KCC budget consultation until 5 September

A little over a week ago - so with apologies for the lateness in posting this - Kent County Council launched its budget consultation. You can find the media release about the consultation here.

As in previous years, the 2023-24 budget will be a story of hard choices. KCC has delivered over £800:million in savings (equivalent to two-thirds of our annual budget) over little more than a decade. The years to come will present continuing challenges, with needs in areas such as adult social care and children’s social services outstripping the growth in our resources (council tax and government grant). To this must be added the pressures of inflation, to which much of our expenditures are highly sensitive.

The consultation offers an opportunity to help shape KCC’s budget choices in these challenging circumstances. You can take part via this link, and the consultation runs until 5 September.

Childsbridge Lane closure

Residents will have seen that there was a brief closure of Childsbridge Lane late last week to address a sink hole under the tarmac close to a drain cover near the junction with Church Street. That closure was abandoned to enable traffic to flow on the Friday morning, but the works still need to take place. Given the narrowness of the road, and the need for the team to work safely, closure is unfortunately needed.

Childsbridge Lane will therefore be closed between School Lane and Church Street for up to two days starting this Thursday (21 July) from 9am to 3pm each day. The recommended diversion route is via High Street, Seal Road, the A225, Pilgrims Way East/ Pilgrims Way and vice versa. Go Coach and Seal Primary School have already been made aware of this.

Buses: Go Coach-KCC agreement on Sevenoaks routes

As I mentioned in my previous post, Kent County Council officers are working with bus operators to find replacements wherever possible for routes that are under threat for September. Following discussions with our officers, Go Coach have brought forward proposals for Sevenoaks and the surrounding area that should make a real difference, especially to many school journeys.

We have set up a page on our website to keep residents up to date on developments and announcements about routes. You can find the link to the Go Coach route plan here. We’ll issue a more detailed account of it in the coming days.

Commercial bus service reductions

Many residents have written to me over the weekend about the withdrawal of a number of bus services which serve children traveling to school. Understandably, many families are shocked and dismayed. 

I am reproducing here - with some slight amendments - the information that I have sent to many residents who have written to me.

 The decisions taken reflect the pressures experienced by the commercial bus industry. Contrary to what has sometimes been said, they are not a result of any decision or funding reduction by Kent County Council. We are seeking to respond to this and I will set this out below.

 Some 97% of bus routes in Kent, including these that are being withdrawn, are commercial routes, neither subsidised nor commissioned by KCC. Across the country bus operators are under pressure, chiefly because of reductions in usage (still down at least 20% on pre-pandemic levels), along with fuel cost increases and severe labour shortages.

 Government did make available a Local Transport Fund (LTF) to help sustain services; some of it went via KCC, some of it direct to operators. But in any case it was central government, not KCC funding and government has been very clear that this funding ceases at the end of September. So the reductions are essentially commercial decisions to set what is intended to be a network that can keep running after the central government support ends. KCC officers have been required by government to work with and survey operators concerning their plans, but we are not the decision maker for them.

 It is confusing that, at around the same time, KCC did consult and decide on reductions in our subsidies for certain bus routes (this went through a KCC Committee in the course of last week). This was not a decision that we wanted to take, but it was part of the budget that we approved in February, and reflected the massive pressures on the council’s finances, which with rising inflation have only become more severe since the budget was set. Most importantly, those subsidy reductions are unrelated to, and have no effect on the school routes and other reductions that are listed in the document below. 

 We recognise and fully understand the great difficulties that these commercial route reductions mean for many families. The next stage for our officers is to work with operators to see if others can provide alterative services, doubtless configured differently from the existing pattern, that nonetheless address at least some of the gaps in service that have arisen. In a number of cases in the recent past, we have been able to do this to address threats to specific routes, and will do our utmost in this case. But it is important to be clear that there is no guarantee that this can be delivered.

A further element in this is that Kent (unlike many other parts of the country) was recently successful in securing £35 million from government over three years for delivery of a Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP) starting in October. There are significant constraints on how this money can be spent. Two thirds of it is required to go on capital, not revenue spending, and within the revenue spending government has been very clear that this is not to be used to prop up existing service patterns. However, there may be some scope to use BSIP funding to pump prime new services that could help address some of the routes that have been lost. We are currently negotiating the details of our BSIP with the Department for Transport.

 My colleague David Brazier (Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport) and I will seek to keep residents updated on any developments.

Details of the service reductions are in this link, in particular in the table starting on the third page.

