It is often mentioned as one of the stumbling blocks to any airport being built in the Thames Estuary, and this week the SS Richard Montgomery will make a reappearance on the political agenda.

A public meeting on the wreck is being held at the St George’s Centre in Chatham Maritime on Thursday (September 27) at 7pm.

It will be chaired by historian and film maker Colin Harvey, and there will be a panel of guests who will take part in a discussion about the vessel.

Among the issues they will consider are the potential disposal of the wreck, who would pay for it and whether the US government should be approached.

We know the consequences of the ship’s thousands of pounds of munitions exploding would be catastrophic, but the meeting might reveal some new information.

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Cuts in funding from government put the council in a very difficult position when it comes to balancing the books.

A report this week lays out one of the hard choices the administration might have to make in the near future.

A rise in council tax of 4% in 2013/14 needs to be given “serious consideration” according to a report for a business committee meeting tomorrow (Tuesday).

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Call off the search party.

Rehman Chishti has proven notoriously hard to get hold of in my time at the paper, but it appears his media operation is being ramped up.

Barry Watts, who used to be the political assistant to the council’s Conservative group, is now working for the Gillingham and Rainham MP.

And since that change my inbox has been bombarded with press releases keeping me fully abreast of what Reh’s getting up to.

I’m half expecting a release about what he’s had for breakfast to come through next.

Every year the news that train fares will be going up leads to an outburst of political bickering amongst the Towns’ politicos.

The mud is slung back and forth, debating what percentage fares would’ve gone up under one party and whose most at fault.

Meanwhile hard-pressed commuters worryingly look at their budgets to see if/how they are going to be able to cope with forking out more money for travel.

Amid the debate about percentages it’s worth remembering many people think fares shouldn’t be going up at all. Why pay more if the service stays the same, they ask.

The truth is, whatever party is in power, fares go up. The percentages may be different but that’s likely to be of little comfort.

Running the railways costs money, and the government wants you to foot more of the bill.

The white paper stipulating this was introduced by the last Labour government in 2007, but the Tories haven’t rushed to reverse it.

When the railways were nationalised, tax payers and commuters split the cost down the middle. One thing our politicians agree on is that fares are too high, so would they contemplate re-nationalisation?

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Bosses at Medway Hospital show no signs of backing down in the row over blue badge charges, which will return to the agenda this week.

Councillors called for them to be scrapped at full council last month, but in a letter the hospital’s deputy chief executive Patrick Johnson said they are satisfied their position is “equitable and reasonable”, pointing out the hospital offers a number of concessions for disabled visitors.

Chief executive Mark Devlin is due to be quizzed by councillors on the health committee tomorrow evening (Tuesday).

The St George’s Centre will reverberate to the sound of political point scoring on Thursday – that’s right, it’s full council time.

Expect much discussion of the decision to charge blue badge holders for parking at the hospital.

A motion has been put forward by Labour’s health spokesman, Teresa Murray, calling on the charges to be scrapped and the £10 administration fee for processing applications to be removed.

On the parking charges there appears to be cross-party support – Conservative councillor Mike O’Brien has said his group can’t support them.

But there might be some dispute about the administration fee. The motion has the chance of being passed in some form though.

Councillors might decide to stop short of that and perhaps call the chief executive of the hospital, Mark Devlin, to face them at a Health and Adult Social Care Overview and Scrutiny Committee meeting.

This has been filling our post box and we’ve had plenty of calls about it since it broke last month.

Will this week be the week the pressure tells?

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The mixed bag of questions at the meeting include the money spent on Chatham Town Football Club, water works in the Towns, the Secondary School Games and whether the chief executive of the council, Neil Davies, should be removed in a bid to save money.

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The dithering over making a decision on airport capacity in the south east continues, but people on the Hoo Peninsula are already having to deal with planes flying above their heads.

An increasing number of flights from Southend airport have been going over the area since Easyjet started flying to more locations in March.

Residents say they weren’t consulted about it, and Medway Council have also said they received “no formal consultation from Southend Borough Council”.

A decision on changes to transport for children with special needs is close - and we’ve been given a flavour of the thoughts of parents in a report out this week.

The changes include sharing lifts and going to “pick up points” to get to their school.

A decision is due to be made in September.

More than 100 responses have been received from parents as part of the consultation, raising concerns about an extra burden being placed on them and their children being pushed towards independence before they’re ready.

Some of the concerns have arisen out of a misunderstanding of what’s being proposed. Reading the report, it’s easy to see why.

There’s talk of consulting with “stakeholders” and we’re told that Medway is a “pilot for the national SEN and Disabilities Pathfinder programme”.

A bit of plain English wouldn’t go amiss. Too many council reports are littered with jargon and “councilese”.

Councillors will discuss the changes at a meeting of the Children and Young People Overview and Scrutiny Committee tomorrow (Tuesday)

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When it comes to the airport debate, a favoured line of attack from local Labour politicians is to accuse the Tories of being "two-faced".

The latest deployment of this came in reaction to former defence and foreign secretary Sir Malcom Rifkind backing the idea in the Evening Standard.

