KCC launches community services consultation

Kent County Council has today (17 January) launched a 10 week consultation  on the future of our community services and buildings. This includes areas such as children’s centres and youth centres, adult education, some public health services and community services for adults with learning difficulties.

This reflects extensive work by KCC to model new ways to deliver these services; this will require fewer buildings, focused where they are most needed, a greater reliance on outreach and in a number of cases co-location of services. The proposals, if enacted,  would deliver - reflecting the severe financial pressures which KCC is experiencing - savings of some £6 million, though this comes after reinvestment of £4 million in improved outreach. The proposals also aim to tackle the unsustainable maintenance backlog on the KCC community estate, much of which is open for only a limited number of hours per week.

The consultation, which includes drop-in events, runs until 26 March. The details, including the link to the consultation, are set out in this KCC media release. 

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.

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.

Bus changes and consultation

Commercial bus operators - in Kent, as across the country - are carrying out reductions in services, reflecting the severe pressures faced by the sector: higher costs (notably fuel prices), labour shortages and a decline in use since the pandemic (customer journeys are still running at only about 70% of pre-pandemic levels). Many of these changes are taking place this month, others taking effect in June.

These are entirely separate from Kent County Council’s consultation on reducing support for subsidised bus routes by £2m this year (though understandably the two developments are sometimes confused). This was a proposal that we came to exceptionally reluctantly as part of a very difficult budget agreed by County Council in February. 

These are currently very much proposals, on which a full consultation has been undertaken pending any decision. There are a couple of days left in the consultation; you can find the consultation here

The main impacts of these changes in Sevenoaks North and Darent Valley are to the Arriva 477 Orpington to Bluewater service (commercial change): the service will terminate in Dartford, no longer serving Bluewater or Darent Valley hospital, while the Sunday service between Swanley and Bluewater will be withdrawn. In the case of the KCC proposals regarding subsidised bus routes, the main effect will relate to the Kent Karrier services across Sevenoaks (as elsewhere in Kent), while the S11 Wilmington to Sevenoaks Go Coach service will be withdrawn, though much of this school focused service will be taken up by related routes such as the S10, S12 and S13.

It is confusing to hear that, at the same time, Kent County Council has been awarded £35 million (over the theee years 2022-23 to 2024-25) in support of our Bus Service Improvement Plan (BSIP), drawn up as required in response to the government’s National Bus Strategy. We submitted our BSIP on time in October, and have only just had the response from the Department for Transport; we had to make other decisions in the absence of this information.

The good news is that - unlike many authorities across the country - we did receive funding. The more complicated news is that about two-thirds of the funding - £24 million - has to be committed to capital schemes, such as bus priority schemes and, in more forward-looking fashion, support for the development of initiatives such as transport integration through Mobility as a Service (MaaS). The revenue element cannot be used to sustain existing services, though it may support development of additional services after October. So, while the BSIP funding is undoubtedly good news, it does not resolve the more immediate dilemmas. We are on a tight deadline to respond to the BSIP funding package, and will announce the outcome of this as soon as possible.

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.                         

The Big Conversation: coming to the Darent Valley

Yesterday evening I attended KCC's Bus Summit at County Hall, which represented the next stage in the 'Big Conversation' on the future of rural public transport.

During the initial consultation, three main options were discussed: feeder services from more remote areas to the main bus network; a 'bookable bus' service; and a taxi-bus service, using smaller vehicles to run services. The first and third options would be timetabled; the bookable bus (which turned out to be the least popular) offered flexibility but potentially long and somewhat unpredictable journeys.

The 'Big Conversation' consultation ran through the summer, including opportunities to respond both on paper and online; a series of public and parish meetings; and deliberative meetings involving some 110 people at three venues across the County. The Sevenoaks public meeting in July, in which I took part, appears to have been one of the best-attended and effective meetings.

The next stage was the development of a series of pilot projects, and these - along with the feedback from the consultation - were reported at last nigth's meeting. Drawing on feedback received in the consultation, along with statistical information, assessments of operator capacity and the like, Kent Highways officers have come forward with five projects, three using the feeder service model and two the taxi-bus model. They are:

• Dover villages feeder bus service
• Villages South and East of Maidstone: feeder bus 
• Sevenaoks villages taxi-bus service
• Tenterden taxi-bus service
• West Malling and other villages: feeder bus service

The Sevenoaks pilot has direct implications for Sevenoaks North and Darent Valley. Starting in Fairseat and Stansted - very much outside the Division, and indeed the District - it is then proposed to run through West Kingsdown (bordering the Division), East Hill in the outer parts of Shoreham Parish, then through Otford to Sevenoaks.

