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:

Childsbridge Lane closure in half term

Childsbridge Lane will be closed for 5 days from 25 October. It will be closed at Castle Drive to south of the railway bridge. In this case the closure is for works (carriageway patching) carried out by Kent Highways. The suggested alternative route is via the A25, Otford Road, Station Road and Pilgrims Way East.

Crockenhill and Swanley Village - road works and closures

Wested Lane Crockenhill is set for another closure, from 0600 on 1 November to 1600 on 5 November. As before (17 - 21 September), this is because of Network Rail works to stabilise a railway cutting. 

I have checked the situation regarding other works in the area. There are a number of closures during the previous (half term) week, or slightly earlier, but they are scheduled in with Kent Highways' Streetworks team to finish in advance of the Wested Lane works. 

The rail bridge replacement works on Beechenlea Lane in Swanley Village are due to be completed on 24 October. Nearby, Thames Water works in Swanley Village are resulting in a closure on Swanley Village Road from 25 - 31 October. These works have to be carried out in the school holidays, and are also timed not to coincide with the Network Rail works.

Also in Swanley Village, there are works at Harringtons Nursery on Highlands Hill (with two way lights) which are scheduled to finish on 22 October. 

Finally, in Swanley, Hilda May Avenue is also closed for drainage works on 25 - 29  October - also works that have to be completed in the school holidays. 

Concessionary fares on go2 in Shoreham

Today sees a further step forward following the good news that I was able to confirm about the go2 service in Shoreham. 

KCC Public Transport, working with Go Coach, agreed last week that as the supported bus service cannot be restored to Shoreham Village, that ENCTS (concessionary fares) bus passes will be accepted on the go2 shared demand responsive transport service.  Up until now the ENCTS passes have not been accepted on this service.

 Go Coach worked with their demand responsive transit software provider to put this arrangement in place and the key elements agreed were:

- Valid for free travel from 09:30 Monday to Friday and any time on Saturday, Sunday or Bank Holidays

- Maximum distance of free travel would be 7 miles (which allows access to Swanley/Sevenoaks destinations).

- Only available on go2 shared

- Pick up existing bus stops only and possibly outside the Kings Arms in the village.

- No routing of  buses through the High Street to Mill Lane.

The software provider had to test the system, but the launch was confirmed by Go coach on Tuesday evening (5 October).

From a user perspective when they book a go2 shared journey, the system will identify where they will be picked up and their destination.  It will advise when it can make the pick up and journey time length.  It will of course be free to pass holders.

Initially the system was agreed but not able to be operated because of fuel shortages. This meant that Go2 shared did not run as priority was given to school journeys. However, as of today (11 October) go2 shared services are running again.

PWE closure ends, Cotmans Ash Lane closure delayed

Reinstatement works for the emergency water pipe repairs carried out by South East Water in Pilgrims Way East have been completed today. A Kent Highways Streetworks Inspector visited the site earlier in the afternoon and reported that the traffic management items (signage etc) were being collected and the road being used.

The PWE emergency closure has meant that the closure of Cotmans Ash Lane (for BT works) scheduled for the last three days of this week has not taken place and is not doing so. A new date for these works will be published once it has been confirmed.

HWRC consultation: last chance to have your say

Kent County Council launched a consultation on the future use of the booking system for our Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs) on 19 August, and there are now under ten days until the consultation closes. 

The booking system was introduced when we reopened the HWRCs (after their closure in the early days of the pandemic) in May 2020. Views on the system are divided, and have been throughout. Some people dislike the inability to simply fill up their car and turn up at the tip; others like the certainty that they will not have lengthy queues, sometimes (as with the Swanley HWRC) stretching back onto major roads. 

The consultation has generated enormous interest. As of the start of this week, there had been 9,162 responses, easily the biggest response to a KCC consultation in the last decade or so. The outcome will contribute to the recommendations that we will bring to our Environment and Transport Cabinet Committee, for final decision by the Cabinet Member.

You can find out more about the consultation, and contribute to it, here.                         

Road closures in Kemsing

 There are two road closures affecting Kemsing that are coming up this week.

Cotmans Ash Lane will be closed for three days from Wednesday 22 September from 8AM to 6PM. The suggested diversion route is via Row Dow, Birchin Cross Road and Clarke’s Green Road.

Watery Lane will be closed for one day (Thursday 23 September) from 9:30AM to 3:30PM between Heaverham Road and Honey Pot Lane. The suggested diversion is via Honey Pot Lane, Noah’s Ark, St. Edith’s Road and High Street.

Both of these closures are for works being carried out by BT Openreach. 

Road works in Crockenhill and Swanley

A brief update on the utility works that have been contributing to huge traffic disruption in Crockenhill and Swanley.

Thames Water's permit for their works in the centre of Swanley runs out today. They applied for an extension to the permit but KCC/ Kent Highways have refused this. I have spoken with Kent Highways' Streetworks team and I understand that they have been urging (and escalating within Thames Water) that the remaining works, chiefly relating to reinstatement, be expedited. Any continuing work from 0800 Monday will incur a fine, but clearly it is important that the works are concluded well in advance of that.

For the village, this is all exacerbated by the start of the Wested Lane closure for works to the cutting being carried out by Network Rail. This closure started at 0600 this morning and is due to run through until 1800 on Tuesday evening (21 September). However, while this is far from certain, it is quite possible that the works will be concluded, and the closure lifted, sooner.

I will post an update if I get any further information, in particular on expediting the end of the Thames Water works.

Vision Zero launched

Vision Zero, Kent County Council’s ambitious long-term road safety strategy, was launched at an event at Manston airfield today. The Vision aims to eliminate deaths on Kent’s roads by 2050, using policy, technology and public engagement to mitigate the effects of human error that will always be a feature of driving. 

