Looking towards 2022

As 2021 ends, Covid - in particular, through the Omicron variant - remains a major factor in our lives. Yet we are, through the vaccination and booster programmes, in much better circumstances than was the case a year ago. The coming weeks will, I suspect, show conflicting trends that are hard to interpret. Omicron’s high transmissibility appears to be offset by its lesser severity, whether as a a result of its inherent characteristics or the impact of high levels of vaccination. Yet hospital admissions are rising, and come at a time of year when health services are under pressure for other reasons, compounded by a backlog and staff sickness. So the next few weeks may be tough.

Yet it is important to look to 2022 beyond these immediate pressures, and that is what I have sought to do in a New Year message published this morning. The County Council will be bringing forward its longer term plans, delayed and issued in interim form during the pandemic, with publication of our Strategic Plan in the spring. 

We will build on some of the most positive outcomes from the county’s response to the pandemic, notably our close work with the voluntary sector and with the NHS. In the latter case, our new partnership - in the form of the Integrated Care System for Kent and Medway - is expected to take shape in the summer. I know from past experience, having chaired the Kent Health and Wellbeing Board for five and a half years, how hard it is to translate good partnership intentions into real change and results on the ground. But if we get right our focus on the health and wellbeing of the entire population, we can make a real difference.

At the time of the May elections, I spoke of the economic, social and environmental recovery of the county. That will be a central focus of our plans for 2022 - whether through our work on skills through the Employment Task Force; our drive not only to achieve net zero (by 2030 for our estate and operations, and for Kent and Medway as a whole by 2050) but also through a strong approach to adaptation; and our work to achieve efficient borders that enable trade and bring benefit to Kent even as we negotiate the implementation of import controls and other changes flowing from Britain’s departure from the EU. 

All of this will have to be done at a time of continuing budget pressure. The financial settlement from government for 2022-23 (and with indications for local government as a whole for the following two years) was at the better end of expectations, but service and demand pressures coming out of the pandemic, especially in adult social care, remain severe. We will be bring forward our draft budget in the early days of the New Year, focused on what is necessary to achieve a sustainable longer-term future for our services. 

With good wishes to everyone in Kent for a 2022 characterised by health and happiness - and by hope.

Lombard Street measures

As in my previous post in mid-November regarding the situation in Lombard Street and in particular around the stud farm, a number of measures are being brought forward to attempt to address it. Not all the issues are within KCC’s remit, but those relating to the highway are. 

I outlined then plans to install black and white posts to provide immediate protection for the verges for some 70 metres from Reynolds Place Cottages, and for the longer term for a consultation on yellow lines on the eastern (stud farm) side of the road up to the junction with Rays Hill. 

The black and white bollards were installed some weeks ago. So far - as we feared might be the case - much of the effect has been to divert parking to elsewhere in the road, and so KCC plans to order more bollards (to go in towards the Mussenden Lane/ Rays Hill end of the road, which is narrower) to be installed, hopefully, towards the end of January.

Meanwhile, consultation on yellow line proposals will begin very early in the New Year, giving  all local residents the chance to set out their views.

Responding to Omicron

The latest data (up to 16 December) for Kent and Medway show a continuing rise in Covid infections. For Kent, the 7 day rate of infections per 100,000 population is 875, up 37.6% in a week. This is above the England average, though (only just) below that of the South East. Dartford (at 1264.7/ 100,000), Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells have the highest levels of infection. As elsewhere in the country, the Omicron variant is playing an increasing part in the spread of the virus.

Hospitalisations are increasing too, though so far at a relatively slow rate and are far below the levels seen in the early part of this year. The degree to which Omicron’s high transmission rate is offset by (possible) lower severity and the benefits of widespread vaccination remains uncertain.

KCC works alongside its partners (NHS, police, fire, district councils and others) in the Kent Resilience Forum (KRF) in responding to this latest phase of the pandemic. The KRF’s recent media release sets out the progress in the vaccine booster campaign - with a doubling of vaccinations in the last week and a record number (33,700) of jabs last Saturday, increased sites becoming available and communications to reinforce the need to get vaccinated or boosted (I recorded a video message last week as part of the campaign). Take up appears strong in relation to national trends. Earlier this week our Cabinet reviewed all the actions being taken to ensure that we are supporting the booster drive to the fullest possible extent.

The media release also sets out other areas of work carried out by KCC and Medway Council, including testing sites, contact tracing and the Kent Together advice and support service. It also includes links to vaccination bookings, location of vaccination centres across Kent and Medway and other information.

Counties and Levelling Up

The government is expected to publish its Levelling Up White Paper in the next week or so. Michael Gove now heads a department with Levelling Up in its title and avowed purpose. Widely seen originally as focused on post-industrial towns, chiefly in the north of England, levelling up has both taken on more substance and has been extended to shire counties. 

