Deputy Mayor

The Deputy Mayor of Maidstone is Cllr Fay Gooch.

A baby boomer born in 1947, Fay hails from Eltham in South East London and attended Kidbrooke Comprehensive School for Girls, Britain’s first purpose-built comprehensive school.

Her whole working life has been in local government: firstly the London Borough of Lewisham, then having left to have a family, she joined Kent County Council at what used to be Sandling Block at Springfield, then at Sessions House and at Invicta House.

Fay has lived in Maidstone since 1975, and in Barming since 1985. Her marriage to Peter is still going strong after 53 years, two children and four grandchildren. Fay joined Barming Parish Council in 1997 and has been Chairman since 2002.

Fay retired from KCC in 2012 after 35 years working in admin support and managing office services mainly in Strategic Planning, Highways & Transportation, Economic Development, Environment and Waste. Never one to say “no,” it seemed a natural progression for her to stand for election to Maidstone Borough Council in 2008 when Cllr Paul Oldham retired as the local ward member for Barming and Teston. In fact, Fay’s win made the national newspapers as the only Independent to take a seat from a Conservative. It so happens that Fay sees party politics as not so relevant at local level.

For the past 12 years she has keenly served on various committees, some as Chairman and as Vice Chairman, and has been Deputy Leader of the Council for the past four years.

Fay’s passion has always been music, singing in particular, and managed to fit in 35 years with Maidstone Choral Union including being its Chairman.

With local government running through her veins and her enthusiasm for serving the community, she is delighted and honoured to be Deputy Mayor of Maidstone. Fay does so with great respect to the family of her predecessor Deputy Mayor Cllr Wendy Hinder who sadly passed away in February 2020.