I was delighted to chair the opening session of the conference, which included a keynote address from HRH Prince Michael of Kent, who has championed road safety and played a leading role in national and international initiatives to improve it over decades. The event included demonstrations of autonomous braking systems and other technological developments, along with other advanced road safety measures, and was attended by haulage and other key industry representatives, research bodies, Kent Highways and other key road authority officers, elected representatives (including Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Scott and KCC Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport David Brazier) and others.

I have written before about Vision Zero here; and you can find KCC’s media statement on it
here.

The launch of Vision Zero follows extensive public consultation, and a key message from today’s event - and also integral to the strategy - was that, alongside funding, technological advances and work with the haulage industry, it is public commitment and engagement that will be vital to its success. Already the Vision has attracted strong interest from communities and their representatives, and I take it as positive that already I face challenge from parish councils and local residents as to how we are reflecting that vision in our actions and decisions on road safety measures. Now we start to make it a reality.

Road closures in Swanley Village and Crockenhill

Beechenlea Lane between Swanley and Swanley Village is set for an extended closure of 42 days, from 13 September to 24 October. This is for Network Rail to replace the current rail bridge with a new concrete structure. 

There have already been two shorter road closures related to these works. The first was on 2-3 August, while the second on 24 August was for installation of the required plant. 

The proposed diversion route is via Swanley Village Road, Swanley Lane and High Street/ London Road.

In Crockenhill, Wested Lane will be closed for five days (17 - 21 September inclusive) for Network Rail to undertake works stabilising the cutting near the railway bridge. The closure will be in working hours (0600 to 1800) only. The suggested diversion route is via Crockenhill village, Green Court Road/ Goldsel Road and through Swanley.

Local libraries reopen next week

Libraries in Sevenoaks District will be reopening in the next week. 

Kent County Council confirmed at the time of the relaxation of national restrictions (19 July) a programme of reopening the 56 libraries that had closed during the pandemic and has remained closed up to that point (43 were already open). All bar one will reopen by 9 August; the exception is Marden Library, which has building works under way and which will reopen on 16 August.

Four of the larger libraries in Sevenoaks District are among those already open; the rest will open in the coming week, operating on their pre-Covid opening hours. For the three libraries in Sevenoaks North and Darent Valley, these are:

Kemsing

Sunday: Closed

Monday: 10.00am - 2.00pm

Tuesday: 10.00am - 1.00pm,  2.00pm - 5.00pm

Wednesday: 10.00am - 3.00pm

Thursday:  Closed

Friday: 1.00pm - 5.00pm

Saturday: 10.00am - 2.00pm

Otford

Sunday: Closed

Monday: 9.00am - 1.00pm

Tuesday: 9.00am - midday, 1.00pm - 5.00pm

Wednesday: Closed

Thursday: 9.00am - 1.00pm

Friday: 1.00pm - 5.00pm

Saturday: 10.00am - 2.00pm

Seal

Sunday: Closed

Monday: Closed

Tuesday: 2.00pm - 5.00pm

Wednesday: Closed

Thursday: 10.00am - 1.00pm

Friday: 10.00am - 3.00pm

Saturday: 10.00am - 2.00pm

A225 night time closures start next week

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, the A225 Shoreham Road will be closed at night (8PM to 6AM) for 14 nights excluding weekends starting next Tuesday (27 July). The closure, which is for Kent Highways to carry out road resurfacing, affects a long stretch of the A225 from Castle Road Lullingstone to Station Approach in Otford. 

I have been asked about access by residents to their homes. I have checked and the usual approach is being followed, which is that every effort will be made for residents to be able to get access, but there could be delays if (for example) you live in a side road and there is heavy machinery working directly at the entrance to your road. 

For roads such as Hillydeal Road and Greenhill Road, which have a horseshoe shape with two entrances, this is less likely to be a problem since the two entrances should not be worked on simultaneously. However, where there is a single access on to the A225 the possibility of delays is greater. 

Road closures affecting Seal, Kemsing and Otford

With the school summer holidays getting under way, there are a number of major road closures taking place that affect Seal, Kemsing and Otford, the more so since there is an unavoidable overlap. 

In Otford, there will be a rolling programme of works to deliver significant parts of the village highway improvements and associated closures starting from next Monday. These are (with associated permit numbers):

    26th July – 2rd August,  multi way lights Station Road, Shoreham Road & Pilgrims Way East.  Permit reference GE40190203817, for road markings, tactiles paving for crossing & kerbing works.

    2rd – 8th August, two way lights Station Road near to Beckets Place.  Permit  reference GE40190203818,  for  removal of road markings and verge installation.

     9th -  20th August, High Street, Otford closed between No.s  48 12.  Permit reference GE40190203820, for construction of new raised zebra crossing.

     9th – 20th August, High Street, Otford between No.s 53 – 69, 2 way traffic lights. Permit reference GE40190203819, for road markings, sign installation, build outs for traffic calming.

   20th -28th August works around Otford Pond, Station Road, Sevenoaks Road & High Street, multi way lights / stop and go (not at the same time). Permit reference GE40190203823, for road markings, bollard and planter installation, crossing upgrade, vegetation.

Meanwhile, UKPN works to install a low voltage cable will start in School Lane, Seal. This will require traffic lights from 26 July to 1 August, and the road will then be closed between the A25 and Childsbridge Lane starting from Monday 2 August for 18 days (ie until 20 August). Works will also be carried out by South East Water during the first week of the closure.

The full closure will have the effect of preventing vehicles going north off the A25 through Seal towards Kemsing. The recommended diversion route is west along the A25, north on the A225 and then through Pilgrims Way East and Pilgrims Way to Childsbridge Lane. The southbound route on Childsbridge Lane to the A25 is unaffected by these scheduled works. 

