Over and Out

It’s pretty old news now, but worth summarising yesterday’s Kent County Council election results. The pace of events yesterday left no time to post.

So, firstly, the executive summary: the Conservatives are out, and I’m out. 

Here is the result for Sevenoaks North and Darent Valley:

Marc Logen (Reform UK)                  2,133 (37%)

Roger Gough (Conservative)            1,945 (33%)

Adam Durbaba (Liberal Democrat)  1,103 (19%)

Michael Barker (Green Party)              387 (7%)

Ben Davies (Labour)                             283 (5%)

My warm congratulations to Marc Logen on his election. We had a good conversation at yesterday’s count and I wish him very well. He has, as I have had for 20 years, the great good fortune to represent a truly wonderful part of Kent.

The result is a huge reversal from 2021, and from previous elections. Yet it was just part of a wider rout for the Conservatives across Kent, and the country. (The elections were also very poor for Labour, but they had many fewer seats to defend). At KCC, the Conservatives now have just 5 seats out of 81 (we won 62 in 2021). Reform UK took 57 seats and will form the new administration; the Liberal Democrats, with 12 seats, will be the opposition. Across the country, we lost 676 of the 993 council seats that we were defending.

I have given a lot of interviews since the results were announced, including one for the Today Programme this morning (there is a clip at around 8:33). My view is that the Conservatives are still paying the price for aspects of our record in government, especially in 2021-22, and have to fight hard for a right to be heard, even as any goodwill towards the Labour government is rapidly dissipated. 

I also wish the new Reform administration well as they take over at County Hall. Too much - for the council and for the county - rides on their success for anyone to wish otherwise. I did not, though, see anything in the campaign to suggest serious engagement on their part with the big challenges and pressures that face the council (such as adult social care, children’s services and SEND). It is up to them to surprise us.

Vote Conservative on Thursday 1 May

Vote for your local Conservative candidate in tomorrow (Thursday’s) election to Kent County Council. There’s a lot at stake. 

FACT: Across the country, councils are failing or on the financial brink. Eight have gone bust (‘a Section 114 notice’). Thirty are on life support from central government. Conservative Kent County Council is not among them

FACT: We deliver sound budgets, even under intense pressure, and our financial management is strong (it’s not us saying that, it’s our external auditors). We have saved approaching £1 billion over the last decade, cut debt costs from 13% of our budget to 8% and brought many areas of big spending pressure under control. We are making our services secure for the future

FACT: We stand up for Kent. We have made sure that Kent council tax payers are not on the hook for the costs of asylum. We took the government to the High Court – and won – so that unaccompanied minors are moved rapidly to other parts of the country 

FACT: We are there when you need us. We have helped residents through tough financial times, including pensioners targeted by Labour’s withdrawal of the Winter Fuel Payment. We provide some of the best and lowest-cost services to protect vulnerable children in the country

Money will stay tight, and we can’t expect help from a cash-strapped Labour government. Local government reorganisation, driven by Labour, means there’s a huge job in safely transferring our vital services – for some people, a matter of life and death - to new councils.

These challenges need serious, dedicated councillors who care about our communities, not those who offer only slogans and treat them as a vehicle for protest about national politics.

For a council that cares about Kent and our communities; that will keep Kent financially secure; and that will always stand up for Kent – vote Conservative on Thursday 1 May.

Devolution - but NOT for Kent and Medway

The government announced today that a number of areas have been taken forward for the Devolution Priority Programme (DPP) set out in the English Devolution White Paper. Although all of our neighbours who applied - Greater Essex, Sussex & Brighton, Hampshire & Solent, Surrey (in the latter case, a slightly different application) - were accepted on to the programme, Kent and Medway were not.

As I have set out in a number of interviews today, this is a severe setback, leaving Kent as a devolution desert when all our neighbours will benefit from the increased powers, funding and national voice that will be denied to the 1.9 million residents of Kent and Medway. 

It is also an incomprehensible decision with no clear and logical rationale. We are told that it is because Kent and Medway are local authorities of very different size who could not operate together effectively in a mayoral authority. This argument was never made to us before and flies in the face of disparities of size of authorities in areas which have been approved - and existing models elsewhere, such as North Yorkshire and the City of York. 