But hang on, aren't Labour the party that nearly ripped itself to shreds with infighting in the 1980s before deciding that, actually, it wanted to win an election again?

This is the party that can't decide whether it loves or loathes former leader Tony Blair, who won three elections.

Indeed, one Medway Labour member called him a c*** this past week in reaction to news he was being given an advisory role by the party.

Politicians in the same party have different opinions, it's not breaking news.

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The biggest Conservative rebellion of the Parliament so far was over House of Lords reform, and one of our MPs was one of the rebels.

Chatham MP Tracey Crouch was one of 91 who voted against the idea on Tuesday. Rehman Chishti didn’t vote and Mark Reckless voted in favour.

It’s the third high profile rebellion from Miss Crouch – after tuition fees and the EU referendum.

Dear Dave,

For around about the past five years, we’ve been wondering if we’re going to have a massive airport plonked on our Towns.

We’ve had to deal with speculation, smoke signals, winks and nods. This month is supposed to be the month we begin to get somewhere with the start of a consultation into the idea.

But yet again there is speculation that the process could be beset with more delays.

There’s talk the consultation could be pushed back until September and the final decision until after the election in 2015.

We want answers and are tired of waiting.

You may want to build a time machine and fast forward to 2015 so you can get rid of those pesky Liberal Democrats, but the people of Medway aren’t very keen on going through three more years of uncertainty.

You’re going to upset people no matter what you decide to, so don’t dither again, bite the bullet and make a decision.

Yours in frustrated anticipation,

Medway

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QUOTE of the week from MP Mark Reckless: “My interest in airports first came about because, at a time when many boys want to be train drivers, my younger brother had an ambition to be an airport manager.

“Consequently, whenever we went on holiday, my indulgent parents would take us to the airport four or five hours before we needed to be there, and my brother would go around and catalogue the catering outlets and investigate the cleaning rosters.

“I was delighted, a few years later, when he decided that he actually wanted to be a doctor.”

No sooner had news filtered through that Cllr Craig Mackinlay had been chosen as the Conservative candidate for police commissioner, questions began to be asked.

Word spread that the turnout was paltry - I was told that 145 people turned up for the final selection meeting in Hoo.

Cllr Mackinlay said around 300 people had voted over three meetings - one of which was held on the same evening as England v France.

Given that the membership of the Conservative party in Kent probably numbers thousands, eyebrows are being raised. This is Tory country, every single MP here is blue.

I've picked up murmurings of disquiet about the method used to select Cllr Mackinlay. Members had to rank each candidate out of three (with one being best) so the person with "lowest" score won. I’m told the final tallies were: Mackinlay: 495, Jan Berry: 585, Francois Gordon: 628

Labour don't emerge unscathed either.

Amongst the criticism it was amusing to read Labour's press chief Cllr Tristan Osborne claim 300 people had decided on behalf of the residents of Kent - seemingly writing off the chances of his own party's candidate.

Having made clear their opposition to the role and what they see as the "polticising" of the police force, they've still decided to put forward candidates.

Indeed, the country's most high profile candidate is a Labour politician - John Prescott. It's left the party open to charges of hypocrisy - wanting to have their cake and eat it.

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What a difference year makes.

When the Love Medway app was launched, community safety chief Cllr Mike O'Brien said it would "revolutionise the way residents are able to report environmental issues and the way our staff deal with them".

This past week, after it emerged the overwhelming majority of users are council staff (8,029 out of 8,809 uses) a council spokesman said: "The Love Medway app is primarily intended for council community officers on patrol but as it is downloadable to all Android and Blackberry phones we encourage residents to use it as well."

Would our MPs quit the Conservative party and stand at the next election as independents if the government decides to build an airport in the Thames Estuary?

It’s a big hypothetical to consider, but it will have cropped into the minds of many in the Towns following comments from London MP Zac Goldsmith.

The Richmond Park representative said he would do just that if the government decides to carry out another u-turn and plump for a third runway at Heathrow.

Such a move from our trio would be both drastic and daring. It would likely be well received by opponents of the airport in their constituencies.

It would also somewhat neutralise opposition attacks on the issue, which could define Medway’s political direction at the next General Election in 2015.

I admit I’m playing devil’s advocate here, but it’s worth keeping at the back of your mind as the consultation nears its start.

What do you think?

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It may not be the most pithily titled document in recorded history, but the Council plan 2011/12 Year End Performance Report is an interesting read.

It lists commendable progress in a number of areas in the past year, such as investing in parks and green spaces, looking after at risk children, strengthening leadership in schools and reducing delays at the hospital.

But it appears the Love Medway app, which can be used by residents to report issues such as fly tipping and graffiti, is lagging behind somewhat.

It launched at a cost of £7,000 last March and the agenda for Thursday’s meeting of the Business Support Overview and Scrutiny Committee reveals just 364 non-council staff use it.

There have been more than 8,800 reports but there is no breakdown of how many of these are from members of the public as compared to council staff.

