The Medway Labour and Co-operative Group have raised concerns around the governance arrangements of the third-party LATCo Medway Development Corporation and the membership of Cabinet members on the Company Board, including Cllr Howard Doe and Cllr Adrian Gulvin.

Cllr Tristan Osborne, the Medway Labour Co-operative Group Spokesperson for Audit said:

“There is a clear conflict of interest when it comes to local Councillors sitting on the board of the Medway Development Company. I shall be asking the Councillor Conduct Committee to address these concerns about third-party membership and provide recommendations to those members about continued membership and the nature of the conflict of interest in regards to probity in relation to the Nolan Principles in Public Life.”

Cllr Vince Maple, Leader of the Medway Labour and Co-operative Group added:

“Auditors have made it absolutely clear that this shouldn’t be happening. It’s disrespectful and unprofessional of the local Conservative administration to ignore this and replace councillors with other councillors on the board when they’ve been told categorically they shouldn’t be doing this.”