We will continue to press for a fuller explanation of this decision, and to get the benefits of devolution to the residents we represent as soon as possible.

You can find our media release, and my reaction here.

EES: a welcome delay

It has been the week of two delays. The first - that of a decision on Lower Thames Crossing until next May - which came on Monday, was deeply disappointing. The second - that of the introduction of the EU’s new external frontier checks, the Entry Exit System (EES) - is likely to be positive for Kent residents. 

EES was scheduled to be introduced - after many delays and falls starts - at 2 am on Sunday 10 November. However, late on Thursday afternoon, a month before the planned commencement of EES, EU Home Affairs Commissioner Ylva Johansson announced a further delay, stating that 10 November would not go ahead and that there would be “a phased approach” to introduction. This reflected major Member States, including France, Germany and the Netherlands reporting that they were not ready to go ahead, citing technological problems and in particular the interface with EU-wide systems.

In Kent, we were not banking on this delay, even as it came to look more and more likely. We have been raising the issue for years, and in January I gave evidence to a parliamentary committee about the risks that EES introduction posed to Kent, in particular spillover of delays in the highly constrained Eastern Docks at the Port of Dover onto the county’s roads. In July, Leaders of councils in Kent came together to highlight the issue to the new government. Ministers have provided additional funding to the points of departure, works have begun to develop sites at the Western Docks and partners in the Kent and Medway Resilience Forum have developed extensive contingency plans. 

Nonetheless, the delay is helpful, giving more time for some of these projects to develop and for discussions with the French authorities over a pragmatic approach to the introduction of the new system. While the approach to introduction of EES is now unclear, it may give scope for a gradual approach (enabling, for example, first registrations to be undertaken at quieter times only, easing the whole process of introduction of the new system) or perhaps even a move to operate remote registration from the start (which neither systems nor regulations are currently set up for). 

The announcement generated a lot of media interest, and I gave interviews to BBC South East, ITV Meridian and Heart/ LBC (I had already spoken to BBC Radio Kent on Thursday morning before the Commission’s announcement). You can also find our media release about the delay here. We will now await more details but, for the present at least, this is good news. 

Kent Leaders warn on EES

The European Entry Exit System (EES), the new external frontier of the European Union, comes into force in the autumn. The expected date of implementation had for some time been 6 October, although there are now widespread expectations that it will be delayed a little, until 10 November or another Sunday later in the month. 

The consequences of this for Kent are potentially significant, reflecting the pressures which these new checks will put on the points of exit, especially the Port of Dover, which could then spill over onto the road network, creating major disruption. At Kent County Council, we have been raising the issue for a number of years and earlier this year I gave evidence on the issue to a parliamentary committee. 

Last week, Leaders of all 14 councils in the historic county (KCC, Medway and the 12 Districts and Boroughs) signed a letter to government setting out our concerns and urging action to share information, coordinate communication both with Kent residents and nationally, accelerate measures that can ease pressure on the highly constrained Eastern Docks in particular and to work with France and the EU to manage the implementation in a flexible way. The letter also reminded ministers that this is an occasion not only to address the immediate issues of the EES but also the long-running pressures that the border issue puts on the county, reflected in the use of Operation Brock.

There are some encouraging signs. The previous week saw a visit from the new roads minister, Lilian Greenwood, and the last two weekends have proved relatively manageable if occasionally difficult, reflecting the start of the summer getaway and (for the first weekend) the impact of the worldwide IT outage. This positive performance reflected, among other things, the deployment of a permit system for freight vehicles and the active role played by the French border authorities, the PAF. 

Nonetheless, the risks remain severe and there is a lot to be done. The joint letter is part of that effort. 

New nuclear: the case for Dungeness

I’m a bit behind with this, but on Monday the Minister for Nuclear and Networks Andrew Bowie visited Dungeness and we had a tremendous opportunity to set out the case for it as a site to generate nuclear power through Small Modular Reactors (SMRs).