The coincidence of these works over a period of up to 18 days, and the impact of traffic diverting through the A225 and Pilgrims Way East have been a cause for concern and I have taken these issues up with Kent Highways. However, the works in question are either the delivery of a long developed scheme aimed to deliver benefits to Otford and its residents, or clearly essential works for UKPN to carry out. And both would cause much greater havoc in term time. 

Kent Highways considered alternative diversion routes, and are certainly very aware of the problems of diverting traffic through parts of Otford affected by the works, but concluded that this was nonetheless the least damaging option. However, a recommended diversion route is just that: there is nothing to stop those with local knowledge choosing another route. 

To reduce disruption and improve traffic flow, the traffic lights on School Lane (week of 26 July - 1 August) will be manually controlled at peak times (0730 to 0930 and 1530 to 1900). Similarly, the lights at the Shoreham Road/ Pilgrims Way East junction will only operate when staff are on site, and they will be manually controlled if needed. 

It is also worth noting that there will be some overlap with yet further works, albeit night time works only, on the A225 Shoreham Road for 14 nights starting 27 July. This is for road resurfacing and will require closures (2200 to 0600) from Castle Road Lullingstone to Station Approach in Otford. This will require a major diversion by any traffic using the route at that time but will not, however, affect traffic during the day.

Swanley Village road works

Early August (next week) will see road closures affecting Swanley Village. However, the details of how these will operate have changed (and for the better).

Thames Water is undertaking works that require a closure in Highlands Hill (original proposed dates 2-5 August). 

 

At around the same time, Network Rail are closing Beechenlea Lane for the first stage of major works to replace the bridge over the railway line. Much of the work is scheduled for later in the year, but with the aim of getting as much done during the school holidays as possible, the first closure will be on 2-3 August. 

 

It is clearly undesirable to have simultaneous closures, but the need to make progress (and, in the case of Thames Water, to carry out the works in full) during the school holidays, coupled with a lack of other available time slots for Thames Water to get their works done, has resulted in this clash. This, coupled with the closure of Beechenlea Lane, has meant that, while the recommended diversion route for the Network Rail route has been Button Street, that for the Thames Water works on Highlands Hill starts with School Lane, also undesirable on account of its narrowness. Nonetheless, this gives one diversion route at each end of Swanley Village Road.

 

To mitigate this problem, Kent Highways have secured agreement from Thames Water that they postpone the start of their works by one day until 3 August, cutting the overlap of the two sets of works to just one day. In addition, Button Street (then London Road, High Street, Swanley Lane) will be used as the diversion route, ending any need to use School Lane.

East Hill Road: new dates for road works

East Hill Road residents have today received a notification of the delayed Kent Highways road improvement works, billed as part of the 'pothole blitz', but also involving significant road surface patching. (There is an error in the heading of the note, indicating that it relates to 'Pedestrian barrier improvement works' - this is not the case). 

As before, I must declare my interest as an East Hill Road resident.

The works will now take place for five nights (between 8pm and 2am) between Monday 2 August and Friday 6 August. 

This will require a full road closure during those hours; however, as was the case during the earlier plans for the works (delayed by the need for South East Water to repair a water leak, now carried out) every effort will be made to give residents access and, as is the case with such closures, restrictions will not apply to emergency vehicles.

The aim remains to keep disruption to residents to a minimum and the end result should be some much-needed improvements to a road that is showing a lot of wear and tear.

The future of Kent’s bus services

Kent County Council is asking residents to help shape the future of bus services in Kent. 

The National Bus Strategy, launched in March, requires Local Transport Authorities such as KCC to work with bus operators to produce a Bus Service Improvement Plan to set out a vision and broad plan for better bus services across the county. This plan, the first iteration of which must be submitted by October, will provide the basis for securing funding from government to deliver its priorities. Detailed service plans and standards will be set out in an Enhanced Partnership Scheme, which must be in place by April 2022. KCC has already issued a statutory notice indicating its wish to establish an Enhanced Partnership Scheme.

As these plans are worked up, the County Council is asking for residents’ views. This will start with a two-item questionnaire, to be completed by 25 July, but you will also be able to subscribe to the page and be part of further, more detailed engagement as we move towards developing the Bus Service Improvement Plan and Enhanced Partnership Scheme. 

You can find the KCC media release on this here, with a link to the engagement page. The National Bus Strategy is a major initiative with potentially significant implications for Kent. There are always risks, and plenty of unknowns, but opportunities too. 

A new (renewed) Environment Cabinet Member

At the County Council elections on 6 May, 80 out of 81 Divisions elected County Councillors. The exception was Elham Valley, where the election was delayed as a result of the death of one of the candidates early in the campaign. The special election for Elham Valley took place last Thursday, 17 June.

Since 2005 Elham Valley has been represented by Susan Carey (pictured with me during the campaign in Hawkinge) who has also held a number of posts in the KCC Cabinet, in the last eighteen months as Cabinet Member for Environment. However, with the delay to the Elham Valley election, she ceased to be a Member of the County Council in May and so for that period was unable to serve as a Cabinet Member either. The count for Elham Valley took place on Friday and Susan was re-elected with just over 50% of the vote - a richly deserved outcome, since she has not only made a significant contribution County-wide but has been a dedicated local Member (characteristically, after her re-election, she was out on a community litter-pick yesterday). 

I was delighted to reappoint Susan to her Environment role as soon as her re-election was confirmed. She had a strong and committed Deputy Cabinet Member in Tony Hills, and Tony did an excellent job standing in as Cabinet Member in the weeks between the County elections and Susan's return. Tony continues as Deputy Cabinet Member. He and Susan are a very strong team; I created a dedicated Environment portfolio when I became Leader to reinforce our commitment to addressing issues of climate change, biodiversity, environmental enhancement and resilience, and they have taken it forward with great energy and commitment. It is very good for Kent that they will continue to do so.

You can find KCC’s press release on the election result and Susan’s reappointment here.

