked to join a new West Kent Joint Committee alongside Kent County Council, Maidstone Borough Council, Sevenoaks District Council and Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council, as part of preparations for local government reorganisation across Kent and Medway.

Background to the reorganisation

On 16 July 2026, the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government wrote to the leaders and chief executives of the current 14 councils in Kent and Medway confirming that the Government intends to create four new unitary local authorities for the area. The four new councils — to be known as West Kent, Mid Kent, East Kent and North Kent — are expected to come into existence on 1 April 2028.

The legal basis for the changes will be set out in a Structural Changes Order (SCO), which is expected to be laid before Parliament in January 2027 and come into force in March 2027, subject to parliamentary approval. Elections to shadow authorities are anticipated to take place on 6 May 2027, with wards for West Kent based on current Kent County Council divisions.

What the joint committee would do

The proposed West Kent Joint Committee would provide strategic and political oversight of the transition until the West Kent shadow authority holds its first meeting. Its functions would include preparing a transition plan, facilitating the transfer of functions, property, rights and liabilities from the member authorities, and formulating proposals for a members’ code of conduct, a members’ allowance scheme and the appointment of interim chief officers to be recommended to the shadow authority.

The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG) guidance reproduced in the papers makes clear that the joint committee would not carry out recruitment to senior posts, design the operating model of the new organisation, set budgets for the new council, or make decisions about service delivery or policy.

Membership and governance

The recommended structure for the West Kent Joint Committee gives Kent County Council eight members and the district councils eight members between them, meaning each of the four district councils — including Tunbridge Wells — would have two representatives. Officers recommended that the Leader of the Council and the Deputy Leader, or another cabinet member appointed by the Leader, serve as Tunbridge Wells’s representatives.

The report proposed that the committee be established initially on a voluntary basis, ahead of the SCO making it a statutory requirement. The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government encouraged voluntary arrangements to be put in place as soon as possible to maximise the preparation period before the May 2027 shadow authority elections.

Implications for existing councillors

The papers state that all current borough councillors will continue to serve in their existing roles until the authority is abolished in April 2028. Should any council seats fall vacant in the six months before dissolution — that is, after 30 September 2027 — no by-elections would be held unless vacancies amounted to a third or more of the total seats on the council.

The Communities, Housing and Environment Cabinet Advisory Board considered the proposals at its meeting on 8 September 2026, before the item proceeds to Cabinet on 24 September 2026. The council had not published the minutes of the meeting at the time of writing, so the committee’s decision is not yet on the public record.

Sources

Top image: illustrative, computer-generated. Illustrative image generated by AI. This is not a photograph of Tunbridge Wells Borough Council or any real council chamber.