Dungeness has produced nuclear energy for sixty years; the area has real skills and expertise, along with a culture of nuclear safety, built up over that long period. The site is currently set for closure and Dungeness B is in the long process of defuelling. However, the government’s renewed commitment to nuclear as a form of green energy, and the development of new approaches, notably SMRs, offers the prospect of generating nuclear power at Dungeness once more.

At KCC, we have been strongly committed to supporting Dungeness, both for its contribution to the UK’s energy transition, and for its importance to the life and economy of Romney Marsh. In this, we have worked closely with the local MP, Damian Collins, with Folkestone and Hythe District Council and other partners while building links with potential suppliers.

We met Minister Bowie at the conclusion of his visit to the Dungeness site and had the opportunity to set out the case for SMR generation here. The timing was especially good, given that the next day saw the launch of Great British Nuclear, the government body set up to drive nuclear energy development. A long way to go, but this was a very positive step in promoting a sustained future for energy generation and job opportunities in this part of Kent.

Kent Stands with Ukraine on invasion anniversary

Today Kent County Council, like so many organisations, communities and individuals across the country, marked the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. 

Amid the horror and shattering cruelty of the invasion, and the indirect impacts that the resulting economic disruption has brought home to all of us in daily life, there has also been a heartening response in this country and our allies, not least in the welcome given to Ukrainians forced to flee the conflict. In Kent, which has taken more Ukrainian guests under the Homes for Ukraine scheme than any other comparable area of the country, we have seen an extraordinary response from people across the county.

Some 4,202 people from Ukraine have been matched with 1,737 sponsors in Kent. Not all have yet come here, but 3,209 have done so. At present, 1,889 are staying with 905 sponsors; others have already done so and moved on, in some cases returning to Ukraine and in other cases moving into the private rented sector. 

Last year there was concern that, once the six month minimum period for hosting came to an end, many hosting arrangements would come to an end. KCC moved ahead of many other councils in raising the rates for payments to hosts from a flat rate £350 per month, regardless of the numbers hosted, to a higher set of rates ranging from £400 per month for hosting one Ukrainian guest to £1,000 per month for 7 or more. This seems to have had an effect; instead of 60% of hosting arrangements coming to an end after 6 months, as we feared, just 7% did so. 

This scheme was set to run through until the end of the financial year in March 2023, since there was at that time uncertainty over future provisions for the scheme. DLUHC confirmed before Christmas that there would be a continuation of the scheme into financial year 2023-24, though with reduced payments to councils but an increase (to £500) in payments to hosts of Ukrainians who have been in the country for over a year. This payment does not, however, increase if there are more guests. KCC has therefore announced that we will, for the next twelve months, support hosts in line with the scheme we had previously announced, but with a higher payment (£500 rather than £400) for single guests who have been here for over 12 months. In other words, we will combine the government’s provisions with our own.

The aim of these schemes is to sustain hosting arrangements but over time many Ukrainian guests will want or need to seek other housing. We are therefore working with district councils across the county, and in particular Sevenoaks District Council, to facilitate an increasing number of moves by Ukrainian guests into the private rented sector.

Our strongest wish is that the day comes soon when our guests are able to return to a free, unified and peaceful Ukraine. But in the meantime several thousand Ukrainians are becoming a valued part of the Kent community, and it is good to be able to support that. 

You can find the KCC media release on this here.

Levelling Up Fund: good news for Kent

This morning the Department of Levelling Up, Homes and Communities (DLUHC) announced awards under round 2 of the Levelling Up Fund - and it was good news for Kent.

As a County Council, KCC was able to submit one bid – and this proved to be very successful. The Dover Access Improvements scheme secured £45 million in funding. This is designed to improve the flow of traffic through the port of Dover, addressing at least part of the problems that have dogged the county for years and currently seem whenever Operation Brock has to be triggered.

The scheme involves extensive reconfiguration and investment in the port of Dover site. In particular, there will be changes to the order of the various border and customs controls, which are currently set on the basis of arrangements of two decades ago and can be much improved.

There will also be an increase in the buffer zone, removing a lot of traffic from the roads, as well as a doubling in the number of border control posts and a new dock exit route. The latter will help particularly with vehicles that have to be turned away, for example because the paperwork has not been completed.

