Medway Council's leader from 2000 to 2015 has died. He sat on four councils across five decades, and took an OBE in 2011 for services to local government.

Rodney Chambers OBE JP, who led Medway Council for fifteen years, has died. The council announced it on Wednesday 26 August and flew its flag at half-mast the following day.

He was the longest-serving leader Medway has had, in post from 2000 to 2015, according to the council’s own tribute.

Five decades, four councils

The council’s own record of his service runs like this:

  • Kent County Council, 1974 to 1981
  • Gillingham Borough Council, 1987 to 1995, where he also led the Conservative group
  • Medway Council from its inception until his retirement in 2023, representing the Hempstead and Wigmore ward throughout
  • Leader of Medway Council, 2000 to 2015
  • Portfolio Holder for Economic Regeneration, 2015 to 2023

Medway Council itself was created by the Kent (Borough of Gillingham and City of Rochester upon Medway) (Structural Change) Order 1996, which abolished Gillingham Borough Council and Rochester upon Medway City Council and brought the unitary authority into being on 1 April 1998, with whole council elections in 1997, 2000, 2003 and every four years after. Cllr Chambers sat on the council from that first intake to 2023, twenty-six years in one ward.

Timeline of Rodney Chambers' elected service: Kent County Council 1974 to 1981, Gillingham Borough Council 1987 to 1995, Medway Council from its creation to 2023, with Leader of Medway Council 2000 to 2015 and an OBE in 2011
Rodney Chambers' elected service, from the council's own record. Graphic by Medway Live.

The OBE

The honour is in the public record. The Cabinet Office’s Birthday Honours list for 2011 lists him as an Officer of the Order of the British Empire, with the citation “Leader, Medway Council. For services to Local Government”, under Kent.

The two campaigns his opponent chose to name

The tribute from Cllr Vince Maple, the current Leader of Medway Council and a political opponent for most of that time, singled out two fights rather than any building or budget.

“By the nature of politics, we often disagreed across the chamber, but we always disagreed agreeably,” he said. “Rodney would put party politics aside on key matters like fighting to retain the Royal Navy in Chatham or stop the ridiculous idea of an airport in the estuary.”

The estuary airport is the one with a documented ending. Proposals for a hub airport on the Isle of Grain, inside Medway’s own boundary, were examined by the Airports Commission and then dropped. That came on 2 September 2014, in the middle of Cllr Chambers’ leadership. The commission announced it would not add an inner Thames estuary airport to its shortlist. The proposal, it said, had “substantial disadvantages that collectively outweigh its potential benefits”.

Cllr George Perfect, leader of the Medway Conservative Group, said Cllr Chambers had shown “unwavering commitment to local residents, helping to shape Medway through his leadership, vision and determination”. The group published the council’s statement in full on the same day.

What it means for you

  • Messages of condolence can be emailed to Members@Medway.gov.uk, the address the council has given.
  • The council flag at Gun Wharf was lowered to half-mast on Thursday 27 August.
  • Funeral arrangements have not been announced. Neither the council nor the Conservative group had published any as of 31 August, and we have not sought them from the family.
  • Hempstead and Wigmore, the ward he held for twenty-six years, is now the ward with the lowest claimant count in Medway, at 1.5 per cent of working-age residents against a district figure of 4.2 per cent, on the ONS claimant count for July 2026. We set the ward numbers out in full in our claimant count report.

Sources