Gravesham

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Gravesham
Borough of Gravesham
Borough and non-metropolitan district
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Gravesend Royal Terrace Pier and town skyline
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Gravesham located within Kent
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Sovereign stateUnited Kingdom
Constituent countryEngland
Non-metropolitan countyKent
StatusBorough
Admin HQGravesend
Incorporated1 April 1974
Government
 • TypeNon-metropolitan District Council
 • BodyGravesham Borough Council
 • LeadershipMember of Parliament
 • MPLauren Sullivan
Area
 • Total
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 • Rank198th (of 296)
Population
 (2024)
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Population
 (2024)
 • Total
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 • RankTemplate:English district rank (of 296)
 • DensityScript error: No such module "ConvertIB".
Template:Pluralize from textTemplate:Pluralize from text
Ethnicity (2021)
[1]
 • Ethnic groups
List
Religion (2021)
[1]
 • Religion
List
Time zoneUTC0 (GMT)
 • Summer (DST)UTC+1 (BST)
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ONS code29UG (ONS)
E07000109 (GSS)
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Websitewww.gravesham.gov.uk

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Gravesham (/ˈɡreɪvʃəm/ Script error: No such module "Respell".) is a local government district with borough status in north-west Kent, England. The council is based in its largest town of Gravesend. The borough is indirectly named after Gravesend, using the form of the town's name as it appeared in the Domesday Book of 1086. The district also contains Northfleet and a number of villages and surrounding rural areas.

Parts of the borough lie within the Kent Downs, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The neighbouring districts are Dartford, Sevenoaks, Tonbridge and Malling, and Medway, plus Thurrock on the opposite side of the River Thames.

Gravesham is twinned with Cambrai in Hauts-de-France, France and Neumünster in Schleswig-Holstein, Germany. The Gravesham parliamentary constituency covers the same area as the borough.

History

The first borough in the area of modern Gravesham was "Gravesend and Milton", an ancient borough which had been incorporated in 1568 by Elizabeth I.[2] The borough had been reformed in 1836 to become a municipal borough, at which point the name was changed to just "Gravesend".[3]

The modern district was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972, covering the whole area of two former districts and parts of a third, which were all abolished at the same time:[4]

The new district was named Gravesham, using the form of Gravesend's name which had appeared in the Domesday Book.[5] The choice of name was not without criticism; Robert Heath Hiscock, chairman of the Gravesend Historical Society, in the foreword to his book, 'A History of Gravesend' (Phillimore, 1976) wrote:

"The name Gravesham appears only in the Domesday Book, 1086, and was probably the error of a Norman scribe. It was 'Gravesend' in the Domesday Monarchorum c.1100, and 'Gravesende' in the Textus Roffensis c. 1100. It is strange that this "clerical error" should now have been adopted as the name of the new Council".

The district was granted borough status from its creation, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor.[6]

Governance

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Gravesham Borough Council
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Leadership
Jenny Wallace,
Labour
since 13 May 2025[7]
John Burden,
Labour
since 16 May 2019
Stuart Bobby
since 1 April 2020[8]
Structure
Seats39 councillors
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Political groups
Administration (22)
Page Template:Legend/styles.css has no content.  Labour (22)
Opposition (17)
Page Template:Legend/styles.css has no content.  Conservative (13)
Page Template:Legend/styles.css has no content.  Reform UK (5)
Elections
First past the post
Last election
4 May 2023
Next election
6 May 2027
Meeting place
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Gravesham Civic Centre, Windmill Street, Gravesend, DA12 1AU
Website
www.gravesham.gov.uk

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Gravesham Borough Council provides district-level services. County-level services are provided by Kent County Council. The more rural parts of the borough are also covered by civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government.[9]

Political control

The council has been under Labour majority control since the 2023 election.[10]

The first election to the council was held in 1973, initially operating as a shadow authority alongside the outgoing authorities before coming into its powers on 1 April 1974. Political control of the council since 1974 has been as follows:[11][12]

