THE amount of vitriol spilled in Gillingham by its Liberal Democrat councillors (past and present) has taken on tsunami proprtions.

As a West Countryman I might have substituted the word bore - a tidal wave that sweeps up some rivers against the natural flow. But it would have been misunderstood.

There is nothing boring about the vehemence and the anger which has been let loose in the row about their former deputy leader and parliamentary candidate, Andy Stamp.

It has hit personal levels such as I have never known in the 20 years I have worked in Gillingham's political arena.

Stamp is a sensitive man with a strong sense of moral right.

He reported his two ward colleagues to the Standards Board after one of them - Cathy Sutton - was forced to leave her home and sought help.

They are still under investigation by the council's standards committee.

Since he resigned from the group and later the party, and stands as an Independent, Cllr Stamp has raised the stakes by going public on his complaints.

The party has now sprung to his defence, accusing him of a poor result in the general election (it was their best result since Bob Sayer stood in 1997).

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The campaign to win city status for Medway has taken to the streets (literally) with the appearance of Arriva's dark blue and white doubledecker.

It has been poiunding the roads between Chatham, Rochester and Strood since it entered service.

What a pity it hasn't been on the 132 route. It serves Gillingham and Rainham, two of the towns which seem to have been overlooked in much of the regeneration benefits.

They also accused him of sulking because he didn't get the group leadership (he didn't, but by then the rank and file were already taking sides).

It is an election year. In 91 days we shall all be waiting to hear who has won what.

I strongly suspect the electorate will respond to the row in a way that will do nothing to benefit the LibDems - just as the electorate appears to want to blame that party for all the woes of the financial mess.

The row among the LibDems in Gillingham North is rather reminscent of the Mount Helen explosion a few years ago - slowly growing and then suddenly blowing its lid.

The politicians haven't got to the big bang - yet - but it could be about to happen.

Briefly, three Lib Dems were elected to serve in 2007. It surprised many, and hurt the Labour group who were convinced they would win.

Among their successes was Andy Stamp, a young, enthusiastic and optimistic politician they quickly groomed for higher office. He soon became deputy leader of the party's council group. After being blooded against the deputy leader of the Conservatives he quickly learned to stand on his own feet.

Then things started to go wrong within the group.

One of his colleagues, Cllr Cathy Sutton, had formed a relationship with a member of another party - a situation always open to suspicion.

Stamp was selected as the Lib Dems candidate for the Gillingham and Rainham constituency.

The constituency party covers two seats. The other is Rochester and Strood where the Group Leader, Cllr Geoff Juby, was the candidate (again).

The way this particular constituency party works is in keeping with the party name - democratically. Members could chose who they supported. Some helped Juby, some aided Stamp, and some worked for both. Others nodded sagely and stayed at home. The constituency chairman, a tough bird, hardened on Gillingham politics, is Alan Jefferies. His personal time was given to Cllr Juby's campaign.

Cllr Stamp considered he had a better chance of winning.

Neither did win, but there had been rows over where the election funds to support the campaigns should go. It led to regional investigations into any unfairness. They were pretty informal from what I understand happened, and they eventually rejected Cllr Stamp's allegations.

Meanwhile Cllr Sutton's friendship had broken up. She felt she urgently needed to find a new home.

The third member of the ward triumvirate, Cllr Maureen Ruparel, became involved. The two women went to see the council's housing chief, and were advised of a number of private landlords. Cllr Sutton moved out a few days later.

Cllr Stamp was unhappy at the process, and complained to the Standards Committee of Medway. It grinds through the processes exceedingly slowly. It has still not decided whether the two councillors should have taken a different course of action.

Unfortunately for the councillor, he had also lost the deputy leader's job, after putting all his effort into the race for the Leader's position. He resigned the group whip shortly afterwards, and then decided to resign from the party. In turn, it considers he is suspended - and therefore subject to disciplinary action.

May will soon be here: an election is looming.

The Lib Dems have not yet announced their team.

It would not include Cllr Stamp: he has formed an independent grouping seeking election. All three are ex-LibDems (a second is believed still to be a Lib Dem member).

You'd think that would be enough. Think again. Silently watching this scenario are the Labour candidates. Their grins are wider than the Cheshire Cat.

