Medway

Medway is a unitary authority area with borough status in the ceremonial county of Kent in South East England. It was formed in 1998 by merging the boroughs of Rochester-upon-Medway and Gillingham, and is administered by Medway Council, which is independent from Kent County Council. The borough had a population of 292,655 in 2024. The borough contains the towns of Chatham, Gillingham, Rainham, Rochester and Strood, which are collectively known as the Medway Towns. Medway will be abolished and replaced by the new unitary authority of North Kent on 1 April 2028, with elections to the shadow authority set to happen on 6 May 2027. Medway is one of the boroughs included in the Thames Gateway development scheme. It is also the home of Universities at Medway, a tri-partite collaboration of the University of Greenwich, the University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church University on a single campus in Chatham, together with the Medway School of Arts.