The pilots should be formally approved in January 2019, to be followed by a period of mobilisation. It might have been possible to launch them in April, but with the possibility of pressures on Kent roads in the aftermath of Brexit, the launch will instead take place in June. The pilots will run for a year, after which conclusions can be drawn, and - if they prove successful - the models applied more widely.   

KCC budget consultation

Kent County Council launched recently its annual budget consultation.

We are currently putting together our budget for 2019-20. The pressures on the council - seen in still more dramatic form at many other County Councils and other parts of local government - remain intense, as government grant reduces and demand for services remains strong.

The Council is consulting on a further 5% increase in council tax, made up of the 3% 'referendum cap' (the level of increase above which a referendum would have to be called) and 2% for a 'precept' for adult social care. This remains something that the Council is very reluctant to do, but has little room for manoeuvre (it is striking that, at national level, government projections that local government will have a 'flat cash' budgetary position over the period of the Comprehensive Spending Review is predicated on local government raising the maximum amounts of council tax that it can).

With growing pressures in areas such as social care, KCC has had to realise savings of some £640 million over the last eight years. For 2019-20, the Council needs to realise a further £57 million in savings (all this on a net budget projected to be £967 million). So far some £41 million has been confirmed, leaving a gap to be filled of £16 million. There are a number of major uncertainties still to be resolved, such as the full take from council tax, the treatment of business rates and various government grants. But if other things remain equal, the Council (and those of us who serve in the Cabinet) will face some very difficult decisions.

The consultation runs until 21 November and can be found here.

KCC consultation on charging for non-household waste

KCC recently opened a consultation on charging for specific items - such as soil, rubble, hardcore and plasterboard ('non-household waste') - at its Household Waste Recycling Centres (HWRCs - the rubbish dump to most of us).

The County Council is rightly proud of its comprehensive network of 18 HWRCs and a strong recycling record. Many councils are closing Centres, and many nearby authorities are charging already for the sort of items that KCC is now consulting on. This has the result that people from outside the County come to our sites to dispose of this sort of waste for free, in particular to those sites close to the border. Thus, to take the two HWRCs that my consituents are most likely to use, 17% of visitors to Dunbrik and 10% of those to Swanley do not live in Kent.

There is no statutory obligation on KCC to take non-household waste at its HWRCs, and the aim of the initiative is to continue to provide a service for a modest charge that can help sustain the HWRC network at a time of funding pressure.

The proposal certainly has its critics, and there is an often-expressed fear that this will increase the fly-tipping that is such a bane in areas such as Sevenoaks North and Darent Valley. However, experience has suggested that a lot of fly-tipping is the result of well-organised criminal operations, often dumping waste from London.

The consultation runs until 1 November.

  

Rights of Way Improvement Plan

KCC is responsible for the management and maintenance of some 6,900km of Public Rights of Way across the County, with its huge potential for enjoyment of the countryside, support for healthy living and journeys by walking or (in many cases) cycling.

The Council is required by law to produce a Rights of Way Improvement Plan every ten years; the last such plan, for 2007-17, delivered significant improvements to the network.

Now the Council is consulting on its 2018-28 plan, focusing on a range of issues including the shape of the network, maintenance and improvements and means of ensuring high public awareness. The consultation began on 20 June and runs until 12 September. You can find it, along with a range of related materials, here and can complete an online questionnaire.

If you wish to request hard copies or alternative formats of any consultation materials, you can email alternativeformats@kent.gov.uk or call 03000 421553 (text relay service number 18001 03000 421553).

Transport 'big conversation' getting under way

The County Council's planned engagement and debate with residents - especially in rural areas - on transport issues, dubbed the 'Big Conversation', is getting under way. The aim is to engage the public, groups such as Parish Councils, and potential providers of services such as community transport, in a detailed examination of the best way in which we can provide access to transport in rural and more isolated areas.