As I have emphasised in a number of interviews today, this is not a silver bullet; there are a number of measures that need to be taken to ensure that our borders operate effectively, and the damage done to communities and businesses in Dover, East Kent and the county as a whole is ended. It is nonetheless a major step forward. There are still some further parts of approval process to be gone through with government, and the scheme will then take a number of years to implement, not least because it will have to be phased while the port and the border systems continue to operate.

Four other schemes across Kent, put forward by District and Borough councils, were successful: in Dover (so doubly good news for the town and district), in Canterbury, in Swale and in Folkestone and Hythe. All told, this represents £123 million in government investment in Kent. 

Although some have criticised awards to sites in London and the Southeast, DLUHC Secretary Michael Gove points out that proportionately more of the fund still goes to areas such as the North West; and, in an interview on the Radio 4 Today Programme this morning, he cited Kent, and the Kent coast in particular, as an example of an area in the Southeast with significant social and economic needs. We agree; in KCC‘s strategic statement, Framing Kent’s Future, our first priority was Levelling Up Kent. Today marks a good start.

You can find the KCC media release about the funding award here.

From 2022 to 2023

I am conscious that, for a time in October-November, I posted relatively little. This was not because there was little going on, but that there was so much happening that I fell behind on posting.

2022 has been a turbulent year for us in Kent, as it has nationally and worldwide - and the effects of many of those global factors, ranging from weather extremes to the Russian invasion of Ukraine, have been felt in the county. I have sought to reflect this, and to look forward, in a New Year message published today. 

Looking back twelve months, it is striking how much my (and many others’) hopes that we could move towards recovery and long-term planning in 2022 were confounded. The economic overhang of pandemic and lockdown, followed by the price shocks resulting from the Ukraine war, have seen to that. This has been felt in many ways; to take an example, the intense pressures on the bus network, which dominated the summer and caused so much anxiety to families across the county, reflected a combination of fuel (and other) price increases, driver shortages and a fall in usage that took place in the pandemic and has not been reversed. 

One result is that our budget pressures this year have been far more intense than in the past, and even with a big effort in the closing months of the financial year, we are likely to see a substantial overspend for 2022-23. That adds to our challenges in setting the budget for 2023-24 (which we will bring forward at the start of January). In the joint letter that the Leader of Hampshire County Council and I sent to ministers in October, we highlighted the long-term structural problems of local government finance, above all in relation to social care and children’s services; it is the combination of that with the year’s economic upheavals that made 2022 so difficult.

At KCC, we saw significant setbacks and shortfalls during the year, notably the failings in SEND transport in February and - also in the SEND area - a highly critical Ofsted/ CQC revisit in the autumn. Addressing these shortcomings remains a major focus for us. Yet there were also very positive developments. Ofsted rated our children’s services Outstanding; the innovative Reconnect programme, focused on opportunities for children and young people in the aftermath of the pandemic, came to a successful conclusion; people across the county responded magnificently to the plight of Ukrainian refugees, and KCC and its partners played a strong part in that; and we saw the beginnings of a positive partnership in health and care as the Integrated Care System for Kent and Medway got under way.

As we go into 2023, it will be through boldness and in breaking new ground, as through our joint work with the NHS and the opportunities of the government’s devolution programme, that we can seek solutions to the challenges we confront. 

With good wishes to everyone in Kent for 2023 as a year of recovery and renewal.

Her Majesty the Queen: Book of Condolences and Proclamation of King Charles III

It is hard to find the right words to respond to the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II - especially when so much has been said so well, whether by our national leaders, ordinary people across the country or world leaders such as (to pick out two particularly eloquent examples) Canada’s Justin Trudeau and President Macron of France. 

Political leaders in Kent County Council sought to make our contribution in this statement, and I also had the opportunity to speak about The Queen and her connection to the county on Radio Kent yesterday. For me, the two thoughts that stay with me most strongly are the way in which The Queen’s self -effacing ethos of service (in sharp contrast to a general tendency in much contemporary culture towards celebrity and self-absorption) nonetheless led so many people to feel a personal bond with her; and how her strict adherence to being a politically neutral constitutional monarch did not prevent her from making history (as in her extraordinary visit to Ireland in 2011) or from speaking for all of us, as in her broadcast early in the pandemic.

