Highways Schemes- Presentation by Mr Ray Dines, Transport and Development Manager - Kent Thameside, Kent Highways Services will give a brief overview of Highways projects and developments schemes.
Minutes:
Following this the following questions and
issues were raised with Ray Dines
- The road in front of
Gravesham Court in Westcourt
area. Can the road be repaired before
someone has an accident?
- Annual budget of
£10m spend across 12 districts in Kent. How is it spent?
- It is spent according
to the agreed objectives. Schemes are
developed and then go to the scoring system to see how it scores
across those objectives. A scheme that saves more casualties will
score higher than one with none or fewer.
- We should try to
prevent accidents before someone is killed?
- We have to tackle
those on the sites where accidents happen first. We do look in terms of accessibility. May score in other areas.
- How much of the
£10m is ring-fenced by government?
- It is down to county
members to look at the list and decide based on our assessment as
to which schemes go ahead. Government
do not dictate to us which schemes we do. However, if we spend a lot of money on schemes
that do not fit their objectives the grant may be reduced the
following year.
Q.
All Saints Road and road next to it – cars parked on both
sides of narrow roads making it difficult for buses. Wouldn’t it be more sensible to have one way
roads?
R.
One way streets do increase traffic speed. We have to look at what the difficulties of doing
it are. If there is a safety risk we
will consider it.
- Public transport in
the Woodlands area – 308 and 455 are very old buses with
steps up and majority of people are elderly. ARRIVA have said they cannot afford to replace
with new buses as they do not make money from the
elderly. Spoke to MP Adam Holloway who
said it will improve but it hasn’t been
forthcoming. They promised that when
other areas got new buses we would get more modern ones but they
have gone back on their word. We get
one bus an hour and services are often cut because buses break down
and go in for repair.
- In general terms
services are improving in the Kent Thameside area. If we
are going to continue to get movement it is essential that we have
a better transport system and the assumptions are people will
travel more on public transport in the future. We are working with the operators to improve the
services. Ray Dines will take this back
to the transport people and get comment.
- Springhead Road
junction with Hall Road development scheme – will it be done
this year?
- It is not a short
term scheme. It is funded by the
development across Kent Thameside. Trying to
get partnership agreement signed so we can start the process
rolling. Districts are collecting money
from the tariffs but until the government put their share into the
scheme we are unable to develop some of the larger strategic
schemes. We want to start it as soon as
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