This was made very clear from the Prime Minister’s speech in July, which launched the concept of ‘county deals’. At KCC we have had a number of discussions with government about what such a deal might entail,though we are not one of the half dozen or so counties in talks over a county deal to be announced along with the White Paper.

I was invited by the website Conservative Home to set out some perspectives on counties and levelling up. In my article, published this morning, I set out a view that, above all, county deals would make sense if they helped build a much longer-term relationship between counties as strategic authorities with government.

You can find the article here

Councils mandated to accept asylum seeking minors: the government acts

Late on Monday, the Home Office confirmed that the government is moving to mandate councils across the country to accept Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children (UASC) into their care under the National Transfer Scheme (NTS). This was confirmed in a letter sent yesterday morning from Home Office Minister Kevin Foster and Children’s Minister Will Quince.

This is a very welcome development, and one which we at KCC have long argued for. The voluntary NTS set up in the summer has delivered large transfers (I believe around 600) of UASC young people to other local authorities. Nonetheless, not all authorities have taken part and recent rounds of the rota established through the new NTS have proved increasingly difficult to operate. With very large numbers of arrivals, and the consequent need for government to rely on unsustainable hotel accommodation for UASC, the case for mandation has become irresistible.

No authority with more UASC in its care than the 0.07% of the children and young people population benchmark established under the 2016 Immigration Act will be mandated to take additional UASC. This is of course the case for Kent, though we continue not only to take UASC young people into our care when we have capacity but also operate a Safe Care and Reception Service for UASC who will go on to other local authorities for their permanent placement. The mandation arrangements are said by ministers to be temporary and until the current pressures are addressed; it remains to be seen how this will work in practice, and in any case this remains a very positive decision. 

I have given a number of interviews since the announcement, including on BBC Radio 4’s The World Tonight on Monday evening (the report starts some 10 minutes into the broadcast).

Tonight, however, all thoughts related to channel crossings are dominated by the horrific news of the drowning of some 31 people near Calais. For this horror, there are no words.

Lombard Street parking: markers to be installed from Monday

Works are about to get under way in the first stage of efforts to address the parking problems in Lombard Street, Horton Kirby, near the former Oakview Stud Farm.

The Parish Council and KCC (represented by Kent Highways officers and me as local Member) have sought to address the problem and have discussed various ways of providing some improvements to improve the traffic flows and protect the largest area of highway verge. These measures involve the installation of black and white marker posts in the verge, 450mm back from the edge of the road from Reynolds Place Cottages for a distance of 70m, to prevent verge parking. 

The installation of the markers will start on this coming Monday, 22 November. 

Longer-term plans are for the provision of several sections of double yellow lines on the eastern side of the road, alongside the footway from opposite Reynolds Farm Cottages to the junction with Rays Hill. These sections of double yellow lines would only be short and would be located so that they can be used to allow vehicles to pass each other. Such a scheme will, however, Require full public consultation and the preparation of traffic regulation orders, which must be advertised. This process may take some six to nine months to be completed.

For the still longer term, discussions (involving Sevenoaks District Council’s planning department) are under way as to possible provision of parking in the area. In the meantime, however, these more immediate measures are under way.

Ann Allen MBE

A horrible, shocking day with the news that Ann Allen, Chairman of the County Council, died suddenly at home. For many, many people across the council - Councillors of all parties as well as council officers - as well as the Wilmington community that she represented; the people and organisations across the county that she met and supported; and above all the children and young people in the council’s care that she championed - the loss is overwhelming. 

Ann championed Wilmington, Dartford (where she was a long-serving and senior Borough Councillor) and Kent. At KCC she was (among many other roles) a shrewd and highly effective Conservative Chief Whip; a very successful Chairman in 2019-20, who had taken on the role for a second term in May; and perhaps her most characteristic role, Chairman of the Corporate Parenting Panel, which brings together KCC councillors with representatives of the children and young people in the council’s care and others (such as foster careers) involved in these issues. 

Ann insisted on retaining the Chair of the Panel through her terms as County Council Chairman, and for her the role was always about much more than chairing some meetings. She cared deeply about and advocated for the young people in KCC’s care (and the Care Leavers who have recently left it) and it showed. The KCC Panel was something of a model for building relationships between the Council and Children in Care - and much of that was down to Ann. 

Ann’s family - to whom she was devoted - have suffered the greatest loss, and our thoughts must be with them. And for all of us who worked with her and were privileged to have had her friendship, the loss is also huge. She really did represent the best of us.

You can find the Council’s statement on Ann here: