School buses latest

 The TW1 service from Kemsing and Seal to Tunbridge Wells has been secured as part of wider route replacements.

Since the announcement of major commercial bus service withdrawals in early July, Kent County Council’s officers have been working with operators to secure, wherever possible, replacement routes and other mitigations to ensure that children are able to get to school. 

Now with the return to school imminent, the later stages of this work have been coming to a conclusion, and across the county, and in West Kent in particular there is much more comprehensive coverage than seemed likely until recently.

The biggest impact on residents and families in Sevenoaks North and Darent Valley (and in neighbouring areas) has been in the Sevenoaks/ Tonbridge/ Tunbridge Wells travel corridor. The initial solution to this, developed with operators in mid- July, was for many students to change at Sevenoaks bus station. This was the best, perhaps only solution available at the time but gave rise to a lot of concerns: safety of the transfer, longer travel times,  the possibility of missed connections and (perhaps most importantly) the question of whether there would be adequate capacity on the routes going south from Sevenoaks. 

KCC officers were in any case carrying out capacity assessments as the next stage of the work to develop services for September. This was, for a time, trying to hit a moving target as applications for the Kent Travel Saver continue to come in over the summer. The end result, however, was to identify (working with the operators) extra capacity needed for those routes, and ultimately to agree that these buses would run from further back on the route, from the villages outside Sevenoaks. 

The TW3 and TW6 (starting from Shoreham and Badgers Mount respectively) are going direct to Tunbridge Wells, as is the TW4 starting in Westerham. Critically for residents of Kemsing and Seal, the TW1 direct route has now also been secured and will operate on the same route and timetable.

This final and very welcome outcome has come towards the end of the summer holidays, and for many families the wait has been very stressful. This has been a complex and demanding programme of work, done on the basis of collaboration with operators who are themselves under pressure and embracing much of the county’s network.

It is important to say that we are, in many respects, far from being out of the wood. Not all routes are covered in every aspect of what was available previously. Driver shortages and the extra capacity brought into use mean that there is little or no slack in the West Kent network. In East Kent, further service withdrawals have been set out but not yet confirmed by Stagecoach, to which our officers will have to respond. At the end of last week, national government (with whom we have, like many other local authorities, been in discussion about support for the industry) announced £130 million additional funding through the Bus Recovery Grant - but the exact form this will take, and its implications for Kent, remain unclear. Nonetheless, the position locally is much improved on what seemed likely some weeks ago.

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

School Lane works delayed again (again)

I posted recently that the Thames Water works planned for School Lane Seal for 5 August had been delayed by a fortnight. That would have been today (19 August); however, the works have been delayed once more. I understand that this is because of sink holes and other emergency works which have had to be addressed elsewhere and so the works have been rather suddenly postponed. It is likely that, since a ten day closure is required for these works, the delay will be a long one, until at least next year's Easter holidays.

Swanley Village works: four way lights due in Highlands Hill

Thames Water recently distributed letters to Swanley Village residents concerning the works currently taking place in Highlands Hill. These set out the expectation that, because of the depth of works required in their programme of installation of new equipment on their water pipes, the full closure on Highlands Hill was set to continue until 31 August - with a big impact on the village, its residents and businesses.

There are in fact two sets of works which Thames Water are carrying out. The first was due to be completed on 31 August, and KCC Streetworks encouraged Thames Water to undertake the second set of works at the same time; the alternative would have been for Thames Water to return during the October half term. Given the wish to avoid yet further disruption to the village, KCC Streetworks proposed, and Thames Water agreed that this second set of works be carried out concurrently with the first.

KCC’s Streetworks Team visited the site late last week, and I understand that the first set of works are now ahead of schedule and should be completed within the next week (precise date to be confirmed). At this point it will be possible to carry out the second set of works by closing just one lane and use of four way traffic lights. The lights will be manually controlled from 0730 – 0930 & 1530 – 1900hrs to ease congestion.

Four way lights do, of course, involve longer waiting times but there will at least be access, easing to some degree the disruption to the village in the latter part of this month.

School Lane closure delayed

The road closure in School Lane in Seal planned to start tomorrow (5 August) has been delayed for a fortnight. The ten day road closure will now start on 19 August. 

The closure (outside 1-3 The Green) is for Thames Water to deal with a collapsed sewer some three and a half metres under the road surface and to install an inspection cover in the road.  Given the lengthy detour required by the alternative route (A25/ A225/ Pilgrims Way East/ Childsbridge Lane) KCC Streetworks requested extended working hours and weekends to complete the works as quickly as possible. I understand that the delay to the works is because resources were not available to deliver on these extended hours at this time.