Shoreham: The Mary Inniss Pavilion

Saturday saw the Shoreham Village Fete, and I was delighted to be asked to open the Mary Inniss Pavilion attached to Shoreham Village School.

The previous, more modest facilities suffered a fire some years ago. Mary Inniss, the long-serving Chair of Governors at the School (to whom I paid a tribute after her death in 2012), was committed to ensuring a new Pavilion for the use of both the school and community.

The project proved to be a long-running one but has now been delivered. A number of Heads and Governors at the School have given the project their support. Funding came from Corey Environmental Trust, a significant bequest from Mary's estate, from my Member Community Grant (as it then was) and other local KCC grants which I persuaded my colleagues to support. I also worked with KCC's legal team to ensure that all the necessary legal work was completed to deliver the project.

On Saturday I opened the Pavilion in the company of Richard, Mary's husband, and Gillian Lovatt-Young, who has driven such remarkable progress at the Village School. Given Mary's commitment to the School and to Shoreham, it is entirely appropriate that the Pavilion bears her name.

Pothole blitz to be launched in June

KCC will launch its annual pothole blitz in mid-June, it was announced yesterday. Some £3 million in funding, which includes £1.4 million received recently from central government, will be deployed. The work will be done on a District by District basis, and work will also be carried out on lines and verges.

This acceleration of our normal work in tackling potholes comes a little later in the year than usual - typically it starts in the spring - reflecting the later than usual release of government funding. However, it should now gather pace quickly, and residents are encouraged to report potholes via the Highways section of the KCC website. This should ensure the most timely response.

Street lining in Swanley Village

One issue that Swanley Village Residents' Association have raised with me has been the condition of much of the lining and road markings in the village. The centre line in Highlands Hill has been a particular concern. 

I secured with a payment from my Combined Member Grant the services of a lining team for a morning in the village. The team arrived promptly at 9 one day a couple of weeks ago, met the Residents' Association chairman (who had volunteered to oversee the work) and worked through until around noon. All the junctions on Swanley Village Road done - School Lane, Beechenlea Lane, Button Street and Wood Street - were painted, plus the centre line at the bottom of Highlands Hill and the two SLOW signs near Elizabethan Cottage. It looks a big improvement.

Action on A225 flooding

As I reported in an earlier post, Kent Highways officers have been working for some time to resolve the severe flooding by the railway bridge on the A225 between Shoreham and Eynsford, close to Preston Hill. Following various surveys, in late January and early February a number of drainage systems near the road (gullies, a catch pit and a soakaway) were identified, dug out and cleansed.

Since these works were carried out, there has been only one significant flooding incident, suggesting that this had at least some effect. However, further improvements are now being undertaken (hence the traffic lights that you may have seen on the road in the last few days). A new soakaway is being installed and the ditch immediately behind it is being cleared of debris. Further works may be investigated in the longer term, but this should in any case deliver improvements and greater safety on the road.

More resurfacing in Eynsford

The A225 running through Eynsford has already seen two significant road resurfacings over the last eighteen months or so: the first (in September 2014) ran from the Baptist Church in the High Street northwards to the junction with Mill Lane; the second (in October 2015) from the end point of the first works up towards Farningham and the junction with Beesfield Lane.

Next week will see resurfacing further south on the A225: from the point at which Station Road becomes High Street to the junction with Bower Lane.  The works will be carried out overnight (between 10pm and 5am) on two consecutive nights, starting on 28 April.

Unlike last year's works, this project was not initiated by a bid from our local Highways team (though they are certainly supportive of it) but rather as a result of what is called the 'gateway survey'. KCC carries out regular inspections of the county's roads, and as part of this process all roads in the county are inspected annually to determine their condition and priority for resurfacing. This is undertaken through both mechanical and visual inspections. It was this survey that identified this section of the A225 as a resurfacing priority. We should therefore see a third enhancement to the main route through Eynsford.

Flooding in Eynsford

Flooding in Eynsford High Street near Gibson's Place and the bus stop has been a serious problem for a number of years. It has caused significant difficulties for local residents and businesses, such as Norman's the Butchers. I have at a number of points worked with Kent Highways officers to seek both a diagnosis of the problem and ultimately a solution.

A CCTV survey of the area was carried out last year, and it identified that the outfall (ultimately going into the River Darent), which is linked to the foundations of Gibson's Place, is damaged. Officers have been in touch with the landowner, Apex Eynsford Management, to agree solutions.

The current proposal is to put in an extra catch pit in the area by the lay by, and then connect this to an existing chamber. From there it will connect to and discharge into the river. I understand that KCC's drainage engineer for the area will be meeting contractors to discuss the project early next week. At this point there is neither full confirmation of the project (which would require significant traffic management), nor a date, but there is at least some prospect of tackling this long-standing problem.

Something a bit different ... Government academy plans

By and large, I have kept this blog pretty local - I have occasionally touched on wider Kent issues, including aspects of my work in education, health and (earlier) broadband, but the main focus has remained on Darent Valley matters.

This morning I'll make a bit of an exception, though. The government's plans in a recently published White Paper to require every school in the country to become an academy by 2020-22 have stirred a lot of concern and opposition. As widely reported in the media - including the Daily Mail, the BBC and the Guardian - that opposition has included many Conservatives, especially those in local government.  In my role as Cabinet Member for Education at KCC, I was one of those who expressed concern.

The result was that I had a rather busier than expected Easter weekend, with two national TV interviews, and I was then invited by the website Conservative Home to set out my thoughts on why the government's plans are flawed.

You can find the article here. As you will see, I am far from hostile to academies, and the thinking behind many of the academy freedoms. But I do object to compulsion and the imposition of a uniform model on schools. There are also big questions - currently unanswered - as to how the capacity for a large number of Multi-Academy Trusts, able and willing to take the huge number of (chiefly) primary schools across the country who have not yet shown any wish to convert to academy status, will be brought into being. In Darent Valley, we have seven primary schools, none of which is currently an academy - and all of which would be required to convert under these plans, whatever their wishes.