Borough of Maidstone the February 2017 the council has 23 Conservative, 22 Liberal Democrat, 4 UKIP, 4 independent and 2 Labour party councillors. The council is based in the town centre having replaced its many small offices with one large building called Maidstone Gateway. The shopfront appearance is intended to make it easier to access information and services. The third tier of local government is the civil parish; in Maidstone some of the parishes have a neither a parish council or a parish meeting, as indicated (1) : The River Medway was the earliest form of transport through the area. It was navigable
Bell-Irving River and the headwaters of the Unuk River, which flows southwest to the sea near Ketchikan, Alaska, and the Bear River, which flows south to the head of Portland Canal at the community of Stewart, British Columbia. From its source the Bell-Irving River flows generally south through mostly mountainous terrain. It is joined by Craven Creek, then Rochester Creek. The Yukon Telegraph Trail follows Rochester Creek and part of the Bell-Irving River. The Yukon Telegraph line, also called the Dominion Telegraph, grew out of part of the earlier, failed Russian–American Telegraph, and connected Ashcroft, BC, to Dawson City, Yukon. The telegraph