Gillingham Borough Council

Gillingham Borough Council was the local authority for the Municipal Borough of Gillingham in Kent from its incorporation in 1903 until 1998.^[6] Before 1903, Gillingham had been governed as an Urban District under the 1894 Local Government Act. The town of Gillingham – which had grown rapidly around Chatham Dockyard – saw its population rise to over 40,000 by 1901. A Royal Charter granted on 17 August 1903 created the Borough of Gillingham, with John Robert Featherby as its first (Charter) Mayor.^[7] The council continued to expand the borough’s area (notably adding the parish of Rainham in 1928^[8] and managed all local services until local government reorganisation. In 1974 Gillingham was the only one of the Medway towns to remain independent under the new framework. Gillingham Borough Council finally ceased to exist on 1 April 1998, when it merged with Rochester-upon-Medway City Council to form the new unitary Medway Council.^[9]

Gillingham’s modern local government began under the Local Government Act 1894, which created an Urban District Council for Gillingham (then often called New Brompton). The rapid industrial expansion of the Chatham Dockyard and the town’s growth led civic leaders to seek borough status. A Royal Charter dated 17 August 1903 elevated Gillingham to a municipal borough. John Robert Featherby, a local brick manufacturer^[10] and long-serving councillor,^[11] had chaired the Urban District Council^[12] and “played an active part in securing the charter”.^[13] He was chosen as the first Mayor of the new Borough of Gillingham. The borough’s establishment allowed Gillingham Council to exercise wider powers (including a full civic mayoralty and expanded council services) over the town and surrounding area.

After incorporation, Gillingham’s boundaries were relatively stable, with one major enlargement in 1928. In that year the neighbouring parish of Rainham (then a rural parish in Kent) was transferred into Gillingham Borough.^[14] This annexation, approved by Kent County Council and the government, roughly doubled Gillingham’s area and added some 8,000–10,000 residents to the borough. Aside from the Rainham transfer, no significant boundary changes occurred before 1974.

In 1982, Gillingham Borough Council established links with the Japanese cities of Itō and Yokosuka,^[15] inspired by William Adams, a navigator from Gillingham who became an adviser in Japan and is known there as Miura Anjin.^[16] The council led the twinning after a visit from a delegation from Yokosuka in 1981, negotiating the agreements and arranging the ceremonies.^[17] These links encouraged exchanges between schools, community groups, and officials, and they have continued since, even after Gillingham became part of the Medway area in 1998.^[18]

Gillingham Borough Council backed numerous economic, infrastructure and community projects. In 1983 GBC joined Rochester-upon-Medway and Gravesham councils in proposing the North-West Kent Enterprise Zone,^[19] and was designated the authority for one part of this zone.^[20] Under this scheme GBC helped establish Gillingham Business Park on former military land at the A2/A278 junction. By the mid-1990s the 40‑hectare park hosted roughly 3,000 jobs in offices, light industry and retail.^[21] Tenants included Lloyds Bank, B&Q, Rover Fairways and Mercury Interactive,^[22] and it attracted more Japanese companies than any other UK business park.^[23] The council promoted modest expansions of the park (relieving space constraints noted in later analyses), recognizing it as “one of north Kent’s success stories” and a major employment centre.^[24]

GBC played a key role in regional road and tunnel projects. It partnered with Kent County Council and Rochester-upon-Medway City Council to promote the Medway Tunnel under the River Medway. Parliamentary records from 1988 recount that all three local councils plus the Rochester Bridge Trust jointly pursued legislation and novel funding for the tunnel.^[25] Ultimately the £57 million tunnel opened in June 1996, providing Gillingham with a second link to the M2 motorway (at Strood).

Closely related was the Gillingham Northern Relief Road (Northern Link). GBC supported this dual-carriageway scheme from the new tunnel to the A2, designed to divert traffic away from local neighbourhoods. For example, Hansard debate transcripts note the Northern Link would “remove traffic from residential streets such as Woodlands Road and Barnsole Road” and thus bring environmental and safety benefits.^[26] Completion of the link (first approved in 1995) was also expected to improve access between Gillingham Business Park and the redeveloped Chatham Maritime area.^[27] (In the 1960s GBC likewise supported the construction of the A278 “Hoath Way” linking Gillingham to M2 Junction 4; this opened in 1966 and relieved congestion on the older A2 route.)

The council undertook regeneration of Gillingham’s town centre. Notably, GBC acquired and cleared a run-down block at the corner of Arden Street and High Street to create a development site. An officer-level group drew up a masterplan for mixed-use redevelopment (including housing, shops and community facilities) on this four-corner site. The project was awarded Housing Corporation pilot funding, and Phase 1 was built as an innovative “Rethinking Construction” scheme; Phase 2 was tested with housing association involvement.^[28]

In the late 1980s the council strongly opposed Ministry of Defence plans to sell or develop the Great Lines (historic artillery lines and open ground in Brompton, Gillingham). In April 1987 GBC passed a resolution “reaffirm[ing] its policy of preserving the whole area as a designated open space”.^[29] Council leaders publicly supported parliamentary debates urging that the Great Lines be retained permanently as parkland. These actions helped ensure the Great Lines (now Great Lines Heritage Park) remain undeveloped.

