Broom Hill: Inspector's decision goes against residents

Last year saw an appeal by the developers ProVision against Sevenoaks District Council's refusal of permission for four applications for between 20 and 61 houses on the Broom Hill site. Residents of. Beechenlea Lane were deeply concerned about the proposals, fearing a major impact in terms of traffic, noise and a change in the character of the area in which they live, often for many years. I worked with residents in support of their stance and spoke at the second leg of the Inquiry in October (posts of 24 February and 8 October).

Late last week, the Inspector handed down his verdict, which was solidly in favour of the developer's appeals on all four applications. This is a bitter disappointment to local people, who feel that they have lost out on everything. Reading the Inspector's Decisions, it is clear that the new National Planning Policy. Framework (NPPF) weighed heavily in the Inspector's thinking. So did the lack of formal protections on the land; it was taken out of Green Belt 20 years ago, though never with the intention on the part of Sevenoaks District Council of its being subject to residential development.

The full Decisions report can be found here.

Site meeting to tackle Pinks Hill flooding

In the latter part of last week, I had a phone call from a senior manager at the Highways Agency to discuss the problems on the High Firs estate, especially Pinks Hill (post of 19 January). He told me that the Highways Agency and contractors would be on site shortly to examine issues with the ditch that takes water runoff from the A20 to the lagoon nearby. We subsequently agreed that this could provide the basis for a site meeting involving the Highways Agency, KCC/ Kent Highways and local residents. That meeting, which I attended, took place this morning.

Contrary to my earlier belief, the lagoon appears to be working satisfactorily. Significant works were undertaken in 2009, adding a large borehole to enhance the runoff and soaking away of water; it is equipped for everything up to a 1 in 100 years storm. However, there are clearly significant problems with the ditch. Fencing surrounding the ditch is in poor condition and a great deal of debris has been dumped near the entrance to the pipe that takes the water to the lagoon. Result: the pipe has become blocked, water builds up near the pipe and entrance and then runs down the ditch to exit at its lowest point, near the common land where heavy flows of water have been observed.

The Highways Agency's contractor was on site as well this morning and will undertake extensive works on the pipe (as well as the course of the ditch itself, to prevent water overflowing at the point where it currently does). This should be within the next two weeks; I will update with another post. Over the longer term, there is need to confirm ownership of the fence (Kent Highways undertook to check this) and ensure that it is reinforced. This might not stop debris being dumped there, but it would surely help.

There are a number of other issues to be taken forward, including the buildup of water that has taken place rather higher up on the common ground; this appears to have contributed to the flooding then days ago, and there is still a lot of stagnant water there. Kent Highways undertook to examine its drainage network in the area to see if there is any linkage to this problem, and to examine a number of drainage issues related to individual properties.

Altogether, a very positive site meeting with clear actions coming out of it. I will post updates as and when we have further news, but hopefully this will offer some relief for residents. The most immediate concern is that the works cannot take place immediately, so that problems could recur with further heavy rain in the coming days. Kent Highways has undertaken to provide further flood sacks later today.

Salt bins in Swanley and South Darenth

I continue to fund a number of salt bins across the Darent Valley Division from my Member Highway Fund. Late last week, accompanied by a Kent Highways officer, I set out to resolve some details as to how best this should be done on sites in Swanley and South Darenth.

In Pinks Hill, I had agreed to fund a salt bin towards the lower end of the road, which is not as well served as the higher reaches and which includes a small turning area used by many families as a cut through on their way to High Firs School. The difficulty was that Highways officers could not locate a satisfactory site (not blocking the pavement, not killing grass, etc.) that was close to where residents wanted it to go. However, a brief site meeting with some local residents yielded a satisfactory compromise: the bin will move from its current location (close to the site of the recent and ongoing flooding) somewhat further down the road.

