Swale is a local government district with borough status in Kent, England. The council is based in Sittingbourne, the borough's largest town. The borough also contains the towns of Faversham, Queenborough and Sheerness, along with numerous villages and surrounding rural areas. It includes the Isle of Sheppey and is named after The Swale, the narrow channel which separates Sheppey from the mainland part of the borough. Some southern parts of the borough lie within the Kent Downs, a designated Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The borough borders the Medway unitary authority area to the west, the Borough of Maidstone to the south-west, the Borough of Ashford to the south-east, and the City of Canterbury to the east.

The district was created on 1 April 1974 under the Local Government Act 1972 covering the area of four former districts, which were all abolished at the same time:^[2]

• Faversham Municipal Borough
• Queenborough-in-Sheppey Municipal Borough (which covered the whole Isle of Sheppey)
• Sittingbourne and Milton Urban District
• Swale Rural District

The new district was named Swale, after the waterway which divides the mainland part of the district from the Isle of Sheppey.^[3] The district was awarded borough status on 20 January 1978, allowing the chair of the council to take the title of mayor.^[4]

Swale Borough Council provides district-level services. County-level services are provided by Kent County Council. Most of the borough is also covered by civil parishes, which form a third tier of local government.^[7][8]

Swale is a mainly rural borough, containing a high proportion of the UK's apple, pear, cherry and plum orchards (the North Kent Fruit Belt^[20]), as well as many of its remaining hop gardens. Faversham has the Shepherd Neame brewery. Founded in 1698 it is claimed to be oldest brewery in the UK.

Sheerness is a busy port and previously produced steel. Sittingbourne has a variety of smaller industrial sites.

The Roman Watling Street passed through the area, as witness the straightness of the A2 main road, now by-passed by the M2 motorway.

There are two railway lines in Swale: the Chatham Main Line and the Sheerness Branch Line, which meet at Sittingbourne.

Two adjoining bridges across The Swale link the Isle of Sheppey to the mainland: Kingsferry Bridge and the Sheppey Crossing.

In terms of television, Swale is served by BBC South East and ITV Meridian (East) broadcasting from the Bluebell Hill transmitter.^[21]

Local radio stations are:

• BBC Radio Kent on 96.7 FM
• Heart South on 103.1 FM
• SFM Radio (for Sittingbourne) on 106.9 FM^[22]
• BRFM 95.6 FM on 95.6 FM and Sheppey FM 92.2 on 92.2 FM (for the Isle of Sheppey)

Local newspapers are Sittingbourne News Extra,^[23] yourswale, and Sheerness Times Guardian that serves the Isle of Sheppey.

Most of the borough is covered by civil parishes. The parish councils for Faversham, Queenborough and Sheerness take the style "town council".^[24] The former Sittingbourne and Milton Urban District is an unparished area, as is the Halfway Houses area on Sheppey, being the only part of the pre-1974 borough of Queenborough-in-Sheppey not to have been subsequently added to a parish.^[8]

For the council's first four years it had a chairman rather than a mayor. The chairmen were:

• 1974-75 R. D. Sharrock
• 1975-76 K. H. Burbidge
• 1976-78 R. W. Barnicott

From the grant of borough status in January 1978 onwards the chairman of the council has taken the title of mayor. The mayors have been:

• 1978 D. Allen
• 1982 D. M. Elvy
• 1986 Bob Geldof^[25]
• 2004 Gerald David Thomsett
• 2004 Peter James Salmon
• 2018 Stephen Mark Brown
• 2021 Peter Morgan
• 2021 Robin Castle^[26][27]