What happens if councils say ‘I don’t’ to merger?

Now the cat is out of the bag over the possible merger of four east Kent councils, an important question arises. What happens if, at the four special council meetings in March, any of the four vote against going ahead with the marriage and exchange of vows?

It is not easy to find out, partly because it seems no one really knows.

Perhaps it has already been squared off behind the scenes and some political number crunching has already gone on? Perish the thought.

At least Ashford won’t be concerned with the issue, having decided not to involve itself at this stage.

The reason seems to be that it was worried that under merger, council tax may rise but, hold on, one of the reasons for merger is to bring down the council tax, so surely…?

There is something of a political arms race at County Hall over the call for the government’s foreign aid budget to be cut to invest more in adult social care. It is all connected to an event in May.

Both Ukip and the Conservative ruling group have signed up and are making increasingly vociferous demands on the government, with Ukip leader Roger Latchford taking a dig at council leader Paul Carter by saying it was “refreshing” that he had come round to his way of thinking.

The lone dissenting voice came from Green councillor Martin Whybrow, who told a full council meeting “it shouldn’t be a question of either-or… we should do both”.

Off The Record can’t help thinking that many of the county’s MPS are finding the pronouncements of President Trump distinctly unpalatable but are maintaining radio silence out of loyalty to the PM.

We will probably never know. The single rebel has been the Gillingham MP Rehman Chishti, who left everyone abundantly clear he disapproved of the Muslim ban, and he rarely puts his head above the parapet.

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