On-demand bus services for Sevenoaks

Bus operator Go Coach, working with Kent County Council, will be replacing many of its services in and around Sevenoaks (including the villages of Sevenoaks North and Darent Valley) with an on-demand service. The services involved will be the 1,2,3,4,5,6 and 8. The new service, branded as go2, will operate on a three month trial.

Go had already worked on some schemes for 'demand responsive' bus services with KCC, including plans to address the replacement for the 421 in the heart of Shoreham village. The collapse in demand for bus journeys as a result of the Covid-19 crisis has accelerated the search for new approaches and new solutions. KCC worked with Go Coach and its delivery partner ViaVan to develop the scheme and has given it some start up financial support.

go2 will cover the whole of Sevenoaks District, as well as journeys to NHS centres such as Pembury hospital. Booking will be via an app, which will also enable users to track the bus's movements to assess arrival times. The service will be available from 6am to 6pm Monday to Saturday and starts on 14 April. You can find a KCC media statement about the initiative here.

Go Coach are to be congratulated on an innovative and imaginative response to current circumstances, which can offer real benefits to Sevenoaks residents.

Road improvements in Kemsing

Next week, Kent Highways should be carrying out works in St. Edith's Road, Kemsing. They have marked up three large areas: full width in the stretch from High Street to Chart View, and then two smaller areas from Chart View to Old Barn Close. These works are part of the pothole blitz, although this will be in the form of larger-scale patching.

The works are planned for two nights, starting next Monday, 23 March.

Yellow lines for Tylers Green Road

Residents of Tylers Green Road have long raised with me concerns over dangerous parking, especially at one of the main bends in the road, and asked for yellow lines to be installed. Kent Highways and Sevenoaks District Council took some persuading, but after a site visit to Crockenhill last year (addressing a range of Highways issues), they concluded that the yellow lines were needed.

After consultation (which met with no objections) Kent Highways undertook to deliver the lining and I am pleased to say that this week the lines were painted. It has taken some time, but this must bear good development for residents of Tylers Greeen Road.

Swanley Village, the M25 and much else

In the search to address the problem of flooding in Button Street, attention has been focused increasingly on the M25 bridge and runoff from it.

I took this up with Kent Highways officers, who have subsequently been in discussions with Connect Plus (who operate this part of the M25 on behalf of Highways England). There was a recognition from Connect Plus that many of the HE drainage ditches have not been maintained and are blocked or overflowing. They undertook to clear them, and extensive works on this took place a couple of weeks ago. The pictures here show some of these works and the debris that has been cleared out.

There will now be monitoring of runoff from the bridge to see the effects of this welcome work by Connect Plus. If it does not prove effective in stopping the runoff, then the drainage teams from Connect Plus and Kent Highways will meet to examine the detailed drainage structures in the area to see what more radical works need to be undertaken.

These seem to be positive developments, and came at a time when I met representatives from the Residents Association with a Kent Highways officer to review other key road and traffic issues in the village, including speeds in the centre of the village, HGVs, signage and other concerns. More to report on that soon.

A small step regarding the 421

The Go Coach 421 service to Sevenoaks was withdrawn from coming in to Shoreham late last year, following difficulties in access for buses and concerns on the part of the company about limited use of the service from the village. The nearest bus pickup was now on the A225, a cause of difficulty and concern to older village residents in particular.

Various attempts have been made to resolve the problem, and this week Go introduced a once a week shopping service, leaving the village just after 10am and returning shortly after 1230. Kent Highways officers have also sought to make residents aware of the Kent Karrier service, which can provide a cost effective alternative. In the longer term, the aim is to develop an on demand service, rather on the model of some of the Big Conversation options. These were explored as an alternative at the time of the service withdrawal, but it was not feasible at that point. The work for a longer term solution, hopefully to be in place by the early summer, continues.

More progress on Crockenhill water problems

There has been further progress in tackling the problems of water leaks and inundation of properties around Crockenhill Primary School.

The source of the water leak has now been traced, and a new water main has been supplied and connected to the existing service. In the process, a gas main was found which will need to be lowered when a new surface is laid.

These latter remedial works will be carried out in the New Year, when the contractors return to the site to commence the fencing works.

There are still a number of issues to be addressed, but it looks as though progress is now being made after a period of major disruption to both local residents and the school.

Responding to flooding

The heavy rainfall of the last couple of days, coming on top of a long period of wet weather, has triggered some 11 flood alerts across Kent. Kent County Council and its partners activated the County Emergency Centre (emergency planning is an area on which I was briefed extensively after becoming Leader of the Council) and has sought to respond to problems wherever they have arisen.

Some of the most severe pressures have been seen in and around Yalding, Culverstone, Boughton Monchelsea, the River Eden near Edenbridge, Marden and . In the Darent Valley, perhaps the most visible impact has been the overflowing of the Darent and the consequent closure of Riverside in Eynsford. That said, a number of rural roads have also been affected, as have long-standing problem areas such as the lowest-lying houses in Eynsford Road, Farningham, where work continues to find a solution.

For the present, the rainfall and consequent problems appear to be easing. However, with the prospect of wetter winters and a lot of this winter still to go, these issues are not going away. KCC and its partners have honed their responses since the severe impacts over the winter of 2013-14, and we are committing both funds and intense political attention to drainage and flood management, but there is a lot more to be done.