A landmark project was the Black Lion Leisure Centre (now Medway Park Sports Centre). Opened in December 1973 by Sir Roger Bannister, the centre provides a swimming pool, sports hall and athletics track on former military land, known as Black Lion Field.^[30] It addressed growing demand for indoor sports facilities in Gillingham. The Black Lion Centre later became a regional multi-sport hub and was eventually upgraded by Medway Council under the 2012 Olympic legacy programme.

The Municipal Buildings on Canterbury Street in Gillingham served as the civic headquarters (council offices) of the former Gillingham Borough Council.^[31] The building was completed in 1937 and formally opened on 25 September 1937 by Sir George Broadbridge, then the Lord Mayor of London.^[32] In the late 1930s the Municipal Buildings were equipped with air-raid sirens and a local Civil Defence headquarters was established on the site.^[33] Around 1953, an underground Civil Defence control bunker was constructed beneath the Municipal Buildings’ car park.^[34] After local government reorganisation, Gillingham Borough Council was merged into the wider Medway unitary authority in 1998.^[35] The Municipal Buildings continued to be used for council meetings for some years afterward, but once Medway Council moved to new headquarters at Chatham Gun Wharf^[36] the Canterbury Street building was declared surplus.^[37] It was sold in 2008 and converted into a residential care home.^[38]

The former Municipal Buildings have since been redeveloped as Charing House Care Home, an 88-bed^[39] nursing and dementia care facility.^[40] The conversion (completed in 2010) retained much of the building’s original architectural character.^[41]

The building that is now the Sunlight Centre began life as the Sunlight laundry on Richmond Road in Gillingham. The centre opened after Gillingham Borough Council bought the former Sunlight Laundry building in 1996 for £200,000 to convert it for community use.^[42] The site was subsequently redeveloped.^[43]

In 1962, Gillingham Borough Council purchased almost 18 acres of land from the nearby Cozenton Farm and subsequently developed it as public parkland.^[44]

In the 1974 local government reorganisation (Local Government Act 1972), neighbouring Chatham and Rochester were merged into the new Borough of Medway^[45] (later renamed Rochester-upon-Medway in 1982).^[46] Gillingham Borough Council, however, chose to remain separate, continuing as an autonomous district within Kent.^[47] This decision made Gillingham unique among the Medway towns in 1974: all others were amalgamated, but Gillingham retained its own borough council (now technically a non-metropolitan district council) covering Gillingham, Rainham and a few northern suburbs of Gillingham. Gillingham B.C. thus maintained nearly complete self-government, responsible for local planning, housing, and other services, with Kent County Council handling county-level functions (education, highways, etc.). This independent status lasted 24 years.

Politically, Gillingham Borough Council was usually controlled by the Conservative Party for much of its existence, with notable periods of no overall control and a late Liberal Democrat administration. From the first post-1974 council election until 1976 the council had no overall majority.^[48] In 1976 the Conservatives won control, and Michael Lewis (Conservative) became council leader.^[49] Lewis, a local solicitor, had already served as deputy mayor and earlier as leader in the late 1960s,^[50] and he led Gillingham through a period of development (championing projects like the Medway Tunnel, Medway Park and other facilities) in his determination to "improve the area".^[51] The Conservatives remained in power under Lewis’s leadership through 1990.^[52] In 1990 no party held a majority, and council control was briefly shared. In 1995 the Liberal Democrats won a plurality, and Robert “Bob” Sayer became the first LibDem leader of Gillingham B.C.^[53] The council remained under no overall control from 1990 until 1995, when the LibDems gained a working majority and governed until abolition in 1998. Thus Gillingham’s political leadership saw long-serving figures: Michael Lewis (Conservative leader 1976–1990) and Bob Sayer (Liberal Democrat leader 1990–1998) were particularly prominent.

On 1 April 1998 Gillingham Borough Council was abolished under the government’s local government review for Kent.^[54] The district of Gillingham (borough) was merged with the City of Rochester-upon-Medway to form the new unitary Medway Council.^[55] Ceremonial arrangements were made (Medway remained part of Kent for lieutenancy purposes), but Gillingham’s borough status and council ceased.^[56] The new Medway authority later dropped the name "Medway Towns" and simply became Medway Council. Gillingham itself became an unparished area of the new borough.^[57]

Gillingham Borough Council v Medway (Chatham) Dock Co Ltd [1993] QB 343 is an English tort law case concerning public nuisance and the effect of planning permission on what constitutes unreasonable behaviour in a changing neighbourhood. After the closure of Chatham Dockyard threatened the local economy, Gillingham Borough Council granted planning permission to redevelop the site as a 24-hour commercial port, acknowledging that increased heavy traffic and noise would affect residents but considering the economic benefits to outweigh the disturbances.

By the late 1980s, the port generated nearly 750 lorry movements per day, leading the council to bring proceedings in public nuisance on behalf of residents, seeking an injunction to limit vehicular movements to daytime hours. The dock company argued that only illegal acts could amount to public nuisance and that planning permission authorised the activity. Buckley J rejected both arguments, confirming that lawful acts could constitute public nuisance and that planning permission did not provide a licence to create one. He concluded that no public nuisance existed because the redevelopment had altered the area’s character, making activity previously unreasonable in a residential neighbourhood tolerable in a commercial port. The case is significant for showing that planning permission does not excuse nuisance but can redefine the locality against which reasonableness is judged.

• Gillingham Urban District Council
• John Robert Featherby
• Mayor of Gillingham