Kent County Council

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Kent County Council
http://www.kent.gov.uk/
Executive	Conservative
Members of Parliament	Julian Brazier Greg Clark Michael Fallon Roger Gale Damian Green Adam Holloway Michael Howard Stephen Ladyman Gwyn Prosser Hugh Robertson Jonathan Shaw John Stanley Howard Stoate Ann Widdecombe Derek Wyatt
Districts and Unitaries
Dartford Gravesham Sevenoaks Tonbridge and Malling Tunbridge Wells Maidstone Swale Ashford Shepway Canterbury Dover Thanet Medway (Unitary council in Ceremonial Kent, but not administered by KCC)

Kent County Council (KCC) is the county council that governs the majority of the county of Kent in England. It comprises 12 district councils, and around 300 town and parish councils. The county council has 84 elected councillors. Each councillor is responsible for local as well as countywide concerns of their constituents. The Chief Executive and his team of chief officers are responsible for the day-to-day running of the council.

Kent County Council co-operates with Medway Council in many ways, for instance in the Kent and Medway Local Plan, and together they run joint agencies.

At national level, Kent is combined with Medway for the purposes of representation in Parliament. The combined area elects 17 MPs, of whom 14 represent seats entirely within the Kent County Council area and another whose constituency is in both Kent and Medway, and is part of the South East region of the UK that elects a total of 10 members to the European Parliament.

Kent County Council is currently controlled by the Conservative Party.

1 Responsibilities
2 District Councils
3 Council structure
4 Elections and the democratic process
5 History
6 See also
7 External links

[edit] Responsibilities

Responsibilities are regional services such as education, transport, strategic planning, emergency services, social services, public safety and waste disposal.

[edit] District Councils

[edit] Council structure

The Council is organised into departments and divisions.

Chief Executive's Department: This department is responsible for running the council. It manages services that include personnel and development, finance, legal and democratic services, corporate policy and performance management, public health, information technology, communications, commercial services and partnership.

Communities: The role of this department is to encourage people of all ages and backgrounds to play an active part in their community. It is organised into adult education, community safety, cultural development, emergency planning, libraries and archives, Kent drug and alcohol team, Kent scientific services, Kent volunteers, registration services (births, deaths, marriages and civil partnerships), sports development, trading standards, Turner contemporary, youth offending service, youth services.

Children, Families and Education: provides education and social care services to Kent's children, young people, their families and communities.

Adult Social Services: provides services for older people and adults with a physical disability, learning disability, sensory disability or mental health need.
Environment and Regeneration: Kent highway services, environment & waste, change & development, resources

strategy & planning, regeneration & economy,

Finance: manages finance, value for money, external funding, audit and procurement.

[edit] Elections and the democratic process

The next Kent County Council election will be held in May 2009. See also Kent local elections, Ashford local elections, Canterbury local elections, Dartford local elections, Dover local elections, Tonbridge and Malling local elections

[edit] History

The Local Government Act 1888 created an administrative county of Kent, with its own county council in 1889. At the same time, the extremities of northwest Kent came under the County of London and Canterbury became a county borough with similar powers. The county council's duties at first were few, but gradually it absorbed School Boards, the rural Highway Boards and the Boards of Guardians.

The London Government Act 1963 created an enlarged Greater London in 1965 which took in more of northwest Kent. The Local Government Act 1972 abolished the previous structure of local government in 1974 and created a new non-metropolitan county of Kent, divided into districts. It also abolished Canterbury as a county borough which became a district under the new county council. The places that had been removed in 1888 were amalgamated to form the London Borough of Lewisham and the London Borough of Greenwich and two further boroughs were created. These were the London Borough of Bromley and the London Borough of Bexley.

In 1998 the districts of Gillingham and Rochester-upon-Medway were removed from county council government to become the unitary authority called Medway Council.