Maidstone Borough Council would be no more.

Your local MBC councillors have worked hard to represent the communities who elected us to advocate for you, to be your voice and to strive to resolve those problems which often beset our wards, to ensure our Maidstone is a better place to live and work.

I and many other of your local MBC councillors know our wards in-depth because we live there and we have spent a long time building solid relationships with our neighbours, who know who to turn to when there is a problem.

This proposed change would deprive you of your local ward councillor and the means to represent you effectively. This disconnection doesn't consider the unique needs of our different wards and it means that your voices will be harder to be heard by those who have the power make decisions on your behalf.

Whatever the outcome of this undemocratic push to centralise local governance, we strongly believe that to maintain that important ground level connectivity which ensures all voices in our community are heard and that we maintain our unique identity as a county town, we need to create a Town Council to ensure our communities have a say in the decision-making processes and not be silenced.