The engagement programme will include parish seminars and 11 District-based public meetings, which will be held between 7 and 9 in the evening. The Sevenoaks meeting will be in the Stag Theatre on Wednesday 4 July. This should be an opportunity to help shape policies that will be important to many of the communities of the Darent Valley and surrounding area.

Buses and the 'Big Conversation'

Earlier in the year, I reported that KCC was reducing its planned savings from subsidsied bus services from £2 million to £455,000. This would be followed by a 'big conversation' with parish councils and other key community groups regarding the best way to deliver transport services that can tackle rural isolation.

The County Council has now confirmed that, following discussions with the bus companies (in particular, Stagecoach and Go Coach) it will propose some small changes that will convert subsidised to commercial routes, delivering the necessary savings without affecting access to services or routes to school. In the case of Go Coach, this will involve moving the 404 (Edenbridge to Sevenoaks) service from being a home to school to a commercial service, still nonetheless providing school students with a route to school.

It is anticipated that the 'big conversation' will follow in April and May, with the expectation that in June there will be a Rural Bus Summit, on the successful model of Kent Rail Summits.

KCC's Environment and Transport Cabinet Committee will debate these proposals next Tuesday, 20 March.  

Still time to respond to KCC budget consultation

With the Chancellor giving his Autumn statement next week, there is still time for residents to respond to Kent County Council's consultation on its budget for 2017-18. The consultation, launched five weeks ago, closes on 27 November.

Like many other councils, KCC has been under severe financial pressure for quite a number of years, chiefly because of sharp reductions in government grant at a time when areas such as social care for the elderly have increasing need. It is quite a thought that KCC has delivered savings of £514 million – more than half a billion pounds – since 2010.

For 2017-18, the Council faces a financial gap of £108 million. It is - reluctantly - proposing an increase in council tax of 3.99% (including a 2% ‘precept’ for social care), but even after this has to deliver savings of £80.4 million. Our consultation focuses on how to deliver this; so far around £75 million has been identified and proposed.

You can respond to the consultation here.

Budget consultation: choices for tough tines

KCC has launched a six week consultation on its 2016-17 budget. The consultation will close on 24 November, one day before the government's Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR).

The County Council has delivered huge savings - £433 million over the last five years. However, further savings of some £80 million will be needed this year, and after delivering such large-scale economies in recent years, we now face difficult choices. The precise amount of savings needed cannot be determined in advance of the CSR and the subsequent local government financial settlement, but the general scale of the challenge facing us is clear. At the same time the County Council is proposing a moderate council tax increase of 1.99%.

Rising pressures on the budget, such as the need for social care services driven by demographic change, are the biggest factor driving the need for savings. This effect is exacerbated by anticipated further reductions in government grant.

You can find the consultation, which covers the proposed council tax increase and the value that residents put on different services, here.

KCC will publish its post-consultation budget proposals on 11 January and the budget will be out to County Council on 11 February.

Street lighting consultation: give your views

KCC continues to make progress in its procurement of LED lighting for the 118,000 street lights that it is responsible for across the County. This should deliver annual savings of £5.2 million. Coupled with lower costs, the new LED lighting will bring with it a Central Management System, which will allow for greater flexibility in dimming lights and in varying times when lights are turned on and off.

This represents an opportunity to gather residents' opinions on the system of part-night lighting that was introduced in Sevenoaks District at the start of a County-wide roll-out in late 2013. The County Council therefore launched yesterday a 10-week consultation on whether residents want to continue with part-night lighting or go back to having lights on all night. The results of the consultation should allow for a varied approach across different areas. This makes sense; in many urban areas (such as Swanley within Darent Valley), residents were very concerned about street lights being turned off at night, whereas in many rural areas there may be a very different view.

The consultation runs until 29 November. You can find KCC's press release here, and the consultation itself here. I hope as many Darent Valley residents as possible take part.

Community wardens: responding to the consultation

Following the consultation on proposals to reshape the community warden service, reducing the number of wardens to 45, KCC announced last week that warden numbers would be kept at the present level of 70.

The County Council will still take half of the proposed saving of £1.3 million by reductions in management and supervisory structures, but the remaining funds will be found elsewhere within the Growth, Environment and Transport (GET) directorate.

This follows a powerful public response to the consultation, making clear how much the warden service is valued by communities across Kent. The response was particularly strong from Parish Councils; almost all of those within Darent Valley responded to the consultation.

