The signs for this weekend’s closure of Pilgrims Way East have been up for some days. The closure is for works both to reset the loose and damaged kerbs on the raised table near the Row Dow junction and to reset its height.
The closure will be from 8am on Saturday morning (25 November) until 6pm on Sunday. The later stages of the closure will be to allow time for the materials to cure before the road reopens.
Today at the County Councils Network annual conference, I chaired the launch session for a new report, commissioned by CCN from the ISOS partnership, on the rising costs of home to school transport, in particular for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities (SEND). The increase in costs - SEND transport costs at CCN member authorities are set to treble over the decade to 2027-28 - is one of the biggest factors threatening the financial stability of county and unitary councils.
The increase reflects the much larger number of children with Education, Health and Care Plans following reforms introduced in 2014-15, and the shift to more special school places, in many cases at greater distance from the family home. All this has taken place within the framework of a school transport system unaltered in its fundamentals from the provisions of the 1944 Education Act.
I have taken on the role of CCN’s spokesperson on children’s services, and so have been part of the report’s launch. It is a rigorous, high quality and important piece of work. Today was the official launch, but the media release was some days ago and the underlying arguments have been presented to government still earlier. Which is important, because while the report sets out proposals for longer-term reform, it also urges a short-term cash injection from government to meet the immediate pressures. We will see from tomorrow’s Autumn Statement how the government responds.
You can find more about the report and its release here.
As is quite widely known, there will be a further road closure in Pilgrims Way East over the weekend of 25 and 26 November.
The initial reason for this was for further works on the speed table near the Row Dow junction to address the drainage kerb that has come loose along with resetting some other kerbs. In addition, the issue of the height of this speed table remain to be addressed and this is being taken up by Kent Highways officers with the main contractor and sub-contractor.
These works do not affect the speed table near the Tudor Drive junction, and the closure will take effect between the Tudor Drive and Row Dow junctions. The Road Closed signs (indicating Access Only) will go up at the PWE/ Shoreham Road junction; however, residents of Tudor Drive and Tudor Crescent, as well as of properties in the affected section of PWE will have access from the Shoreham Road junction with Pilgrims Way East.
Given the amount of disruption residents in and around Pilgrims Way East have had over recent months, it is important that these works are concluded effectively. Having spoken with Kent Highways officers, I know that they are very much aware of this and are meeting with contractors to ensure this is delivered.
I will update again as soon as I have further details.
Many residents will already be aware of next week’s further closure of Pilgrims Way East.
The road will be closed from 23rd October for four days between the A225 and Row Dow.
This will be a full (24/7) closure.This is unrelated to the other recent closures and is to allow SGN to carry out works on their services. Our Streetworks team attempted to get these works carried out at the same time as the table tops were being installed, but SGN was not ready to deliver those works at that time.The works have therefore been delayed until half term week to avoid any impact on school journeys.
The closure is a full one, because PWE is a narrow road and there is no scope to carry out the works while traffic can pass safely.
Regrettably, this does mean further significant disruption to residents who have had a lot to put up with in recent months - but is within the utility’s powers as a statutory undertaker.
The utility has not provided advanced warning signs to residents as it should have. KCC officers visited the site yesterday to check this out, and have issued a fixed penalty notice as well as challenging as to whether or not a letter drop has been completed.
There has to be access for residents, given the length of closure and the number of people affected, but at certain points one way in will have to be closed as the works take place.
Quite separately, there has been an emergency closure starting today (in these cases, KCC is often informed only after the works have started) on Pilgrims Way between Cotmans Ash Lane and Heaverham Road. This is for works by South East Water, and could last for up to four days - KCC officers are seeking to get this accelerated.
A further update on the Pilgrims Way closure. SGN staff worked to identify the gas leak yesterday evening, and then were due to finish the repair this morning, followed by backfilling the area of excavation. Reinstatement of the road surface will take place tomorrow morning (Saturday 30th) and, allowing some time for the reinstatement to settle, the road should be open by the end of the day. The permit to SGN has been amended accordingly with an end date of 30 September. Hopefully that should be the end of this significant disruption to residents.
A quick note/ update on the closure in Pilgrims Way.
This is an emergency closure by the utility (SGN) to address a gas escape. This is different from a scheduled closure: in these cases the utility (statutory undertaker) does not arrange the timing with KCC and has to inform us only within two hours of starting the closure.
I contacted the relevant KCC officer, who asked SGN to work extended hours to reduce the duration of the road closure (booked as up to 8 days, but this is a maximum). The KCC area inspector attended this morning but by mid-afternoon SGN had not located the leak and so their investigation work was continuing.
KCC have made clear the importance of these works being completed as soon as possible, and I should have an update tomorrow.
More detail to follow later, but the works on Tudor Drive (and associated road closure), scheduled to start tomorrow, are postponed. This is because work by the crew on another scheme has overrun. I will add more later when I have it but I thought important to get this out as quickly as possible.
