Swanley Village - everything except the sign

Just before Christmas, KCC contractors were at work in Swanley Village, installing a new island at the top of School Lane, with a base on which the village sign can be reinstated. This is part of a long-running project, paid for by my Combined Member Fund to restore what had become a dangerously insecure village sign. However, as the picture (taken during the Christmas/ New Year break) shows, the sign itself is not yet back in place.

Hopefully, it very soon will be. The frame containing the sign is rusty, so is currently in the hands of the contractors, who will have it cleaned and repainted. Then, finally, it should be back in its place as the symbol of the village.

Goldsel Road lights out (still, again)

Around Christmas 2015, residents of the Crockenhill end of Goldsel Road had to endure a long period of the street lights being out. The problem recurred in November, and has yet to be fixed. I have had many representations from local residents, and from the Parish Council, and have sought to get this resolved.

At the time,  I notified Kent Highways' lighting engineer, who concluded that (as was the case last year) the problem reflected a power failure. This was reported to the network supplier, UK Power Networks (UKPN).

I understand that a UKPN team visited the site before Christmas, but were unable to locate a fault. However, Kent Highways has remained of the view that this was indeed a cable fault - the fact that half a dozen or so new lights have all gone out together strongly supports this - and relayed this view to UKPN.

The Lighting Engineer has since spoken to the UKPN local authority helpline; they have confirmed that the fault is on the UKPN system. It is now being treated as a high priority as it relates to a group of lights being out (and, of course, have now been so for some time). The work has been passed to a crew who are experienced in locating underground faults and are treating the fault as a priority.

Kent Highways' Lighting Engineer will continue to check the area regularly. I share residents' frustration that this has taken so long, but continue to pursue the issue and hope that this now represents progress towards getting it fixed.

UPDATE 12 January: As of last night, the lights are reported back on.