Medway wants new housing developments to pay more towards schools, healthcare, open space and local services. Developers are pushing back, warning that higher obligations could make some schemes unviable. We look at the argument beneath the next wave of Medway housing decisions.

New interview: Jody Carrington talks to us about running Poco Loco, keeping grassroots music alive, Medway Pride Fringe, parklets, IntraFest, and why Intra has become such an important part of Medway’s cultural life.

Can a £15m health centre help Chatham live longer? A major new NHS facility has opened inside the Pentagon, bringing GP and community health services into the heart of Chatham. We visited the new James Williams Healthy Living Centre and looked at the challenge it has been built to address.

What did Medway culture look like in May? A Singing Loins book launch, Sweeps Festival, Bez in Rainham, new music from South Shore, a standout meal in Chatham, and more. Our latest Culture Review is out now.

Medway is preparing to spend £7m on local government reorganisation while still dealing with overspends and low reserves. Plus the rest of next week’s Cabinet papers, planning news, the latest Medway stories, events and more.

Local news is incredibly difficult. So this post from @publicinterestnews.org.uk is a joy to read, highlighting wins across the sector during 2026. It's an honour to have @localauthority.news featured alongside some heroic outlets from across the country.

Local Authority is now on WhatsApp. Mostly new stories, with occasional major Medway updates. The usual council dysfunction, planning rows, and weirdness from across our towns, but now in another app you already check too often.

Upnor Castle used to be open six days a week. Now it opens once a month. We look at what Medway has lost, and why the public still does not know what saving justified it. Plus: School exclusion data and a new Kent-branded party with some very old politics.

For our latest interview, we spoke to Rochester Radar editor Rachel Woollett about launching a new hyperlocal magazine focused on the people, businesses and creative life that make up modern Rochester.

Patrick Minhard runs Three Sheets to the Wind in Rochester. We spoke to him about independent pubs, local music, comedy bookings, Austrian beer, Ranscombe Studios, IntraFest, and why opening a pub is not for anyone who enjoys sleep, money or an easy life.

The Royal Function Rooms in Rochester could be converted into housing under new plans submitted to Medway Council. The stage and the theatre hall would stay, but the public use would not. We look at what Medway loses when venues disappear.

Medway Council is preparing to crack down on unlicensed tables and chairs on the pavement, with warning notices and furniture seizures now being lined up. Plus IntraFest arrives in June with live music, theatre, street food, art, drag, barges and a celebration of Medway’s scrappy cultural strip.

It's great news that Local Authority is now bringing out some of its journalism for the #Medway area in print. Local news is an essential part of the grain of democracy at the granular level and I have been really impressed by the quality of the reporting.

Have you spotted our first proper print edition in the wild yet? 👀

The season is over, the retained list is out, and Gillingham’s rebuild is underway. Ben Hopkins on the exits, the players staying, Gareth Ainsworth’s future, and why the club still hasn’t solved its goalscoring problem.

What can Medway actually do about climate change? Residents, councillors and campaigners gathered in Rochester for a screening of The People’s Emergency Briefing and a discussion about what local action is possible. Plus planning, news in brief, events and more.

Ed is liveblooting tonight's largely ceremonial meeting of Medway Council.

Gillingham and Rainham MP Naushabah Khan has called for Keir Starmer to resign. Less than two years after Medway went red in Westminster, one of its MPs has stepped away from the government and told the Prime Minister to go.

Richard Lightman is Head of Music and Audio Technology at the University of Kent, but the department is closing and he will be made redundant. In our latest interview, he talks about music education, Bhangra, his role in Superman's flying sounds, and why his main instrument is the recording studio.

The Who’d Ha Thought It has survived bankruptcy, covid, and everything else the pub trade has thrown at it. Now, after 20 years of quietly getting the important things right, the Rochester pub has been named Medway CAMRA Pub of the Year.

Long-serving Conservative councillor Phil Filmer has died at 74, ending a Medway political career that began before Medway Council existed. We look at his record, the tributes paid across the chamber, and the questions facing a Chatham trading card shop after transphobic posts resurfaced online.

In our latest interview, Medway-based film critic Matt Maytum talks about becoming the final editor of Total Film, launching The Movie Wingman, growing up here, interviewing Christopher Nolan, cinema behaviour, and the restorative power of The Naked Gun.

Medway Council asked people what was wrong with transport in the area. The answer was traffic, buses, roadworks, potholes, cost, and the grim feeling that getting around without a car often isn’t realistic.

Our monthly Medway culture round-up takes in a lost Rochester department store, Little Storping in the Swuff’s brilliant new album, chimney cakes, witchcraft history, and a Grammy-winning bluesman in Rainham.

A monument near Cuxton marking the UK rail speed record has disappeared from its hillside home. We investigate what happened to it, where it went, and what Medway has lost, plus a useful budget chart and the latest Gun Wharf shuffle.

In our latest interview, Cllr Mark Joy talks about his route through the Conservatives, UKIP and independence before returning to the Conservatives, plus Mark Reckless, nearly joining Labour, education, children’s services, and life as a football referee.

