Kent Local News election coverage

Kent Elections 2027

Kent goes to the polls on Thursday 6 May 2027. Twelve of the county's fourteen councils hold elections that day — Medway, ten district and borough councils electing every seat, and a third of Tunbridge Wells — and they will be held for the councils that exist today. The Government paused local government reorganisation on 7 September 2026 and confirmed that "local elections in May 2027 will go ahead on existing council boundaries". This is our live coverage hub, updated as the picture firms up.

Last updated: 2026-09-10

What's at stake on 6 May 2027

489 council seats are contested outright across Medway and the ten districts and boroughs that last elected in May 2023, plus roughly a third of the 39 seats on Tunbridge Wells Borough Council, which is the only Kent authority still electing by thirds. Political control going into the election is shown as recorded on our Council Scorecard.

Council	Seats	What is elected	Last elected	Control going in
Medway Council	59	All seats	May 2023	Labour majority
Ashford Borough Council	47	All seats	May 2023	No overall control — Ashford Independents + Green minority
Canterbury City Council	39	All seats	May 2023	No overall control — Labour minority
Dartford Borough Council	42	All seats	May 2023	Conservative majority
Dover District Council	32	All seats	May 2023	No overall control — Labour minority
Folkestone & Hythe District Council	30	All seats	May 2023	No overall control — Green + Liberal Democrat minority
Gravesham Borough Council	39	All seats	May 2023	Labour majority
Sevenoaks District Council	54	All seats	May 2023	No overall control — Conservative minority
Swale Borough Council	47	All seats	May 2023	No overall control — Labour minority
Thanet District Council	56	All seats	May 2023	Labour majority
Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council	44	All seats	May 2023	No overall control — Conservative + Independent Alliance coalition
Tunbridge Wells Borough Council	39	About a third of seats	May 2026 (a third)	Liberal Democrat majority

Not up in 2027:

Kent County Council — all 81 seats were elected on 1 May 2025, when Reform UK took control; the next county election is due in May 2029.
Maidstone Borough Council — all 49 seats were elected in May 2024, its first all-out election on new ward boundaries; the next is due in May 2028.

Parish and town councils. Most of Kent's roughly 230 parish and town councils elect on the same four-year cycle as their district, so the districts voting in 2027 will also elect their parish and town councillors that day. Contested parish seats are the exception rather than the rule — many are filled unopposed or co-opted — but they are the tier closest to residents and KLN will list every contested parish poll.

By-elections arising from resignations, disqualifications or vacancies in any council — including KCC and Maidstone — are announced when triggered and covered as they come.

The reorganisation question — paused, not settled

For most of 2026 the working assumption was that these elections would not happen in this form. The English Devolution and Community Empowerment Act 2026, given Royal Assent on 25 April 2026, lets the Secretary of State impose unitary councils on two-tier areas such as Kent. On 16 July 2026 the Government decided that Kent County Council, Medway and the twelve districts would be replaced by four new unitary councils — North Kent (Medway, Dartford, Gravesham), East Kent (Canterbury, Dover, Thanet), Mid Kent (Ashford, Folkestone & Hythe, Swale) and West Kent (Maidstone, Sevenoaks, Tonbridge & Malling, Tunbridge Wells) — with elections to four shadow authorities on 6 May 2027 and the new councils taking over on 1 April 2028.

On 7 September 2026 the Government paused reorganisation across England "following updated and privileged legal advice", withdrew its decisions for Essex, Hampshire, Norfolk and Suffolk outright, and put the remaining areas under review. Its statement did not list those areas by name; Medway Council and Kent County Council have both confirmed that the Kent and Medway process is paused, and KCC postponed the committee at which it was due to consider its own legal challenge. The practical consequence is the one that matters for this page: the May 2027 elections are to the existing councils.

What is not settled is what follows. The review has no published timetable. Councillors elected in May 2027 could serve a full four-year term, or find their council abolished part-way through it if reorganisation resumes. KLN's Local Government Reorganisation series has tracked the legal basis of the process since April 2026 and continues to. The most recent parts:

The Westminster side of this — the manifesto pledge that produced the Act — is scored on our Westminster Pledge Tracker.

Key dates for voters

The statutory timetable runs back from polling day. Exact dates are fixed by each council's returning officer when the notice of election is published; the typical points are:

Late March 2027 — notice of election published; nominations open.
Early April 2027 — nominations close (4pm on the nineteenth working day before the poll). Statements of persons nominated follow within a day; KLN publishes every candidate list as it appears.
Mid-April 2027 — deadline to register to vote (twelve working days before the poll) and to apply for a postal vote (eleven working days before).
Late April 2027 — deadline to apply for a proxy vote (six working days before) and for a free Voter Authority Certificate.
Thursday 6 May 2027, 7am–10pm — polling day. Photo ID is required to vote in person at all English local elections under the Elections Act 2022.

Candidates and parties

Candidate lists will be populated here, council by council, as the statements of persons nominated are published in April 2027.

KLN covers every party fielding candidates in Kent — including smaller parties that other outlets tend to ignore. Recent coverage:

Coverage cadence

Our planned cadence — adjusted if the Government's reorganisation review moves the timetable again:

Now → December 2026: the reorganisation review, council-by-council "state of play" pieces built from the Council Scorecard, and candidate-selection news as parties choose their slates
January → April 2027: weekly election coverage, candidate Q&As, ward-by-ward briefings, manifesto analysis, and a voter's guide for every council holding an election
May 2027 (campaign period): daily coverage, live results on the count days, post-election analysis and updated Scorecard pledge trackers for every new administration

How we cover elections

KLN's election coverage is independent and IMPRESS-regulated. We:

Treat every party fielding candidates as a legitimate option to cover
Refuse to amplify unsubstantiated claims regardless of which party makes them
Approach every named candidate for comment before publishing material allegations
Publish source documents alongside investigations wherever possible
Operate without proprietor or advertiser influence on the story list

See our newsroom transparency page for full editorial standards.

Tip us a story: newshound@kentlocalnews.co.uk. This hub is updated as the picture firms up — page last edited 2026-09-10. Correction, 2026-09-10: an earlier version of this page said Kent County Council was elected in 2023 and due to vote in 2027, and that Medway voted in 2025. KCC was elected in May 2025 and next votes in May 2029; Medway was elected in May 2023 and votes on 6 May 2027.