Party in control Years
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Script error: No such module "Party name with color". 1976–1987
Script error: No such module "Party name with color". 1987–1993
Script error: No such module "Party name with color". 1993–2007
Script error: No such module "Party name with color". 2007–2011
Script error: No such module "Party name with color". 2011–2015
Script error: No such module "Party name with color". 2015–2018
Script error: No such module "Party name with color". 2018–2019
Script error: No such module "Party name with color". 2019–2021
Script error: No such module "Party name with color". 2021–2023
Script error: No such module "Party name with color". 2023–present

Leadership

The role of mayor is largely ceremonial in Gravesham. Political leadership is instead provided by the leader of the council. The leaders since 2003 have been:

Councillor Party From To
Rosemary Leadley[13][14] Script error: No such module "Party name with color". 2003
John Burden[13][15] Script error: No such module "Party name with color". 9 Dec 2003 May 2007
David Turner[16][17] Script error: No such module "Party name with color". 15 May 2007 26 Jun 2007
Mike Snelling[17][18] Script error: No such module "Party name with color". 26 Jun 2007 May 2011
John Burden[19][20] Script error: No such module "Party name with color". 17 May 2011 May 2015
John Cubitt[21][22] Script error: No such module "Party name with color". 19 May 2015 Mar 2017
David Turner[23][24][25] Script error: No such module "Party name with color". 18 Apr 2017 Aug 2018
Script error: No such module "Party name with color". Aug 2018 May 2019
Gurdip Ram Bungar[26] Script error: No such module "Party name with color". 16 May 2019

Composition

Following the 2023 election, and subsequent defections in October 2025[27] the composition of the council was:[28][29]

Party Councillors
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Total 39

The next election is due in 2027.[29]

Elections

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". Since the last boundary changes in 2023, the council has comprised 39 councillors, representing 17 wards, with each ward electing one, two or three councillors. Elections are held every four years.[30]

The wards are:

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  • Chalk
  • Coldharbour and Perry Street
  • Denton
  • Higham and Shorne
  • Istead Rise, Cobham and Luddesdown
  • Meopham North
  • Meopham South and Vigo
  • Northfleet and Springhead
  • Painters Ash
  • Pelham
  • Riverview Park
  • Rosherville
  • Singlewell
  • Town
  • Westcourt
  • Whitehill and Windmill Hill
  • Woodlands

Premises

The council is based at Gravesham Civic Centre on Windmill Street in Gravesend, which had been built in 1966 for the old Gravesend Borough Council.[31] The building was formally opened on 15 November 1968 by Katharine, Duchess of Kent.[32]

Housing and architecture

Housing varies from mid rise to low rise, particularly in the villages. The district has 12 buildings listed in the highest category of the national grading system, Grade I, three of which are private residences:

  • Gadshill Place in Higham
  • Luddesdown Court in Luddesdown
  • Nurstead Court in Meopham

Cobham Hall, also in the highest architectural category,[33] is a stately home which was formerly the seat of the Earls of Darnley: since 1965 it has been a private girls' school. Cobham Park is Grade II*-listed which is listed separately in the gardens and parklands category of classification approved by the Department of Culture, Media and Sport;[34] and includes the remains of a Roman villa.[33][35]

The other Grade I-listed buildings in the borough comprise its ancient parish churches.

File:Gravesend Sikh Temple - geograph.org.uk - 1943692.jpg
Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara, Gravesend

Gravesham is home to the largest Sikh Gurdwara in Europe, Guru Nanak Darbar Gurdwara.[36]

Parishes

Script error: No such module "Labelled list hatnote". The borough includes six civil parishes, covering the more rural eastern and southern parts. The more urban north-west of the borough, roughly corresponding to the combined area of the former borough of Gravesend and urban district of Northfleet, is an unparished area.[37][38] The parishes are:

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  • Cobham
  • Higham
  • Luddesdown
  • Meopham
  • Shorne
  • Vigo