Medway Council voted to move a £45.95m plan to buy 791 homes from social housing provider L&Q forward. The decisive debate took place behind closed doors, with the press and public excluded for 45 minutes. We report on what was decided, what we were allowed to hear, and what stayed out of sight.

Medway’s new full council rules face their first proper test on Thursday, with a thinner agenda showing what a leaner chamber now looks like in practice. Plus the final Court of Appeal ruling on a Rainham traveller site and a very Medway bus moment.

We spoke to David Goggin, the musician behind Little Storping in the Swuff, ahead of new album Hassle Olympics. He talks about the absurdity of live performance, his past musical ventures, and making music that actually sounds like a person made it.

Medway Council’s new AI website search fell over almost immediately, serving up stale and wrong civic information in early testing. We look at what went wrong, what’s now been fixed, and what it says about putting AI on top of messy public websites.

A new bar and restaurant in Strood has been granted a licence after a hearing that the applicant did not bother attending. We look at what that says about Medway’s priorities, why Medway and Dartford are already fighting over the future map, and Kent and Medway’s revived joint tourism push.

Gillingham’s season remains a slog. Our Gills columnist Ben Hopkins on a run of mostly bad performances, a few faint signs of life, Brad Galinson’s “shit season” verdict, and what’s left in the final weeks.

A new Marmot report says life expectancy in Medway can vary by more than a decade depending on where you live. We look at the scale of that divide, what becoming a Marmot Place is meant to change, and whether any of it will be felt beyond the policy language.

We talk to Harinder Mahil, Medway Council’s regeneration portfolio holder and co-owner of Gurkha Fire, on the smear campaign around his family, calling a resident a prick in a meeting, redrawing Medway’s political map, and why he says he is not doing any of this for the sake of a political career.

Medway’s Local Plan has reached examination, but the inspectors’ first letter suggests the hard part may only just be starting. We look at the concerns raised over legal compliance, Green Belt release, traveller provision, consultation gaps and more.

A boardwalk next to St Mary’s Island has reopened, but the problem behind it hasn’t gone away. We look at the Basin 2 water loss and the responsibility gap, as well as next week’s Medway Council agenda, and a £4m Upnor property.

Our latest column by one of Medway's elected representatives sees Chatham and Aylesford MP Tristan Osborne writing about pride in local communities, regeneration, housing, health, crime and the issues shaping daily life across Medway.

Medway is preparing to borrow nearly £46m to buy 569 homes from an unnamed provider in one of the biggest housing acquisitions it has ever attempted. We look at that, the £22m Gun Wharf rebuild, and two major Hoo schemes already heading to the Planning Inspectorate.

Paul Kasey has appeared in more episodes of modern Doctor Who than anyone else. We spoke to him about creature performance, Star Wars, hours in prosthetics, and how physical movement brings characters to life even when the actor disappears under the makeup.

Age UK Kent Rivers says it is heading towards insolvency, with services at the Mackenney Centre in Gillingham closing today after barely two days’ warning. We look at what has happened, what the service meant locally, and what comes next. Plus planning news, political rows, and more.

We spoke to Alex Cameron MBE, co-chair of the Intra Community Trust, about retirement, faith, old buildings, and why he thinks if you’ve got tools, use them. We also get into what Intra is, what the trust wants to do there, and where the area actually starts and ends.

Medway’s £60m Pride in Place funding is real. The maps behind it are more awkward. We look at the actual areas selected, why the political messaging has been broader than the geography, the commute chaos caused by two closures before breakfast, and Reform’s AI slop problem.

A huge happy birthday to @stevenkeevil.bsky.social, our Chief Conversationalist and the more socially functional half of Local Authority.

Medway is getting £42m in long-term funding for Strood, Twydall, and Luton. The bigger question is who actually gets to shape it, and what will it buy on the ground? We break down the Pride in Place money, plus the week in planning, council business and lots more.

Could Medway turn turquoise? Medway Elects founder Alan Collins argues that Britain’s political fragmentation may now be opening the door to a Reform breakthrough locally, and that Medway could be more vulnerable to that shift than many on the left would like to admit.

Medway says its first School Streets are working. In Rochester, residents say the next scheme has grown far beyond a school gate issue. We look at the council’s case and the backlash, as well as meningitis fears spreading into Medway, and a Gillingham Pier sign that needed another draft.

In our latest interview, we talk to Martyn Reeves, chief executive of Wisdom Hospice Charity, to talk about end-of-life care in Medway, how the charity supports the hospice, and how a former car salesman ended up in one of the area’s most important jobs.

Two major housing approvals this week showed there is no painless way for Medway to grow. High Halstow got a huge village expansion, while Gillingham got up to 500 homes on a difficult brownfield site. We look at what both decisions say about the trade-offs now shaping Medway.

Gillingham are officially the inbetweeners: Too far off the play-offs, too far clear of trouble, and stuck in the lower-middle of League Two. Ben Hopkins looks at six more games, a 5-1 hiding from MK Dons, and the increasingly awkward glance toward next season.

Catriona Faulkner’s work looks opulent and intricate. Look closer, and the objects tell a different story. The Strood artist stitches together found objects to reflect chronic pain after an accident that changed her life. Steven met her in Rochester to talk about art, Medway and making meaning.