A Book of Condolence is open at Sessions House in County Hall between 9am and 5pm every day; I had the opportunity to sign it yesterday. 

Tomorrow King Charles III will be proclaimed in the County Town of Maidstone, in Jubilee Square at 12:57pm. I will attend along with the Chair, Members and Officers of the Council and all are welcome to join this event.

Hosting Lord Deben: Kent and Climate Change

Earlier in the week - and it has been a long and busy one - we at KCC hosted Lord Deben (formerly the Cabinet Minister John Gummer), chairman of the government’s Climate Change Committee, on a visit to Kent. 

The Climate Change Committee performs an advisory and monitoring role in relation to the government’s environmental mitigation and adaptation policies. Lord Deben, members of the Committee and their advisers wanted to see how different parts of the country are developing climate change policies (both to achieve net zero and to mitigate the effects of climate change) and Kent was high on their list. 

Lord Deben and his team spent a very long day in the county, starting with flood prevention and other adaptation initiatives in Margate (including the ‘Cool Towns’ project, which uses tree pits and tree planting to both manage flood risk and cool high temperatures), a discussion with students at Herne Bay High school, meeting local leaders in Kings Hill - and then, I’m pleased to say, a visit to Darent Valley itself. This was at Preston Farm in Shoreham, where with the support of the Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, flood and drought management schemes on the Darent are also supporting better biodiversity. We ended the day with a discussion with many of the businesses, voluntary groups and others working to address environmental issues at Chatham Dockyard. 

The day was not simply a chance - important as it was - to showcase Kent’s environmental initiatives; a major focus of the day (and a key reason for the Climate Change Committee to get out of London and see work in localities across the country) was to highlight the obstacles to delivery. These included major gaps in the planning system (an important consideration in a county that has seen some of the fastest housing growth in the country), uncertainty over how future initiatives will be funded (an especially important consideration for the AONB, which has historically benefited from EU funding streams) and the challenges, highlighted in an important report for KCC and its partners by the expert consultants Anthesis, of delivering net zero in the household sector. 

The day seems to have been of great value to Lord Deben and his team, and gives us in Kent the chance to build a long-term and valuable working relationship with the Climate Change Committee.

Brompton Bicycle investment: good news for Ashford and for Kent

Brompton Bicycle, the UK’s largest bicycle manufacturer, announced this morning its commitment to a new factory and HQ in Ashford, with investment of £100 million and 4,000 jobs. Ashford overcame strong competition from other parts of the country and demonstrated its appeal - and that of Kent - as a place to invest and do business. 

Brampton’s plans - subject to planning approval by Ashford Borough Council - should take effect in 2027. In addition to its economic impact, the scheme promises major innovation and environmental benefit. Sited on a 100 acre floodplain near the International Station and the Designer Outlet, the factory will enable restoration of wetland and development of a public nature reserve and cycle way.

You can find KCC’s response, including my statement, on Facebook here. We are delighted at this investment, and this reflects the commitment and vision of Brompton and close work between Ashford Borough Council, Kent County Council and inward investment body Locate in Kent. More detail can be found on Ashford For Investment.

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.

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).

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.

Now, Tier 4

Yesterday’s government announcement that Kent, along with London and much of the south east, was due to enter (from midnight last night) a new Tier 4 level of restrictions is a severe blow to the county and its residents just days before Christmas. The County Council will do everything we can to help and support our residents and businesses through this. Our statement is here.

The Tier 4 restrictions reimpose many of the features of the November national restrictions, with a requirement on residents to avoid unnecessary travel and to work from home if at all possible, while ‘non-essential’ retail, leisure centres, personal care facilities (such as hairdressers, nail salons etc) are required to close. This comes on top of the restrictions on the hospitality sector already in place. You can find the details of the restrictions here.

Painfully for many families, Tier 4 status also means that ‘Christmas bubbles’, enabling different households to come together for Christmas, no longer apply. Support bubbles for isolated individuals still do apply, however. 