East Hill Road - latest on works

Over the last couple of weeks I have had contact from residents and District Councillors regarding proposed works in East Hill Road and how access would be managed during the closure. (Declaring an interest : I am a resident). What follows is a slightly complicated story, but here is the latest position.

With regard to the highways-related closure of East Hill Road, this was originally scheduled to take place on 14-18 June (ie starting next Monday) between 7PM and 1AM each night. The closure is part of the KCC ‘pothole blitz’, although in this case that is something of a misnomer, since these are quite large-scale surface improvements (as are very much needed in the road). 

The contractor is required to seek to ensure that residents have access to their properties during the closure, though exactly how this will work in practice will depend on the state of the works, time taken to move plant and the like. There are inevitably difficulties with carrying out full width works on a No Through Road which nonetheless serves quite a large number of properties, but the plan seeks to minimise them. Emergency services are made aware of the works and will of course be given priority if they need to access the road. 

On 1 June, some residents were notified of an impending emergency closure, also of East Hill Road, by South East Water to repair a water leak (again, clearly needed to address a very evident problem in the road). Kent Highways took this up and it was agreed that the works would be postponed until the following week (week commencing 7 June, ie the week just ending) and then for the works to take place on a Sunday. 

Initially it appeared that the proposed date was this coming Sunday, 13 June, but it is now understood that South East Water propose to carry this out on the following Sunday, the 20th. These would be a temporary restoration, with permanent works taking place a week later. As with the pothole blitz works, every effort will be made to preserve access for residents, and with priority for emergency services. 

However, this means that the Kent Highways works will now have to be postponed, since the south-east water improvements clearly need to take place first. A new date will be set, but with the works to take place with the various measures to maintain the greatest possible access as before.

I will update further as soon as I know more.

Asylum seeking children: Kent under pressure (again)

Once more, Kent faces big challenges reflecting the large scale arrival of unaccompanied under 18s claiming asylum - unaccompanied asylum seeking children (UASC), who are among the arrivals in small boats crossing the Channel. 

As of the end of May, 242 UASC young people had been taken into the County Council’s care so far this year. This is up sharply on the same period last year (when 189 arrived), which nonetheless saw the council having by mid-August to suspend delivering its statutory obligations and taking these young people into care.

Overall, KCC has (or had at the start of yesterday) 403 UASC in its care, as well as around 1100 care leavers of UASC background. Under the National Transfer Scheme for UASC, introduced under some of the provisions of the Immigration Act 2016, no local authority is expected to have UASC of more than 0.07% of its child population in its care. For Kent that figure is 231. 

Pressures on Kent services are now growing, with reception centre capacity almost entirely occupied, social work caseloads rising and a need for foster care placements (including some outside the county) as a result of a higher proportion of under 16s than in the past. 

Two developments follow from this. The first is that we are now close to a position where, as was the case last summer, I may get advice from our Director of Children’s Services that we cannot safely discharge our responsibilities and we should no longer collect UASC young people from the port. The second is that Kent County Council has issued a Letter Before Action to the Home Office, which is the first formal step towards a possible Judicial Review, relating to the Home Secretary’s unwillingness to use the powers she has under the Immigration Act to direct (‘mandate’) local authorities to accept UASC young people under the National Transfer Scheme. We have long argued is essential to ensure a robust and equitable scheme that takes the pressure off port of entry authorities such as Kent.

Inevitably this generated a lot of media interest yesterday; among the interviews I gave was to Radio 4’s Today Programme (interview starts after 1 hour and 16 minutes) and BBC national news (6PM bulletin, report starts after 21 minutes).

KCC annual meeting

Kent County Council held our Annual Council Meeting today: our first meeting of the new council, and our first face to face meeting since February 2020. 

This had both pluses and minuses. It was good for both new and returning councillors to meet in person, with the sense of companionship (cross-party) that it engenders. Yet with social distancing still required at a time when national government has refused to renew the regulations enabling virtual meetings - in the teeth of strong urging from local authorities, including us, to renew them - it is not possible to hold Full Council meetings in our Council Chamber. 

And so, at a significant cost in officer time, and with a direct hiring charge cost to the council tax payer, we have had to seek other venues. At the last minute, we had to move from our originally agreed venue at the University of Kent to Mote Hall Leisure Centre in Maidstone.

This made for a rather odd experience. Sitting in rows in a large sports hall was reminiscent of school exams. I delivered my Leader’s speech looking at a wall. The acoustics were erratic, producing one or two hiatuses in the process. Yet overall the meeting worked, and it is vastly to the credit of our officer team, headed by our General Counsel Ben Watts, that it did so, even after the need for a handbrake turn in the last few days. 

And the meeting itself? We bade goodbye to Graham Gibbens, who had served the Council well as Chairman (after a long career as Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care) in a difficult year, and elected the experienced and popular Ann Allen as the new Chairman. She and the new Vice-Chairman, Lesley Game, will make a strong team. I was elected Leader for the council term, and in my Leader’s report set out our plans for the next four years, addressing:

- Post-Covid recovery (economic, social and environmental)

- Quality of life in the county (as set out in our original, pre-Covid Five Year Plan of March 2020)

- Setting out our position in relation to government initiatives in health, social care and transport

- Being prepared to tackle ‘events’ such as the continuing evolution of Brexit transition and increasing numbers of arrivals of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children

Because of the venue, the meeting could not be webcast live, but hopefully the recording should be available on the KCC website shortly.

A new Cabinet

As reported in my previous post, in spite of the Conservative group achieving a big victory in the County elections, we lost a number of valued colleagues, including three Cabinet Members - Richard Long (Education), Michael Payne (Highways and Transport) and Mike Whiting (Economic Development). All three had made a strong contribution to the Cabinet and to the Council and will be very much missed.

