Horton Kirby Fire Station update

Around the turn of 2011-12, I campaigned along with many others in Horton Kirby and South Darenth against the proposal by Kent Fire & Rescue Service to close the Horton Kirby Fire Station. The Parish Council asked me to be their representative and set out the community's view at the meeting of the Kent and Medway Fire Authority at which the decision on a range of changes to fire stations across the county were discussed. Nonetheless, the Fire Authority voted to go ahead with all the changes, including the closure of the Horton Kirby station once a new station at New Ash Green was established.

I remain concerned that this plan is damaging to people in Horton Kirby, South Darenth and other northern areas of the Darent Valley division. However, the Fire & Rescue Service is bringing forward two measures which, if enacted, will hopefully have some mitigating effect.

The first is that coverage at Swanley - like Horton Kirby, a part-time station - is being enhanced with more part-time staff being recruited. (Dartford will, however, remain the nearest full-time station). For anyone interested in finding out more about being a part-time firefighter and the recruitment at Swanley, this link gives the details and includes a video.  

Secondly, the Fire & Rescue Service is rolling out an Automated Vehicle Location System (AVLS) - essentially a GPS tracking system so that the nearest vehicle out on the road can go straight to a fire or other incident, rather than a crew at a station having necessarily to be called into action. To a fair extent, this already happens through radio contact, but AVLS will make the process quicker and more reliable. This should also help response times.

It is clear that the Horton Kirby closure is going ahead. The new fire station on the borders of New Ash Green and Ash-cum-Ridley (to be known, I understand, as the latter) is expected to be completed later this year. This means that we could see the closure of Horton Kirby either before Christmas or early in 2014. 

My concern has been to confirm that any enhancement at Swanley and the introduction of AVLS (which is scheduled for spring 2014) should go ahead to mitigate as much as possible the impact of the closure on local residents. Having spoken to the Fire & Rescue Service, I am encouraged that this is the case.  

I continue to regret the closure of the Horton Kirby Fire Station. However, I hope that these two initiatives will help to maintain the safety of local people and will continue to monitor their operation.

Redmans Lane fly-tipping: case due in May

Fly-tipping remains a serious problem on many of Darent Valley's relatively remote country roads, and Redmans Lane has suffered more than most.

Two men are due to appear for a first hearing at Sevenoaks Magistrates Court on 14 May. They are charged with fly-tipping offences in Redmans Lane, as well as Chelsfield Lane, a site in Sundridge and a number of sites in the London Borough of Bromley.

The bringing of these charges follows extensive cooperation between Kent County Council and Bromley Borough Council.

Sevenoaks Grammar School satellite: partner announced

The campaign for a grammar school satellite in Sevenoaks has taken a further step forward. Kent County Council has announced this morning that it is working with Valley Invicta Academies Trust to establish a satellite of Invicta Grammar School in Sevenoaks. A proposal will be sent to Education Secretary Michael Gove by the start of next week.

KCC made clear earlier this year (see post of 9 January) that it favoured the former Wildernesse School site for a Sevenoaks grammar school satellite. Last week saw a lot of publicity - and concern on the part of supporters of the grammar school satellite - following a letter from Lord Nash, Under-Secretary in the Department of Education, indicating the government's apparent wish to allocate the site for the Trinity Free School. However, KCC made clear its commitment to the grammar school satellite being on the site once it is vacated by the Knole Academy, and the legal basis for the government's proposal was strongly disputed. (You can find a very balanced treatment of the story by the Chronicle here).

I have long favoured a grammar school satellite in Sevenoaks; last year I seconded the County Council motion supporting its establishment, and I have continud to campaign for it. The growing pressure on grammar school places in West Kent, which will only increase in the next few years, is a powerful argument for it. So are the long journeys that Sevenoaks children as young as eleven have to make each day. In the last week, many constituents have expressed their concern and their anger at the thought that the satellite might be stopped.

The announcement that a high-performing grammar school is committing to the Sevenoaks satellite is very good news indeed.

You can find a full account on the Sevenoaks Grammar School Campaign website here.

Resurfacing in Farningham and Crockenhill: new dates

Resurfacing work in Farningham (White Post Hill and Beesfield Lane) and in Crockenhill (Stones Cross Road) was scheduled for last week (see post of 10 March) but, unsurprisingly, fell victim to the severe weather.

