Swale Borough Council

A list of prosepective candidates standing in the up and coming By-Election in the Murston Ward of Sittingbourne has been released by Swale Borough Council.

The list of candidates is as follows:-

Swale Borough Council is organising this year’s civic Service of Remembrance in Sittingbourne on Sunday 10th November.  

The council’s Remembrance Sunday service begins at 10am at St Michael’s church on the High Street and will be followed by a procession through the high street ending at the War Memorial on Central Avenue. 

The procession, led by the Royal British Legion Riders, will arrive at the Cenotaph at 11am where the remembrance and the laying of wreaths will take place until 12pm. 

Swale Borough Council are working with the East Kent Baby Memorial Garden Charity to create a very special memorial here in Sittingbourne.  

The council will be installing a baby memorial board in King George's Playing Field, where residents touched by pregnancy and baby loss can have a place to remember them.  

The board is being provided by the charity and will display personalised terracotta tiles, featuring a name and significant date, in a beautiful garden.  

A by-election, to elect a new councillor for the Murston ward, is to be held following the Full Council meeting on Wednesday 2nd October.

Swale Borough Council have confirmed that it is due to be held within 35 working days of Friday 4th October and "is due to Cllr James Hall being unable to attend meetings of the council for a period of six consecutive months from the date of his last meeting. This means that the seat is now vacant under the Local Government Act 1972".

Swale Borough Council have teamed up with Kent Police to implement measures to tackle anti-social behaviour, such as street drinking and youth nuisance, in Sittingbourne High Street.

Public Space Protection Orders (PSPO) are in place to address street drinking and give officers from Kent Police and the council powers to give fines or take court action, to make the high street a safer place.

Swale Borough Council wants local people to share their views about the rollout of the new waste and street cleaning contract.

The council is carrying out a review into the contract with Suez, which began in March, and is looking at a range of issues related to the start of the new contract, including resources, staffing, data, rounds, contract management, and communications.

A Sittingbourne woman has been prosecuted for illegal dog breeding following a council investigation.  

Elzbieta Tarnowska was found guilty of breeding three or more litters of puppies within a year, and breeding and advertising a business selling dogs - “Kayadinowska German Shepherds” - without the appropriate licences.  

Swale Borough Council began an investigation in 2022 after receiving noise complaints of dogs barking uncontrollably. Neighbours and other concerned members of the public also made allegations of unlicensed breeding.

Pictured: The Mayor of Swale Cllr Ben Martin - pic courtesty of Ian Morris

Locals were giving tennis a try, ahead of the Wimbledon finals on Saturday (13th July), at the newly refurbished tennis courts in Milton Recreation Ground at a free launch event.

The new Mayor of Swale, Cllr Ben J Martin, has announced SATEDA and Lupus UK as his chosen charities for the year ahead (2024/25).

Cllr Martin was elected as Mayor at Swale Borough Council’s annual council meeting last month, taking over from Cllr Sarah Stephen.

Each year, the new Mayor chooses two charities to focus their fundraising efforts on. 

SATEDA is a local domestic abuse charity that helps women and children escape and heal from the violence and trauma they experience from the people closest to them. 

What has been knicknamed "The Suez Crisis" continues, six weeks after Swale Borough Council's new multi-million-pound household waste collection contract with Suez.

Suez Recycling and Recovery UK took on the contract from Monday 25th March, worth £152 million over eight years, from the previous contractor Biffa across the Mid Kent Waste Partnership of Swale, Maidstone and Ashford Borough Councils covering some 460,000 residents. It's believed that Swale's contribution will be £61 million, or £6.7 million per year until 2032.