I therefore spent part of last week - in addition to, among other things, meeting almost all of the 23 new Conservative Members of the Council - assembling a new Cabinet. Shellina Prendergast, already a Cabinet Member, has moved to take on the Education portfolio, and three new Cabinet Members (David Brazier, Bryan Sweetland and Derek Murphy) have taken up posts. The full Cabinet is:

Roger Gough - Leader

Peter Oakford – Deputy Leader, Cabinet Member for Finance, Corporate and Traded Services

Clair Bell – Cabinet Member for Adult Social Care and Public Health

David Brazier – Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport

Sue Chandler – Cabinet Member for Integrated Children’s Services

Mike Hill – Cabinet Member for Community and Regulatory Services

Tony Hills* – Cabinet Member for Environment

Derek Murphy – Cabinet Member for Economic Development

Shellina Prendergast – Cabinet Member for Education and Skills

Bryan Sweetland – Cabinet Member for Communications, Engagement, People and Partnerships

* Tony Hills, previously Deputy Cabinet Member for Environment, is appointed until 18 June, the day after the special election in Elham Valley, the Division held by Susan Carey, Cabinet Member for Environment in the previous Cabinet. The election was postponed because of the death of one of the candidates during the campaign. A further decision will be made once the result of that election is known

You can find KCC’s press release about the new Cabinet here.

Election results

Thank you to the voters of Sevenoaks North and Darent Valley who returned me for another term as County Councillor last Thursday. The result was declared at the conclusion of the count on Friday afternoon. Here are the figures:

Roger Gough (Conservative)      3,491 (64.3%)

Michael Barker (Green)                   691 (12.7%)

David Griffiths (Labour)                  625 (11.5%)

Tristan Ward (Lib Dem)                   619 (11.4%)

Turnout, at 34.0%, was up a little on four years ago. 

I was delighted with this result; my share of the vote was almost exactly the same as four years ago, and I am proud to go on representing the area that I love to live in. 

Similarly, the overall County Council election results were a big success for the Conservative Group which I lead. The Conservatives secured 61 out of the 80 seats being contested (the 81st, Elham Valley, will have a special election on 17 June because of the death of the Labour candidate during the campaign); this is a net reduction of 5 from the high water mark of 2017.  The Conservative share of the vote was similarly almost in line with four years ago (49% compared with 50%) and the county saw fewer Conservative losses than most other parts of the south east.

You can find full details of the election results on the excellent page on the County Council’s website. A video of my immediate reaction to the results is here.

There was more movement in seats and voting patterns than the headline figures indicate. The Conservatives gained four seats not held in 2017 (in Ashford, Gravesend, Hythe and Maidstone) but lost nine. These losses included three Cabinet Members: Michael Payne (Highways) and Richard Long (Education) lost to the Greens in Tonbridge, and Mike Whiting (Economic Development) to the Swale Independents in Swale West. Other losses included Margaret Crabtree (Deputy Cabinet Member for Finance) in Sevenoaks Town and Michael Northey (Vice-Chairman of the Council) in Canterbury South, both to the Liberal Democrats. A number of those who lost were friends as well as colleagues. 

The results in Kent partly reflect local factors; we certainly stood proudly on our record and our plans for the County.  However, they also match some of the trends seen nationally from ‘Super Thursday’, including the Conservative ‘bounce’ from the successful vaccination programme; the continuing change in composition of Conservative support; the travails that the Labour Party, like so many European centre left parties is undergoing; and the rise of Greens and Independents.

My first task now is to assemble a new Cabinet, and I will make an announcement on that in the coming days. After that, the policy and decisions in tray - relating to post-Covid recovery, the quality of life in the county and major national policy initiatives - is huge. Watch this space.

Out and about 2021

In previous election years - such as 2013 and 2017 - I have recorded something of the campaign. As in the past, one of the really positive features of this is to get around the Division in all its beauty amid spring weather. Perhaps best is the views that you get from high points such as Well Hill, the top of South Darenth or (not quite so high up) roads such as Sparepenny Lane between Farningham and Eynsford. I have put a couple of pictures of this attached to this post.

The big difference this time is that as Leader of the Council and of its Conservative Group, I have a much bigger responsibility to support other candidates, and so Out and About has also meant different parts of the county (this morning, for example, I was in Dover). You can find videos with local candidates bin various parts of the County on my Facebook page. 

You can also find there a video about the Conservative administration’s plans for economic, social and environmental recovery in Kent, and my video on why I am standing in Darent Valley. 

Goldsel Road works to go ahead in May: details

The signs are up for works and road closures on Goldsel Road in Crockenhill in May. Because this involves works by both Kent County Council and Highways England, there are a number of different elements to the programme.

From Wednesday 12 May, KCC will carry out night time works to resurface Goldsel Road from Station Road in Swanley to the A20 bridge. This will require night time closures of the road, with works taking place from 8pm to 6am for seven nights, excluding the Saturday and Sunday nights (15 - 16 May). These works should be complete by 6am on Friday 21 May.

On the same day (21 May), at 9PM Highways England will begin work on the bridge structures, removing expansion and mechanical bridge joints and replacing the water proofing on the bridge. All this is necessary to support the milling and resurfacing work(followed by replacement road markings) that KCC’s contractors will be carrying out on the bridge, also over the weekend.

As a result, there will be a full road closure on Goldsel Road over that entire weekend (from the evening of 21 May to 6am on Monday 24 May).

For the rest of that week, Highways England will be working to replace the bridge joints; this will again be overnight working from 8pm to 6am, to be completed by 6am on Saturday 29 May. I have seen notifications of a possible second complete weekend road closure (29-31 May) but I understand that this is purely a contingency arrangement and the HE works should be done by first thing on the Saturday morning.

At the end of all this, we should see a much better and restored surface on the Goldsel Road bridge - something that has been wanted by residents, and has been in preparation by KCC and HE for some time.