At the start of the process, I said to Parish Councils that the consultation was for real rather than a sham process. Last week's announcement confirms that, and is good news for the wardens and for the communities they serve across the County.

KCC Budget Consultation until 28 November

KCC is consulting on its annual budget. As was the case last year, the key feature is the need to find savings as a result of declining goverment grants and increasing demand for some of our services.

Over the last three years, Kent County Council has achieved £269m in savings (this compares with a net budget of a little under £1bn). It will need to achieve a similar annual rate - some £81m - in the next financial year (2014-15). Proposals have been set out that bridge most, though not quite all, of this gap. It is clear that, with the public sector remaining under the austerity cosh for years to come as central government seeks to eliminate the budget deficit, and with local government taking its fair share and quite a lot more of the savings pain, more will need to be found (some £209m over the next three years).

The County Council aims to meet its financial pressures partly through the Facing the Challenge programme, which sees the authority as above all a commissioner of services, looking for the most efficient way for those services to be provided (whether by the council itself, by the private sector, the voluntary sector or others). In addition, it is carrying through major programmes of change ('transformation') in social services, both for adults and (more recently) children; this also links to our increasingly close relationship with the health service, in which I am deeply involved. We are proposing a small council tax increase of 1.99%. Finally, while we have successfully minimised the impact of the savings programmes on front line services, some difficult changes are being proposed, as with the consultation on community wardens.

You can find the budget consultation here; it is open until 28 November. You can answer three short questions on how you would like KCC to meet the budget challenge, or can go into more detail in setting priorities though an online budget tool. You can also find a short summary of the budget situation by KCC Leader Paul Carter and a webchat with Cabinet Member for Finance John Simmonds, which took place last Friday. Last year saw a big increase in public response to our budget consultation, and I hope that many Darent Valley residents will take part this year.  

Community Warden Service consultation

KCC has launched a consultation on the future of its Community Warden service. The wardens have been a popular and successful innovation in the parts of the county that they have served since they were introduced in 2002. Much of Darent Valley is well served by wardens, tackling low-level crime and antisocial behaviour, working with the police and other agencies and engaging with many of the most vulnerable members of local communities.

Nonetheless, there are communities that do not benefit from the warden service, while we also need to make significant savings. Our community warden service has been asked to deliver savings of nearly £1.3 million.

The consultation document proposes a reduction in management structures; among other changes, team leaders will be reduced in number from 12 to 6, with each one overseeing two Districts. Each will oversee a network of 6 or 7 wardens who will work across the area. While wardens will no longer be attached to specific parishes, parishes will still get a regular service from them, as will urban and other areas that have not so far been covered. It is proposed to reduce the number of wardens from 79 to 40. KCC is also looking at the possibility of external funding for warden posts in some areas and building up volunteer support for the wardens.

These are important proposals for a valued service. If you would like to comment on the plans, the consultation is open until 9 November. No formal decision will be taken until then. You can comment by completing an online questionnaire, or by completing a hard copy version of the questionnaire and sending it in to:

FREEPOST RTKS-UABE-USGJ
Community Warden Service
Invicta House
Maidstone
Kent
ME14 1XX

Shoreham and the Gypsy and Traveller Site Consultation

The Sevenoaks District Council consultation on proposed new Gypsy and Traveller sites closed on Friday. One of the most contentious proposals is for a 15 pitch site south of Mesne Road in Shoreham, which has been a source of major concern for local residents on grounds of unsuitability and its impact on both the village and the AONB.

I submitted my comments last week, expressing my opposition to the proposal. In part, I set out concerns shared by many about the damage done to Green Belt and AONB. However, in my role as KCC Education Cabinet Member, I also set out the problems likely to be caused to the village school. In spite of being in Special Measures, the school has been relatively well-subscribed and so the effect of a significant influx of new children in the village could well be to squeeze out others who live further away within the village or parish. You can find my comments here.

Kent Highways submitted their comments the previous week. While the submission did not sustain an objection, it incorporates two features that are very helpful to residents' case. The first is the requirement for a wide entrance to allow vehicles, some of them large, to turn in. This makes screening of the site impossible and so raises further questions about its unacceptable visual impact. Secondly, it makes clear that works would be required to deal with the steep gradient from Filston Lane up to the site. This would have clear implications for the cost of establishing the site.