References

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  1. ^ a b Template:NOMIS2021
  2. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Hasted, Edward (1797). The History and Topographical Survey of the County of Kent. Canterbury: W. Bristow. pp. 319–335. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
  3. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Municipal Corporations Act. 1835. p. 460. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
  4. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The English Non-metropolitan Districts (Definition) Order 1972", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, SI 1972/2039, retrieved 27 September 2023
  5. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The English Non-metropolitan Districts (Names) Order 1973", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, SI 1973/551, retrieved 31 May 2023
  6. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."District Councils and Boroughs". Parliamentary Debates (Hansard). 28 March 1974. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
  7. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Council minutes, 13 May 2025". Gravesham Borough Council. Retrieved 1 June 2025.
  8. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Delaney, Sean (8 January 2020). "New Gravesham chief executive Stuart Bobby pledges to make area somewhere everyone is as "proud to call home as I am"". Kent Online. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  9. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Local Government Act 1972", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, 1972 c. 70, retrieved 31 May 2023
  10. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Local Elections 2023: Results in Sussex, Kent and Essex". ITV News. 6 May 2023. Retrieved 26 September 2023.
  11. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Compositions Calculator". The Elections Centre. University of Exeter. Retrieved 26 November 2024. (Put "Gravesham" in search box to see specific results.)
  12. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."England council elections". BBC News Online. 10 May 2011. Retrieved 24 September 2011.
  13. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Council minutes, 9 December 2003" (PDF). Gravesham Borough Council. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  14. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."By-election for Coldharbour Ward in Gravesend following resignation of Cllr Rosemary Leadley". Kent Online. 1 April 2014. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  15. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Goodson, Barry; White, Alison (4 May 2007). "Tories rule in Gravesham". News Shopper. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  16. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Council minutes, 15 May 2007". Gravesham Borough Council. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  17. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Council minutes, 26 June 2007". Gravesham Borough Council. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  18. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Fleig, Jessica (6 May 2011). "Labour leader back in Gravesend again". Kent Online. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  19. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Council minutes, 17 May 2011". Gravesham Borough Council. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  20. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Grafton-Green, Patrick (11 May 2015). "'Disappointed' John Burden throws down gauntlet as Conservatives take control of Gravesham Council". News Shopper. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  21. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Council minutes, 19 May 2015". Gravesham Borough Council. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  22. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Acres, Tom (12 August 2017). "Former Gravesham council leader Cllr John Cubitt dies after illness battle". Kent Online. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  23. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Council minutes, 18 April 2017". Gravesham Borough Council. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  24. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.McConnell, Ed (4 October 2018). "Gravesham council leader David Turner faces vote of no confidence". Kent Online. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  25. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content.Hunter, Chris (3 May 2019). "Gravesham council election results 2019". Kent Online. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  26. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Council minutes, 16 May 2019". Gravesham Borough Council. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  27. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Four Tory councillors defect to Reform". Kent Online. 7 October 2025. Retrieved 18 December 2025.
  28. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Local elections 2023: live council results for England". The Guardian.
  29. ^ a b Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Gravesham". Local Councils. Thorncliffe. Retrieved 6 March 2025.
  30. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."The Gravesham (Electoral Changes) Order 2022", legislation.gov.uk, The National Archives, SI 2022/1176, retrieved 26 September 2023
  31. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Gravesend Borough Council: Civic Centre". Kent Messenger. Maidstone. 19 August 1966. p. 3. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
  32. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Gravesend's Royal Day: Duchess opens Civic Centre". Kent Messenger. Maidstone. 22 November 1968. p. 5. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
  33. ^ a b Script error: No such module "Template wrapper".
  34. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Gravesham Listed Building Guidance Notes". Archived from the original on 21 December 2014. Retrieved 21 December 2014.
  35. ^ Script error: No such module "Template wrapper".
  36. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Kent County Council's cabinet members visit Europe's largest Sikh temple". 17 December 2011.
  37. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Election Maps". Ordnance Survey. Retrieved 27 September 2023.
  38. ^ Page Module:Citation/CS1/styles.css has no content."Parish Councils". Gravesham Borough Council. Retrieved 27 September 2023.

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