After the statement from the Prime Minister, I joined a call (along with other local government leaders and chief executives) joined a call with the Communities Secretary, Robert Jenrick, and one of the government’s medical advisers. It was clear from this, as from the earlier press conference, that the new, fast-spreading strain of the virus played a central part in these new decisions. The stubbornly high (and then accelerating again) infection rates in Kent and Medway even amid national and then Tier 3 restrictions resulted in investigations that brought focused attention on the new strain and on its rapid spread throughout the South East. A number of areas in London and Essex now have higher infection rates than the levels seen in Swale, the Kent Borough with the highest rates.

The scientific advice is very clear, and the pressures on hospitals in Kent and Medway are severe: all Kent’s hospital trusts are at or (in most cases) well above the level of Covid admissions seen at the previous peak in April. So the decision is hard to argue with, even if its suddenness and timing is abrupt and even brutal. 

As set out in my previous post, we will continue to focus our efforts on local contact tracing, asymptomatic testing and constantly renewing our approach to communications and enforcement. We will also seek to support residents and businesses through this, and press government to review business support to better assist enterprises and individuals across Kent, with our network of very small firms and self-employment.

Taking the Test

 

This morning Andrew Scott-Clark, KCC’s Director of Public Health and I attended the site (Sheerness Working Men’s Club in Halfway on the Isle of Sheppey) of one of the two asymptomatic testing centres that will start carrying out tests tomorrow. The military planners whose giving us logistical support were present, along with representatives from Swale Borough Council. 

This was a chance to see the centre in operation and to brief and be interviewed by media representatives, including BBC South East and ITV Meridian. Andrew and I took the ‘lateral flow’ Covid test. I did not record exactly how long it took for the result (negative) to come through, but it was about half an hour or just a little longer. The centre staff were very helpful and the process smooth.

For tomorrow, invitations have gone out to key workers and their families, and we expect to then invite the wider local population.

In my interviews, I was asked - unsurprisingly and reasonably- about Kent’s high Covid -19 infection levels, and what can be done to reduce them. I emphasised the actions we are taking with respect to testing, local contact tracing and constant honing of our approach to communications and compliance. The full explanation for Kent’s extraordinary surge in infections, much of it during the period of the second national lockdown, remains unclear, though the emergence of a second, more infectious form of the virus may have played its part. Certainly there has been a recent surge across many parts of the south east, with many areas (such as large parts of our neighbours Essex, Surrey and East Sussex) joining Kent in Tier 3.

Nonetheless, as the Health Secretary pointed out in Parliament today, rates in our county are exceptionally high: “Be really cautious in Kent. It is the area of the country which has the biggest problem.” We are under no illusions as to the scale of the task in turning this round.

Kent in Tier 3

Today’s government announcement that Kent as a whole is being placed in Tier 3, the highest level of Covid-19 restrictions, comes as a severe blow to residents and businesses across the County. 

Covid cases have risen sharply in Kent in recent weeks. Up until around the middle of October, Kent’s incidence (cases per 100,000 over 7 days) was far below the national average, and even below the South East average. As of 21 November, however, Kent’s figure was 274.3, compared with national average of 207.1 and a South East average of 157.3. (Neighbouring Medway, however, stood at 423.9). The acceleration began in Swale and has taken in much of northern and coastal Kent. Swale’s rates (528.4) and Thanet’s (492.3) are among the highest in the country. Rates across other parts of the county - in particular, in Districts and Boroughs such as Tunbridge Wells, Ashford and Sevenoaks – are much lower. The county-wide nature of the restrictions has generated anger and bewilderment in those areas with lower rates. 

Our focus – as made clear in a statement issued today – is on getting the county out of Tier 3 as fast as possible. That is a task for us in local government (and our localised delivery of test and trace, in support of the national system, starts tomorrow) but also for all our residents. The quicker we get infection rates down, especially in the most affected parts of the county, the sooner these damaging restrictions can be lifted. I will be taking part in a press conference tomorrow afternoon with our Director of Public Health, Andrew Scott-Clark, and colleagues from Medway and from the NHS, tomorrow afternoon.