The election of David Craggs as Medway's 34th Conservative councillor must be causing some angst in the ranks of the Labour party as they lose another seat.

Meanwhile the four independent councillors who formed their own group (sans the ultra-right wing former chairman of Audit) are whispered to be planning to put up candidates of their own next May.

That could cause fears in the ranks of the Liberal Democrats. They saw their competent deputy leader suddenly move into the ranks of the indies only weeks after standing as their candidate in the Gillingham and Rainham constituency where he polled 8484 votes.

There have been investigations taking place into what happened to cause his sudden departure. Andy Stamp himself has to date refused to explain his reasons for crossing the Chamber.

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The achievements of Medway's sixth formers have been remarkable this year.

School after school reported their best-ever results - or pretty close to it.

Probably the most satisfied will be the staff.

None more so than at the Hundred of Hoo school.

Headteacher Kevin Mahon has been under great pressure. His school has been in special measures.

So for the 94 students to get record levels of passes is a tribute to all the work that has been put in - by the pupils and by their teachers.

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This week's regeneration committee contemplated four major reports. This most important of these - and one that could influence whether millions of pounds of government cash reach the community - is the 15-year Local Transport Plan.

Bus travel is always a political football and never more so than in Medway where public transport is anathema to some councillors.

Yet there are major plans for the buses - providing they don't interfere with the beloved car.

They include several park and ride schemes (something has to be done to divert the traffic away from Medway's once and future city centre).

Sainsbury's are expected to fund one next to the tunnel entrance at the Medway City Estate.

The council has eyes on a plot of land at Wigmore for a second one.

There is no talk of one near Blue Bell Hill. Maidstone council has proposed a joint park and ride serving both Medway and Maidstone. It would pick up traffic arriving in the Towns from the M2. The trouble is Medway wants to snaffle some of the trade going to the county town, but isn't prepared to sacrifice any of the trade currently attracted to Chatham's fine shopping experience that is the High Street.

As though Maidstone could do such a thing.

There were some surprised looks on faces - not least among cabinet members - at the full Medway Council meeting.

Protestors were out in strength to protest about the toilets - or lack of them - in Chatham.

At the centre of their campaigning was the 20p to have a pee revelation from the Pentagon Shopping Centre management.

They have taken over the council's toilets, accepted a regeneration dowry of £200,000 to rebuild and run the toilets, and now plan to charge.

The fee is being introduced by the management in a bid to stop needle-pushing and other anti-social behaviour (including the occasional druggie death).

Meanwhile there could be hope for the desperate, the elderly and nursing mums: Cllr Alan Jarrett told me the toilets in the new bus station should be free.

At least, they were going to be free until the scale of the economic crisis called that into question.

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Cllr Les Wicks did a startlingly good impression of General de Gaulle last night.

The councillor was facing a call - some would say a suggestion - that he should resign over the way the Schools Adjudicator recently ruled against some of his primary school closure and merger plans.

There was a very firm, if anglicised, "Non!" to the call.

Nor was there an apology.

Meanwhile the handful of mums from St John's certainly knew how to make their views known.

Cllr Wicks lives to fight another day.

So do the schools.

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One would think that if you were in power for the first time for 80 years politicians would be queuing up to make a name for themselves.

But Andy Stamp - one-time deputy leader of Medway's Liberal Democrat councillors, defeated general election candidate and popular character in the community - suddenly announced he was no longer recognising his party whip.

He has, instead, joined the Independent councillors.

It's not so much a walk across the chamber, more, a slide across from one table to the adjacent one.

But it is significant, and comes hard on the heels of grouses that he wasn't getting the support he expected during the election campaign.

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It costs £140 to buy a first class ticket from Rainham to Birmingham by train - and a similar sum to come back.

But if you chose an offpeak train it can cost almost the same just to go to London.

Comparing trains on June 28, a check of the website, Raileasy, shows a return ticket on the HS-1 service to St Pancras at 10.15am costs £17.80. It costs just £1.20 more to carry on by the tube and Virgin Trains to make the return trip Birmingham.... using the same trains.

Something is radically wrong with our rail system.