More on half term help

Late yesterday, and following our previous announcement at the weekend, Kent County Council set out more detail about our half term support offer for families with children eligible for Free School Meals.

Families seeking help can complete a form that can be accessed via specific pages on the kent.gov website, or by calling a dedicated helpline 03000 412424. Families of children eligible for Free School Meals will be able to access a £15 supermarket voucher per child. 

The County Council is seeking to publicise this offer as widely as possible and there has already been a strong response from families.

You can find KCC’s additional statement here.

Holmesdale Hill

Resurfacing works are taking place yesterday and today at the corner of Holmesdale Road and Holmesdale Hill, going up the hill as far as the SLOW sign. The new surface will have higher skid resistance than the previous one

There there are also white line edge markings going in (or refreshed when already in place) on either side of the road and approaching and going round the bend. The cats eyes on the outside of the bend are also being replaced. These latter works may take a day or two longer to complete. 

Kent Highways officers will also examine, at my request, what other actions may be possible to address continuing concerns about traffic speed and safety on this stretch of road.

Help for families over half term

Kent County Council has announced a programme of help and support for families eligible for Free School Meals over the half term. 

Anyone whose child is eligible for Free School Meals and who is in need of assistance should contact the Kent Together service, launched at the start of the Covid-19 crisis. Kent Together can be reached either via its webpage:

https://www.kent.gov.uk/social-care-and-health/health/coronavirus/kent-together

Or you can call on 03000 41 92 92.

This initiative builds on KCC’s use of the Emergency Assistance Grant, for which the County Council received £1.65m from national government to support those struggling to afford food and essential items. This scheme has already helped many families, but the aim of this initiative is to target rapid support to families over this half term.

You can find KCC’s media release on this here.

Pilgrims Way East update

Following on from yesterday’s post, I can update on Pilgrims Way East. The road remains closed at present, but KCC’s Streetworks team have had confirmation from Clancy/ South East Water that the road will be reinstated tomorrow. It will then take some hours for the tarmac to set before the road is reopened, most likely later tomorrow. So the road is still best avoided until then, but should be open on Sunday and, critically, Monday morning. Once again, if I get any further updates I will post again.

Road closures latest

Yesterday and today have seen a lot of disruption in and around Pilgrims Way, Kemsing, and Pilgrims Way East, Otford - though the significance of this road as a link to the A225 has big effects on other communities such as Seal and Knatts Valley. There have been three different incidents in the last 24 hours + affecting the roads.

(1) Kent Highways (KCC) carried out works in Pilgrims Way between Cotmans Ash Lane and Heaverham Road to deal with a damaged verge. These works took place yesterday and were completed by the end of the day

(2) South East Water carried out an emergency closure of Cotmans Ash Lane because of a burst pipe. At one point it appeared that this could be closed until Monday. However, I have just been informed by KCC’s Streetworks team that the works have been completed and the road has now been reopened 

(3) The biggest effect however has come from an emergency closure by South East Water in Pilgrims Way East, also because of a burst pipe. South East Water are currently requiring an emergency closure until Monday. KCC Streetworks team have challenged this, pushing for patching works to be done and then the road to be reopened, with works then completed over the weekend. However, South East Water argue that the damage (and resulting hole in the road - see pictures) is too great for this, and in these circumstances it is the utility’s assessment which prevails

However, the Streetworks team will push for earlier completion of the works if at all possible, and I will provide an update tomorrow as to when the closure, and resulting disruption, is likely to end.