Road closure in Park Lane

Park Lane, Seal, will be closed tomorrow for up to a day at the junctions of Blackhall Lane and St Julians Road. This is to enable Kent Highways to carry out drainage works; in particular, cleansing in the area around the school. Park Lane was closed last week for ditching works but these works are being carried out separately.

Franks Lane: finishing the job

Following the closure of Franks Lane, Horton Kirby, for resurfacing and carriageway markings (now carried out) on 9 and 10 April, there will be a further closure (for up to three days) from this Wednesday, 14 April. 

Once more, this will be a closure of the entire road and is to enable replacement and enhancement of signage for the bridge, as described in my post of last week.

Pilgrims Way East: closure should end tomorrow

The urgent closure of Pilgrim’s Way East today is the result of emergency works carried out by South East Water to deal with a dangerous lid in the road. The road is closed from outside number 34, with Row Dow identified as the diversion route.

The closure was originally projected to be for four days, but KCC Streetworks team have now confirmed that it will be completed tomorrow (Saturday 10 April). There is not a precise time for when the road will be reinstated, cleared and reopened but it will be by close of play tomorrow and may be earlier.

Franks Lane works to start on Friday

Kent Highways will start resurfacing work in Franks Lane, Horton Kirby, on Friday (9 April); this is expected to take two days, requiring a road closure. Works will take place between 7am and 7pm. The entire road, from the junction with the A225 to Eglantine Lane, will be treated with micro asphalt, a quick setting method suitable for roads which are structurally solid but have quite a lot of surface wear.

These works will provide the opportunity to undertake road marking improvements, part of measures to improve clarity and visibility for drivers approaching the bridge, with consequent benefits for pedestrians too. These will comprise additional and some refreshed SLOW markings, along with edge of carriageway markings. 

At a later date - probably in the second half of April - road signage will be added, indicating road narrowing and pedestrians in the road. The existing chevrons - which have frequently been removed, and which the Parish Council has long raised as a concern with me - will be taken down and signs indicating a bridge parapet will be placed on new posts in the verge in front of the bridge. They should be much more durable.

It had originally been hoped that all the works could be done in one go and with one road closure; in practice, it wasn’t possible to dovetail them all, but hopefully we should see significant improvements to Franks Lane, in terms both of the road surface and of the approach to the bridge, by the end of the month.

Kent Highways is also, at the request of the Parish Council, carrying out some repairs to the footway at the entrance to Heathside Park in Horton Road, South Darenth. These should be carried out on Thursday 8 April.

Details of new Go coach services and Demand Responsive Go2 service

From Monday 12 April, Go Coach will be introducing a range of new or reinstated services. Some of this builds on the company’s demand responsive Go2 service, which was introduced last year. All the proposals have been developed through close work with KCC. 

In terms of traditional, fixed line services, the following routes will be reinstated at the frequency levels seen prior to the third lockdown in January:

 Route 1 – Westerham - Sevenoaks

Route 2 –Swanley- Sevenoaks

Route 5 – Tonbridge - Sevenoaks

Route 6 – Kemsing – Sevenoaks

For residents of Farningham, Eynsford, Otford and Shoreham, Route 2 will be of most interest, and Route 6 for residents of Kemsing and Seal. 

The intra-Sevenoaks Route 8 will be restored to pre-Covid frequencies. You can find the Go Coach timetables here.

The Go2 service will be expanded to cover some of the areas served by the Sevenoaks taxi bus (one of the schemes that came out of KCC’s ‘Big Conversation’ on rural bus services). This service had limited patronage and ceased to operate during the pandemic. Now residents of Stanstead, Fairseat, West Kingsdown and East Hill will be able to access the Go2 service 6 days a week (Monday – Saturday) between the hours of 0800-1800.

Go2 will also replace part of the 429 Sunday service. The 429 (West Kingsdown to Dartford, including a stop at White Post Corner in Farningham) will reduce from an hourly to two hourly service Monday-Friday (and continue as such on Saturday). The Sunday service, which has been subsidised over a number of years by grants from KCC Members (I am one of them), will cease. However, Go2 will be expanded to  cover an area including West Kingsdown, Swanley, down the Darent Valley and central Sevenoaks. (The route beyond Swanley is covered by alternative commercial services).

In Sevenoaks, there will be a new set of flat fares for non-school journeys of £2.50, £5.00 for all day travel and £1.50 for 5-19 year olds. On Go2, ENCTS or disabled pass holders will not have free travel as on fixed line buses, but will be reduced to 50% of the standard adult fares with companion travellers paying a fare of only £1.00 per journey. 

These changes represent a significant step back towards service resumption by Go, while building on the very successful development of Go2. It’s worth noting that demand responsive bus services had a significant part in the government’s National Bus Strategy, to which KCC will soon be responding.

Half a million symptom-free Covid tests in Kent

Kent County Council’s Director of Public Health, Andrew Scott-Clark, has confirmed that half a million symptom free tests have been carried out in Kent. This is a remarkable outcome from a standing start just before Christmas. At that time, I visited (and took a test) at one of the two sites that were opening (on the Isle of Sheppey and in Thanet). Since then, a network of sites has been developed across the county. In the early stages in particular, we had vital support from military logistics teams, although the network has now been self-sustaining for some time.

The indications are that Kent amounts to more than ten per cent of symptom-free tests carried out across the country, and our neighbours and colleagues in Medway (whose testing regime started around ten days before Kent’s) also have very high incidence relative to their population. 

This is a remarkable achievement by the team led by Andrew Scott-Clark, and reflects the authority’s determination that the county would make its way out of the severe restrictions instituted before Christmas through a combination of symptom-free testing, local contact tracing and effective communication and enforcement. Symptom-free testing is set to continue until at least the end of June, and remains a vital tool in the effort to keep our infection rates low, especially as restrictions start to ease.