We now have new dates for the work - subject once more to the weather, of course. These are:

Beesfield Lane - 8 and 9 April
White Post Hill - 9 and 10 April
Stones Cross Road - 10 and 11 April

This time, hopefully, the works will be able to proceed.

Rolling out broadband in Kent

With Bill Murphy of BT this morning

This morning - wearing my KCC Cabinet Member's rather than my Darent Valley hat - I was interviewed on Radio Kent about our agreement with BT to roll out broadband across Kent and Medway.

The agreement is under the auspices of a national programme run by the government agency Broadband Delivery UK (BDUK). The aim is to cover the roughly one-third of Kent and Medway properties that will not get access to decent broadband any time soon without some sort of financial intervention. KCC is putting in £10m, BDUK £9.87m and BT £19.6m. The target of the government programme is that, in any given area (such as Kent and Medway) around 90% of properties should get superfast broadband (defined as download speeds of 24mbps or faster) and that the remaining 10% - by definition the hardest and most expensive to reach properties - should have access to minimum download speeds of 2mbps.

Kent is among the first counties in the country to sign a BDUK agreement, and our deal is a little better than this. At least 91% of properties should get superfast broadband, and at least a further 4% should get access to quite high-speed fibre connections. The precise outcome has to await survey work.

The agreement is signed today. Survey work should start next, the first services should be available in 2014 and the project should be complete by the end of 2015.

This is an excellent outcome for our county, a step change in taking up the opportunities that broadband gives us - as businesses, families, communities and individuals. For new, growing and smaller businesses, especially in rural areas (and some 40% of Kent businesses are rural) it is absolutely essential. That we have got to where we are is a tribute to the 18,000 businesses and individuals who signed up to our Make Kent Quicker Campaign. It's also a tribute to some tremendous staff at KCC who have worked enormously hard through a long and complex process to make this happen. And it is, now, happening.

You can find KCC's press release and a related video here.

Kent Highways and the lessons from Monday

Like so many others, I was caught up in the severe disruption to the roads amid Monday evening's snowfall. A journey home from Maidstone that normally takes a little over half an hour took five and three quarter hours. At one point, as I was helping push the car in front of me up an incline, a man turned to me and said, "The council's going to get a lot of complaints tomorrow." I have to admit that I didn't rush to tell him that I was a County Councillor.

This evening, at the Sevenoaks Joint Transportation Board, Kent's Head of Highways, John Burr, reported and reflected on what happened on Monday. He did not say - though he could have done - that neighbouring counties such as Surrey and Sussex were just as badly affected, if not more so, and that the same could be said for the major routes operated by the Highways Agency. He was quite clear that what had happened wasn't acceptable. He emphasised that there was - and remains - no shortage of salt. The lorries had been out several times in the course of the day, and the approach which had been so successful a few weeks ago was repeated. So what happened?

High winds were part of the answer - quite a lot of salt was simply blown away.  The salt was also unable to take full effect on the relatively dry ice (once things started to thaw, it accelerated the dispersal of the ice and snow, but that was of no use to anyone on Monday night). The most intense snowfall came at and just before rush hour. Major routes such as the M2 were closed and traffic diverted onto other roads, and accidents also diverted traffic. (This was my experience: an accident led me to take the A25, not my usual route, and it was there that I spent most of the evening). In turn this made it harder for lorries to get through.

John Burr indicated that he will be leading a full review next week of what happened to see what improvements might be possible for the future. One possibility he raised relates to the point about the salt not really taking effect on the dry ice. It's not a case of complaining about "the wrong sort of snow", but rather of asking whether it would have been better - and might be better in future - to switch under these circumstances to use of sand and grit; not so focused on dissolving the snow, but rather on improving tyre grip.

Looking at the winter as a whole, Kent Highways delivered very well in responding to snowy conditions. On Monday night, despite the hard work of Highways officers, the service was less able to cope with what the weather threw at it, and residents and motorists had a difficult time as a result. There is clearly a strong will to see what can be learned from the experience with the aim of a better outcome next time.

Mirrors trial for George bend in Shoreham

Mirrors to warn of approaching traffic are to be proposed for the George bend in Church Street, Shoreham, on a trial basis. They will be paid for from my Member Highway Fund.