On to South Darenth, where a bin sited in Towers Wood (pictured) was positioned satisfactorily as far as some residents were concerned (and serves rather well residents in neighbouring Coopers Close). However, there was also a strong wish for the bin to be of more use at the top end of the road, near the approach to the garages. Another site meeting (by which time the rain was setting in), and we agreed that the existing bin will stay in place while a new one will be installed at the top of the road.

While in South Darenth, my Highways colleague and I took a look at the situation in New Road, which often suffers badly in snowy and icy conditions. The road is steep, but unlike East Hill, which runs in parallel to it, it is not classified as a secondary route. I have already funded one new bin, which has gone in near The Queen pub, but there remains a strong case for another bin closer to the junction with Horton Road - the difficulty being finding a space where it does not block the pavement. My Highways colleague and I found a possible space by a footpath, though that will require one of the older style, narrower bins. Hopefully this can be taken forward and this will be of help to residents of East Hill.

Budget 2014-15 goes to Cabinet

KCC's Cabinet, of which I am a member, will tomorrow consider the budget proposals for 2014-15. If approved, these proposals will then go to the meeting of the full County Council on 13 February.

The budget will be set under conditions of continuing austerity, which are unlikely to lift for some years. KCC has had to deliver savings of £269 million over the last three years, i.e. around £90 million per year on an annual net budget of a little over £900 million. We will need to make savings on a similar scale over the next three years, and grants from central government are likely to go on reducing until the end of the decade.

The bulk of this will be met through reductions in expenditures; back in the autumn, KCC set out in the autumn its plans for transformation of the authority's activities, through a focus on prevention rather than services that simply react to problems, enhanced productivity and the very best practice for procuring services.

However, after three years of council tax freezes, we are also proposing a modest increase (1.99%) in council tax. This is not something that we undertake lightly; however, a tax increase on this scale yields £10 million in extra revenue and so makes a useful contribution to closing the budget gap while protecting services to the greatest possible extent. From the autumn we undertook a public consultation that generated much higher response rates than in the past, and while a significant portion of opinion (around a quarter of respondents) was opposed to any increase, some 71% supported some level of tax increase to protect front line services.

You can find the Cabinet papers, including the Budget Book and medium Term Financial plan, here.

Flooding on the High Firs estate

Ever since the heavy downpour on the night of 23-24 December, residents of the High Firs estate, and in particular those living in parts of Pinks Hill, have been subject to severe flooding. The water has run over common land to the rear of a some houses on Pinks Hill, affecting both the houses and the road. The problem has recurred with each significant rainfall.

I have been on site several times and have spoken to a number of residents; Kent Highways have attended the scene, as have other agencies, notably the Fire and Rescue Service. The problem, however, has proved intractable and a cause of huge distress to residents. Events took a turn for the worse on Thursday night, when there was another downpour. A row of sandbags were put in place to protect the Pinks Hill properties, diverting the water down the road and into Waylands. A number of storm drains were opened with the intention of draining the water off. However, parts of the road, and in particular the cul de sac section of Waylands, were under quite deep water - as the picture, which I took when I visited on Friday evening, attests.

The main difficulty has been to establish the root cause of the flooding, though it is thought widely that it may well be overflow from the nearby Highways Agency lagoon, which is designed to capture runoff from the A20. If the lagoon is full, or is for any other reason unable to take the water running from the main road, then the water has nowhere to go but over the common land and into Pinks Hill.

The lagoon has a history of problems. Over a year ago, I worked with Kent Highways officers to check with the Highways Agency that adequate maintenance was taking place (silting up of the lagoon had been a cause of flooding in the past). The situation appeared to be under control (post of 23 October 2012), and it may well be that, even if the lagoon is the source of the flooding, this may be nothing to do with lack of maintenance - for example, the lagoon may simply not be big enough to take the current volumes of water. In any case, this is what needs to be established.

Highways Agency staff have been on site on a number of occasions, but what is clearly needed is a fuller and more systematic discussion of the problem than has so far been possible. Many residents want a site meeting with all the key parties present, and that is what is needed. I will continue to press to get one in place.