More money for pothole campaign in the new financial year

As I reported last month, KCC committed £5.2 million to its Find and Fix campaign in 2017-18; nonetheless, January 2018 saw some 4,000 pothole notifications, the highest January level for four years.

And that was before the Beast from the East, and the second, shorter-lived bout of snow in mid-March. Mike Whiting, Cabinet Member for Highways, indicated that the costs to the road network of the severe weather could come to some £4 million. However, the County Council has been able to announce an extra £2 million in funding, bringing the total budget for potholes and drainage for this year to £8.1 million.

So far. The Find and Fix campaign gets under way in April, and the Council Leader, Paul Carter has added that, "Towards the middle of June we will then reflect on how the work is going, and I can assure you that, if more work is needed, we will find the additional budget required to fix the potholes."

Audrey Gee

It was with great sadness that I learned of the death on Thursday morning of Audrey Gee.

Audrey was a central figure in Eynsford for many years, as both Chair of the Village Society and as its long-serving Liberal Democrat District Councillor. She was coming to the end of her term as District Councillor when I was elected to the County Council in 2005 (she retired in 2007) but was wonderfully welcoming, devoted to Eynsford and the wider Darent Valley and happy to work with anyone who was committed to those communities. (She was also a great champion of local heroes such as the aviator Percy Pilcher).

Audrey gave an enormous amount to Eysford over decades; I remember her fondly and am glad to have known her.

Buses and the 'Big Conversation'

Earlier in the year, I reported that KCC was reducing its planned savings from subsidsied bus services from £2 million to £455,000. This would be followed by a 'big conversation' with parish councils and other key community groups regarding the best way to deliver transport services that can tackle rural isolation.

The County Council has now confirmed that, following discussions with the bus companies (in particular, Stagecoach and Go Coach) it will propose some small changes that will convert subsidised to commercial routes, delivering the necessary savings without affecting access to services or routes to school. In the case of Go Coach, this will involve moving the 404 (Edenbridge to Sevenoaks) service from being a home to school to a commercial service, still nonetheless providing school students with a route to school.

It is anticipated that the 'big conversation' will follow in April and May, with the expectation that in June there will be a Rural Bus Summit, on the successful model of Kent Rail Summits.

KCC's Environment and Transport Cabinet Committee will debate these proposals next Tuesday, 20 March.