JTB approves Otford and Eynsford schemes

Schemes in Otford and Eynsford were approved at last night’s Sevenoaks Joint Transportation Board.

For Otford, 20mph schemes were approved for High Street, Pilgrims Way East (as far as the junction with Beechy Leas Road). Row Dow (257 metres up from the junction with PWE), Sevenoaks Road (to 20 metres south of the roundabout) and Station Road (as far as Colets Orchard). As local County Councillor, I spoke in favour of approval, as did District and Parish Councillor Irene Roy, who has led the development of the wider Otford Traffic Management schemes. I am supporting the overall plans with £5,000 from my Combined Member Grant. The scheme was approved unanimously. 

The Eynsford scheme is for no loading/ unloading restrictions in parts of Riverside to supplement the double yellow lines and enhance enforcement there (on the basis that vehicles can be moved pretty quickly before Sevenoaks DC enforcement officers can gather evidence and issue a penalty notice). The scheme will be taken forward by Sevenoaks District Council and was discussed with and supported by the Parish Council. I am contributing £737 from my Grant. This scheme did not encounter any objections during consultation and was approved.

Pothole blitz gets under way

Last week Kent County Council launched its latest ‘pothole blitz’ - the find and fix campaign launched each spring, and which I have often posted about. The new programme has some £10 million committed to it. As the KCC media release makes clear, it goes alongside other programmes such as major resurfacing works.

A longer term asset management plan is being prepared which will set the course for the coming years and will set out ways in which the highways programme (including not just roads but elements such as structures and drainage) can be put on the most sustainable footing. This remains one of my big preoccupations as Leader of the Council: to find the best way to support and develop a historically underfunded area (not just in Kent but across the country) which is nonetheless the most visible and universal service which the County Council provides.

Vision Zero: two weeks left to comment

There are still two weeks left to comment on KCC‘s Vision Zero strategy for road safety; the consultation, launched on 26 January, closes just before midnight on 15 March. 

Vision Zero aims to achieve a major reduction - to, or very close to zero - in deaths on Kent’s roads by 2050. Its underlying philosophy is to recognise that human error will always happen, but to find ways to reduce its consequences, either in terms of accidents or in terms of their most serious consequences. A major strand in Vision Zero is a renewed emphasis on community engagement, recognising that community concerns about matters such as sense of danger and reduced quality of life should be taken into account in assessing road safety measures. This represents a more flexible approach than the current focus on deaths and serious injuries, even though that will undoubtedly remain a significant factor in any assessments.

You can find details of the consultation, and more detail about Vision Zero, here. The strategy’s emphasis on a systematic approach, and on close work with local residents and communities should be very welcome.

Crowdfunding Kent: KCC supports community-led recovery

As part of our commitment to supporting communities and Kent’s recovery from the pandemic, KCC has launched Crowdfund Kent with crowdfunding platform Spacehive. Crowdfund Kent will support community groups and projects that aid recovery from the Covid crisis, such as improvements to community facilities or initiatives that address financial distress or social isolation. KCC is contributing £500,000 in total and will allocate up to £20,000 or 50% of the project cost (more in exceptional circumstances in deprived areas) to individual schemes. 

I will be taking part in a webinar launch of the initiative on 17 March (details in the KCC media hub press release) and there will be further workshops to help develop schemes in March and April. The deadline for submitting schemes in this funding round is 28 April.

First steps on the road to recovery

The national road map to easing and ultimately ending Covid restrictions is very welcome. The pace may be cautious, but steady progress is surely preferable to measures that raise expectations but then have to take a step back or even be reversed. And all the while, the vaccination programme is making rapid progress.

I commented about the four key actions which we’ve tried to focus on in Kent - following the guidelines, symptom free testing (315,000 tests carried out in Kent, more than 2,000 symptom-free people tested positive and so able to self-isolate), contact tracing and enforcement. We’ll continue these actions in the weeks to come. Kent has come a very long way since New Year: from a 7 day figure of 900 cases per 100,000 and a high national outlier to 66.6 per 100,000 and just over half the national average. It’s a huge tribute to what people and communities across Kent have done; if we sustain that, we will stay on the road to recovery.

You can find the KCC press release here.

Anti-social parking near Knole: restrictions renewed

Kent County Council has issued an Order for no waiting at any time, to be applied to a number of roads that have been affected by inconsiderate (and in a number of places potentially dangerous) parking by visitors to Knole Park. This renews the order first issued last year, and then renewed in the run up to Christmas (and which was due to expire at the end of the month). 

The issue affects residents in Seal Parish in my Division, as well as those in neighbouring areas (including those represented by my County colleagues Margaret Crabtree and Peter Lake). A longer-term solution needs to be developed and I recently held a very useful meeting with those concerned with the issue, including local representatives, County and District representatives (both councillors and officers), Seal Parish Council and others. This will continue as we seek to develop solutions; in the meantime, continuation of the restrictions is essential.

The roads affected are:

A225 Tonbridge Road – both sides for the full length of the road

 

The Rise – both sides for the full length of the road

 

St Julian’s Road, Underriver – both sides for the full length of the road

 

Fawke Wood Road, Seal – both sides for the full length of the road

 

Weald Road – both sides for the full length of the road

 

Turners Gardens – both sides for the full length of the road

 

Shenden Way - both sides for the full length of the road

 

White Hart Close - both sides for the full length of the road

 

Road Connecting St Julian’s Road With Park Lane - both sides for the full length of the road

Council tax - Helping Hands for hard-pressed residents

KCC has today confirmed a programme of help for hard-pressed residents with their council tax set out in last week’s 2020-21 budget.