Last year saw extensive debate in Shoreham - including a public meeting in the village, which I chaired - on traffic issues. Opinion was deeply divided on proposals for yellow lines at several sites, and ultimately the Sevenoaks Joint Transportation Board voted to put in yellow lines at the corner of Crown Road and High Street (see post of 9 March) but not in other locations such as the George bend.

At around the same time Kent Highways reviewed its stance on the use of mirrors to help drivers and pedestrians see vehicles approaching round a corner. Highways had not previously been supportive of such mirrors, but changed its policy late last year. I have therefore proposed that mirrors be installed at the George bend as a way of helping tackle safety concerns through a means other than yellow lines.

The Parish Council is in favour of this proposal, while keen to see the details of how it works in practice. Kent Highways is therefore moving quickly to consult residents affected by the installation of the mirrors, and hopes to  go ahead soon. This would be for a six month trial period.

Resurfacing in Farningham and Crockenhill this week

Darent Valley is benefiting from three projects as part of KCC.s £6 million extra spending on road resurfacing across the County (see posts of 23 February and of 6 November last year): White Post Hill and Beesfield Lane in Farningham, and Stones Cross Road in Crockenhill. There has already been preliminary patching work done to prepare some of these sites for resurfacing, and the main work is now due to go ahead.

All three will be treated with two layers of micro-asphalt, which should improve the surface, increase skid resistance and keep water out. The finished surface will may look rough to start with, but should have a much smoother look after 4 to 6 weeks of bedding in.

The works on White Post Hill will take place on Wednesday 13 March for one day; the road closure will be between 1 and 6 PM to accommodate the surgery. Those on Beesfield Lane will also start on the 13th and will take 3 days. Stones Cross Road will start on Tuesday 12th and last for 2 days.

Shoreham: Crown Road yellow lines and other issues

I was unable to attend Shoreham Parish Council on Thursday evening since I was speaking at a KCC event elsewhere in the County that evening. However, I submitted a written report. Here are some of the key issues from it.

Regarding the yellow lines that were wrongly painted in standard Highways style on Crown Road (see post of 9 October last year), a Kent Highways officer has now visited the site to see how much impact the winter weather had on them. An order is now being raised for their removal and replacement by lines suitable for a conservation area, as had originally been agreed between the Parish Council, Kent Highways and me. This will be carried out in the near future; it should be done within 4 to 8 weeks.

Secondly, after some close cooperation between KCC and Bromley Borough Council, a fly-tipping case will be brought to court shortly; a date is due to be set next week. This relates to fly-tipping incidents in Redmans Lane and Chelsfield Lane, which have both been hot spots for this sort of illegal activity.   

Concerns have been raised about a large pothole in High Street, which reopened shortly after apparently being fixed. I took this up with Kent Highways, who told me that the previous work had always been intended to be a temporary solution, albeit that it had not been expected to reopen quite so quickly. The pothole has now had more lasting work carried out to fix it. As mentioned in my previous post (3 March), the County Council is now undertaking a 'Find and Fix' drive to tackle potholes. If you're concerned about particular potholes, please contact me; I will raise the issue with Kent Highways to ensure it is dealt with through this programme.

I have also taken up the issue of water leakage in the village (from High Street, leading into Church Street) with Kent Highways, who have identified it as a Thames Water matter and raised it with the company.

Finally, I have in recent weeks been dealing with the issue of potential seismic exploration work in the Darent Valley by Tesla Exploration on behalf of Northdown Energy. This is being treated as permitted development rather than something that requires planning permission; however, Kent County Council is ensuring that local Members have the opportunity to meet the company to discuss the details of the project, and I will be doing this. I have also asked that the Parish Council be contacted by the company and should have the opportunity to meet them to address local concerns.

£1.15 million pothole blitz

Kent's roads have taken a pounding from the severe winter weather, with many potholes appearing in recent weeks. However, an extra £1.15 million is being invested to tackle the problem. The 'Find and Fix 2013' programme follows on from similar initiatives in the last couple of years. The time taken to fix a pothole has nearly halved from 25 days in 2011 to 14 days last year.

Highways crews have already repaired some 2,000 potholes in the last four weeks. Now that winter is (hopefully) drawing to a close, the rate at which potholes are fixed will accelerate. You can find out the details of how to report a pothole here; alternatively, get in touch with me and I will ensure that Highways take the issue up.