Bus subsidy review - still early days

There has been a lot of concern and debate following a meeting of Kent County Council's Environment and Transport Cabinet Committee on 30 November, at which a paper on possible reductions in bus subsidies was discussed. This was followed by the release of a list of services that might be affected.

It is certainly the case that, in its budget for 2018/19 the County Council is considering reducing bus subsidies by £2 million, with a further potential reduction of £2 million in 2019/20. This is part of the savings package of around £65 million that the Council indicated in its earlier consultations would be needed to balance its finances for the coming years.

However, the list of services potentially affected gave an exaggerated picture of the possible impacts of the subsidy reductions. 97% of bus journeys in Kent are commercial, whereas just 3% are subsidised. In many cases, it may be only journeys at the extremes of the day that are subsidised, not the entire service. Furthermore, discontinuation of the subsidy will not always mean that the operator will find it necessary to cease the service.

With all those caveats, the services listed that have some presence in the Sevenoaks North and Darent Valley Division are:

404/405 - (Go Coach) - Stone Street, Bichet Green, Fawke Common, Godden Green, Seal

435 - (Go Coach) - Otford

204 -  (Autocar) - Underriver

421 - (Go Coach) - Farningham, Eynsford, Shoreham, Otford

I will be examining carefully what impact, if any, comes from proposed changes to services in the Division. Formal consultation, it is worth remembering, does not start until January.

In addition, the County Council leader, Paul Carter, has made clear that he is meeting bus company leaders to examine what impact any subsidy reductions might have, while also focusing strongly on alternative ways of tackling the undoubted issues of rural and elderly isolation, such as taxi share schemes and community minibuses. In at least some circumstances, there may well be more efficient ways in which the County Council can support transport and reduce isolation than some of the more expensive and under-used bus routes.

The debate will continue in the New Year, and very little is settled yet.

The 531 bus

Throughout the autumn and into winter, there have been persistent problems with the 531 Arriva bus serving many school children travelling between Tonbridge and parts of the Sevenoaks North and Darent Valley Division such as Seal and Kemsing. There have been a variety of difficulties, but the most common has been afternoon buses filling up at the very early stages of the journey, with many children and young people then left stranded and having to make much more difficult journeys home - or ultimately be picked up by a parent at considerable inconvenience.

I have raised these concerns with Kent Highways officers, who have in turn taken them up with Arriva. The service is a commercial bus, not one commissioned by KCC (though of\ course many of the users have the KCC-supported Young Person's Travel Pass), so this has been a process of representation and discussion rather than contracting. However, Arriva has agreed to run the afternoon 531 service some ten minutes later, with the aim of encouraging those taking short journeys to take another bus and so relieve pressure on the 531. This change was registered quickly with the Traffic Commissioner and so came into effect today. I will watch carefully to see if this proves effective in easing the problems experienced by children and parents.

Drainage works in Eynsford Road

Residents in Eynsford Road, Farningham, experienced serious flooding in the autumn, and I have since been in frequent contact with Kent Highways officers who have been looking into the problem.

The latest update from the officers is that they are focusing on the main line that runs down the grass verge and then into South Hall Close. Officers will arrange for this to be cleansed and surveyed by a CCTV crew, improving the efficiency of the system as well as identifying any defects within it. There is a manhole cover in South Hall Close which is currently jammed shut and will need to be broken out and replaced before the CCTV crew can access the chamber. There have been  some delays because South Hall Close is a private road, but the works are now set to go ahead, hopefully before Christmas (though the demands of winter gritting might get in the way). Once the manhole is released, the CCTV survey and mainline cleansing can be carried out in the New Year.

Hopefully this will offer resolution of the issue for Eynsford Road residents.

A20 Button Street barrier to be abandoned

Kent Highways have announced this morning that the experimental traffic order blocking the turn in and out of Button Street at its junction with the A20 will be abandoned. The barrier to block the turn, which was installed in early October, will be removed next week. This will involve overnight works (between the hours of 9PM and 5AM) during the nights of 8-9 and 9-10 November and will require a full road closure at that time.

This follows a series of problems with the scheme. Many local residents were concerned about possible diversion of traffic up Button Street into Swanley Village, as well as the safety of traffic going down the hill to turn at Kings roundabout at the foot of Farningham Hill. While I recognised that the scheme was a serious attempt to deal with a genuine problem (there has been a pattern of serious accidents at the Button Street junction), I shared many of these concerns. To make matters worse, contractors installed unsuitable barriers, which resulted in the need for lane closures and 40mph speed limits on the section of the A20 near the junction. These would have been lifted when new, more appropriate barriers were installed; this will now happen when the experimental traffic order is terminated next week.

None of this makes for a happy story, and it is now back to the drawing board - the problem remains, though effective and affordable solutions are not easily available. I will meet Kent Highways officers shortly to examine the options.

Crown Road lining works to start today

Today should see the start of resolving the long-running saga of the yellow lines in Crown Road Shoreham. Back in 2012 (!), lines were painted at the end of an extensive debate over the need (or not, depending on your point of view) for yellow lines in various parts of the village. In itself, this was fine; however, in part because the debate had already gone on for some time, and Highways staff had changed, the yellow lines were not painted, as agreed, in conservation area style but in standard format.

Since that time I have been seeking to get the issue rectified and at various points it seemed likely to be resolved. Part of the problem has been the cost and possible impact on the carriageway of removing the current lines. Earlier in the summer, some very welcome works were carried out to resurface Crown Road - but at that point the existing lines were repainted. In the aftermath of this, I reached agreement with our local Highways operations team that the repainting to a conservation area  primrose would take place as soon as possible.

The road is set to be closed today for up to three days for carriageway patching and lining works. Hopefully this should mean a final and satisfactory resolution to this issue.

A20 Button Street junction

The junction of Button Street with the A20 has been the scene of several serious accidents, one of them fatal, in the last few years. Many if not all of these accidents have involved vehicles making a right turn that takes them across the fast-moving traffic coming from the direction of the Swanley interchange.

Kent Highways are consequently installing (on a trial basis) a barrier to close off the central crossover and prevent right hand turns. This will be done under an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order which will operate over a six month period. Installation will require a five day programme of road and lane closures, which will start this coming Monday.

Many residents of Farningham and of Swanley Village have major concerns about this initiative, and I share these worries. Under the new arrangements, vehicles coming out of Button Street (including lorries coming from Watts Farm) and wanting to get to the Swanley interchange will have to head down the hill to Kings roundabout and then come back up. Some may seek to avoid this by more dangerous manoeuvres, and there is also the prospect of vehicles choosing to go instead through Swanley Village, which has more than its share of HGV problems.

With an Experimental Traffic Regulation Order, consultation (over a six month period) starts when the Order comes into force, so this will provide the opportunity for residents to set out concerns and objections. I will monitor these closely in the coming weeks, and continue to express my own concerns.

Latest on the pothole blitz

As I have reported before, Kent County Council's Find and Fix programme (or 'pothole blitz') for tackling potholes across the County has been running since April. So far, KCC has spent £2.7 million, patching 66,800m2 and filling an equivalent of 133,600 individual potholes on a road network of over 5,000 miles.

However, the County Council is able to spend some £5.2 million in total and the programme is continuing - weather permitting - until Christmas. Much of the remaining work and expenditure is programmed in but it is still important if you are aware of a pothole to report it via the KCC website.

The Find and Fix programme is being delivered by six local firms, each covering two Districts (for Sevenoaks and Tunbridge Wells, it is SCG Kent Ltd), who have so far delivered good quality work for the County.