A fourth funding round for Crowdfund Kent

A fourth round of bidding for community projects to Crowdfund Kent is under way. Under the scheme, which was launched in March last year, Kent County Council contributes to crowdfunded projects that will have a significant impact on local communities. Crowdfund Kent, which aims to build on the remarkable community spirit demonstrated in the pandemic, is run in collaboration with the leading crowdfunding platform Spacehive.

From the three funding rounds so far the council has contributed £300,000 (out of £500,000 pledged) to schemes which have raised some £875,000. 

Anyone with an idea or project that could benefit from Crowdfund Kent is welcome to join a workshop this coming Tuesday (12 July) at 1700. You can register via a link in this KCC media release, which also includes a video about Crowdfund Kent and examples of projects which it has already supported.

Outstanding: Ofsted’s verdict on Kent’s Children’s Services

In a report issued this morning, Ofsted has rated Kent County Council’s children’s services as Outstanding - the highest ranking and one held by few councils across the country. This follows an inspection in May under the Inspection of Local Authority Children’s Services (ILACS) framework.

It has been a long journey of improvement. A little over a decade ago, KCC’s children’s services were found to be Inadequate. The hard work of improvement has taken place during an era of funding constraints, rising demand pressures on children’s services across the country, the pandemic and, for Kent, the arrival, especially in 2015-16 and 2020-22, of large numbers of Unaccompanied Asylum Seeking Children. 

Ofsted rated Kent’s children’s services against four criteria:

- The impact of leaders on social work practice with children and families - Outstanding 

-  The experiences and progress of children who need help and protection - Good

- The experiences and progress of children in care and care leavers - Outstanding

- Overall effectiveness - Outstanding

Ofsted found that children are at the centre of KCC’s practice; that social work and early help teams work effectively and understand well the children and families they support and engage with; that there is ‘outstanding practice’ in support of children in care and care leavers; and that the political and senior officer leadership is committed, well-informed and prepared to invest in the service. One of the most heartening findings was that staff are ‘rightly proud of the work they do’ and ‘love working for Kent’. 

There are a,ways challenges, and always areas in which we can improve further, and the report sets these out. But this is, taken in the round, a fantastic tribute to the staff who, day in and day out, dedicate themselves to the children and young people of the county.

You can find our media release, with a link to the Ofsted report, here

Forthcoming road closures in Kemsing, Otford and Seal

Notice of some road closures coming up in the school holidays.

Pilgrims Way Kemsing will be closed starting on 25 July. This is for South East Water to replace a defective fire hydrant. The closure has been planned for five days but hopefully will be less; if it is a simple fix, it should take only two or three days. The proposed alternative route is via Pilgrims Way East, A225, A25, Childsbridge Lane and vice versa.

 Station Road Otford is set to be closed for three days starting 30 July. This is for UK Power Networks to establish connections to a new house, coordinating both gas and electricity. A road closure is required as the electrical connection is on the opposite side of the road and the road width is too narrow to complete this safely under two way lights. SGN’s connection is on the same side as the house but in the footpath and carriageway.  

This is of course quite a disruptive closure, and so the aim is to carry out most of the works over the weekend; the road will be closed early on Saturday morning and will remain shut until late Sunday evening. If the works are not completed by that stage, then two way lights will be set up and the work completed on the Monday.  The original application was for this to be a five day closure, but KCC Streetworks have negotiated this quicker approach. 

 Finally, School Lane in Seal will be closed (outside 1-3 The Green) for ten days starting 5 August. Access will be maintained for the library only. The suggested diversion route is quite similar to that for Pilgrims Way. This is for Thames Water to deal a collapsed sewer some three and a half metres under the road surface and to install an inspection cover in the road.  KCC Streetworks have requested extended working hours and weekends to complete the works as quickly as possible.

Have your say: TfL consulting on ULEZ coming to the Kent border

Transport for London (TfL) is consulting on extending its Ultra Low Emissions Zone (ULEZ) to the London boundary. The consultation runs until near the end of this month (29 July). TfL’s proposal is to establish the new Zone from 29 August 2023. 

Non-compliant vehicles will be charged £12.50 per day to enter the Zone. This could clearly have a very significant impact on residents and businesses in Kent, and in particular in the areas bordering London such as Sevenoaks North and Darent Valley.

We at Kent County Council are taking our draft response to the consultation to the Environment and Transport Cabinet Committee this coming Wednesday (6 July). You can find it in the papers for the meeting. KCC has no veto over what the London Mayor and TfL will decide, but we have made it clear that the proposal is only acceptable if accompanied by an extension of the scrappage scheme previously applied to an earlier version of ULEZ to residents outside London, including in Kent. 

KCC is seeking to raise awareness of the UKEZ proposal through our social media channels and the consultations page on our website. You can find the TfL consultation, and how you can submit comments, through this link.