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Quote of the week from Cllr Tom Mason (Con) talking about improvements to Medway Crematorium: “It’s important and we need to keep our finger on the pulse.”

One of the biggest controversies last year was the Balfour Day Centre being earmarked for closure.

Tomorrow (Tuesday) its future should be temporarily secured under the stewardship of Medway Community Healthcare.

Cabinet members will vote on a proposal to create a "community resource centre" offering health and social care services and support to adults with physical disabilities for a six-month trial period.

This will be of great relief to the people who use the facility, and in a way, the Conservative administration.

When the closure was first mooted in November, it kicked up a lot of controversy.

More than 7,000 people signed petitions against the move, claiming they would have nowhere to go if the centre closed.

Medway Community Healthcare expressed an interest on the last day of the consultation, and now we wait to see if the reprieve is permanent or merely temporary.

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Also at cabinet, a proposal for a new primary school on the site of the former Chatham South School should be approved.

Officers will then formally notify the Department for Education of the council's plans, and a final plan for the construction of the school is due to be in place by December.

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Cllr Craig Mackinlay, who represents River Ward in Chatham, will find out this Sunday (June 17), if he will be the Conservative party’s candidate for Kent's first elected Police Commissioner.

The £85,000 a year post involves holding the force to account and setting its budget and priorities.

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As we reported on Friday, it looks like the Thames Estuary airport consultation will start next month. It's taken as a given that the council, campaigners and MPs will put in a very forceful submission, but will we see any set piece events designed to grab public attention? We've had car stickers and posters, what's next?

As Gillingham schoolboy Ryan Bertrand walked off the pitch at the Allianz Arena in the Champions League Final last month, a chant began to rise from the massed ranks of Chelsea fans to his right.

“One Ryan Bertrand, there’s only one Ryan Betrand.”

The Gills youth team product and Robert Napier pupil could probably hardly believe what he was hearing. From my vantage point high in the upper tier I did a slight double take as well.

Just a year ago he was kicking his heels in the Blues’ Reserve team having been out on loan to a number of Football League clubs to build up experience.

How things change.

What was remarkable about his performance against Bayern Munich is that he didn’t look out of place. It was his debut in the competition, and the pressure on him would’ve been immense.

He was an assured presence on the left flank, diligently helping left-back Ashley Cole shackle Bayern’s attacking triumvirate.

Many watching back here in Medway would have been intensely proud.

There are the teachers at Robert Napier, in Third Avenue, who first came across his talent as a fresh-faced schoolboy. 

Then there are those at Gillingham, where Bertrand spent four years before being spotted by Chelsea during an under-16s game at Chatham Town Football Club in 2005.

Seeing one of their own play so well in the biggest game in European club football is a great advertisement for the club.  "If you work hard, this is what you can achieve" will be the message being passed on to the current crop of Academy players.

There is also a financial interest for the club. The more games Bertrand plays for Chelsea, the more money they get. The final total could be more than half a million.

The initial compensation when he moved in 2005 was £125,000, and the club received £50,000 when Bertrand made his first team debut in April 2011.

Installments of £100,000 are due for every 10 appearances up to and including his 40th. The final in Munich was Bertrand’s 16th game for Chelsea.

Now we wait to see how far he can go. From what I've seen he has all the attributes to carve out a successful career.

Next season will be key. Interim manager Roberto Di Matteo had faith in Bertrand and gave him chances to shine, will the new manager do the same?

Bertrand is learning from one of the best in the business in the shape of Ashley Cole, and if things work out he could very well replace him as first choice for club and country.

Many in Medway will certainly be hoping he does.

A quick glance at the diary for the coming week reveals a grand total of zero meetings.

But there are always issues knocking around which will have those inside and outside of Gun Wharf talking.

The much-criticised debt survey which is being run by Medway Citizens Advice Bureau should get underway within the next week or so.

The charity has received a lot of flak for its partnership with Wonga, who will provide funding so an independent research company can train volunteers to carry out the exercise, which will aim to tackle a growing problem in the Towns.

The cry has been that they're jumping into bed with the enemy, but chief executive Dan McDonald has been keen to stress Wonga will have no control over the final report.

One person who has been silent so far in all of this Rehman Chishti. The Gillingham and Rainham MP, who his office said was ill last week, was criticised last year for backing payday lenders.

Many will wonder what he makes of it all. Last year the question was "where's Wicks?" now it's "where's Chishti?"

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We'll soon find out if local councillor Craig Mackinlay will be the Conservative candidate for Police Commissioner. A decision will be made on Sunday, June 17.

There was one curious question to arise from the fallout to the Tory field being narrowed from six candidates to three at a meeting last weekend.

It's as follows: who asked Cllr Mike O'Brien to stand?

When asked by my colleague Dan Bloom in the aftermath of his elimination from the race if he had put his entry together in a hurry and left it late, he said: "I did everything I possibly could and I was pleased to have been asked, to have the suggestion made to me, to put my name forward."

Cllr O'Brien wouldn't say who had asked him, and Cllr Mackinlay admitted the bid had come as a bit of a surprise.