Under the scheme, funded by some £6 million of the support that KCC has received from the government’s Emergency Covid-19 Grant, all those already under the Council Tax Reduction Scheme (CTRS), which provides discounts to those on the lowest incomes, will receive a rebate of £50 on their council tax bills. This will also help those who join the Scheme during the financial year, perhaps because of a sudden change in their circumstances such as redundancy. 

In addition, KCC is providing supplementary funding to District and Borough Councils to extend their existing Council Tax Hardship Fund schemes. These schemes are intended to help those who are - or were prior to the pandemic - ‘just about managing’ but above the income levels that would make them eligible for the CTRS. In this case too, the policy aims to help those who have been affected by the pandemic and its economic consequences. 

This announcement follows last week’s launch of the £10 million Helping Hands scheme by the council, providing support to businesses, households in financial distress, the voluntary sector and those in need of help in securing access to the digital technology that we all increasingly rely on. This too is funded by the Covid Emergency Grant; in both cases this is one-off funding that we as a council have decided to use to support those most impacted by Covid and its economic and social consequences. 

Last week’s KCC budget was aimed at protecting our services - especially those, such as adults’ and children’s social services that are likely to see a sharp increase in need and in more complex cases as we come out of lockdown. It also aimed to secure the long-term financial stability of the council - a council that is strong enough to be able to help when it is needed. The consequence of that, though reluctantly on the part of the administration, was a 2% increase in general council tax levels and a 3% increase in the adult social care precept. We were determined to ensure that the most hard-pressed households were relieved of the pressures of a council tax increase, and that is what these measures aim to do.

Bollards replaced in Holmesdale Road

The bollards in Holmesdale Road near Giffords Cottages which I funded from my Member Grant in 2016 were knocked down by a car at the end of October. Tomorrow (Saturday 30 January) will see a road closure between the junctions with Devon Road and East Hill to enable Kent Highways to replace the bollards. The closure is scheduled for between 8 am and 2 pm.

Renewing the footpath from Copse Bank

Tomorrow sees the start of the closure of Public Right of Way SU4/ SR165 in Seal, running from just off Childsbridge Lane (the closure starts by Ragstones) to the A25 opposite Trinity School and the Weald of Kent annex. This is for very welcome works to improve the footpath.

The improvement was agreed as a planning condition (condition 14) of the approval of the expansion of Trinity School. The Parish Council advocated strongly for this as a means of encouraging local students to take a safe route to walk or cycle to the schools on the former Wildernesse site, and I took this up at the time with KCC officers. It was proposed as part of the application in early 2019 that a £10,000 contribution be made for the improvement of SR165 - see paragraphs 46 and 52 of the report to the KCC Planning Applications Committee in January 2019). The steady addition of years of entry for Weald of Kent, and the subsequent confirmation of the establishment of an annex for Tunbridge Wells Grammar School for Boys, have added to the case for it.

Delivery of this has taken some time - a key Memorandum of Understanding relating to this project is dated December 2018 - and I have, on behalf of the Parish Council, taken this up a number of times. It is now set to take place. The footpath is closed from tomorrow for up to 21 days.

More testing sites, including Sevenoaks Community Centre

Following last week’s announcement, KCC today announced the opening of five additional symptom-free (asymptomatic) testing centres in the course of this week. This will bring the total across the county to 19, including two in Sevenoaks District. The second of these, opening on Friday, is in the Sevenoaks Community Centre in Cramptons Road, Bat and Ball. This should be very accessible for residents of Sevenoaks North and Darent Valley, especially in areas such as Otford.

The asymptomatic testing programme in Kent has now carried out over 50,000 tests, and this figure should now rise rapidly. The current 14 sites can carry out 14,000 tests per day, and this should rise to 19,000 by the end of the week.

You can find KCC’s media release about the new openings here.

2021 begins: Schools, testing sites and lockdown again

Happy 2021.

It’s over a fortnight - embracing Christmas and the New Year - since I last posted. There’s been a lot since then that I’ve just not had time to write up; on Sunday, 20 December, the French authorities blocked any HGVs and other vehicles crossing the Channel. This lasted for 48 hours, at the end of which vehicles were only able to make the journey if they had secured a negative Covid test. The resulting challenges of traffic management, driver welfare and impact on local communities (especially Dover) were intense and only started to ease around Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. I’ll be writing more about transition, so may revert in more detail to those extraordinary days at that point.

The NewYear started with further controversy over whether primary schools should open to the majority of children, or should delay their start for a fortnight. The Department for Education ruled that eight of Kent’s twelve Districts should be considered under the ‘contingency framework’, meaning that general primary opening would be delayed for a fortnight, but that four Districts - Canterbury, Thanet, Dover and Folkestone and Hythe - should not. Neither I nor our public health team could see the rationale for this, and so Richard Long (Cabinet Member for Education and Skills) and I wrote to the Education Secretary, urging that the contingency framework should also be applied to these four Districts. This generated a lot of media interest (including Radio 4’s World at One - interview starts 28 minutes and 30 seconds in) but within a few hours was overtaken entirely by events.

As of last night, Kent - with the rest of the country - found itself in a third national lockdown. The acceleration of infections that we saw in Kent in November and early December, strongly linked to the new strand of the virus, has taken hold nationally. Much of our response reflects the approaches developed in the first and second lockdowns, and I will be returning to this in future posts. You can find our on the day response here.

The Prime Minister’s announcement came at the end of a day in which we had announced the establishment of twelve new asymptomatic testing centres, adding to the two (in Swale and Thanet) that we opened a week before Christmas. This gives testing centres in all of the twelve Districts, and more will be added in the coming weeks, resulting in two in each District. In Sevenoaks, the first centre will be in the Swanley youth club in St Mary’s road, and a further site in the District will be announced shortly. In these new circumstances, we continue to press forward our approach of contact tracing, testing, communication and enforcement, while supporting the NHS in its roll out of vaccination.