To receive verbal updates from the Cabinet Members for Environment & Transport and Community Services and the Corporate Director for Growth, Environment & Transport on the following:
· Transport Strategy Delivery update
· Low Carbon Kent
· Major Highways Projects
· Highway Operations update
· Highways Programmed Works update
· Update on Wardens Service
Minutes:
ENVIRONMENT, PLANNING & ENFORCEMENT
TRANSPORT STRATEGY
Gatwick Airport Ltd Consultation
(1) The Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport informed Members that the second phase of the consultation by Gatwick Airport Ltd on the London Airspace Change had closed on 14 August, and that this consultation had focused on the Gatwick local area.
(2) The consultation generated a considerable amount of correspondence from members of the public in West Kent who were concerned about the proposals. KCC's response to the consultation opposed the concentration of flight paths into a single route and argued for multiple routes that would provide more respite than Gatwick Airport Ltd was proposing.
Growth without Gridlock
(3) An update on Growth without Gridlock would be presented to the Cabinet Committee early in 2015.
PLANNING
Update on the County Council’s Mineral and Waste Local Plan (MWLP)
(4) The MWLP was being prepared and this would become the County Council’s Development Plan Strategy and set out how planning applications for mineral and waste management facilities would be considered in the County until 2030.
(5) The final stage (the Submission Document) of public consultation, the statutory six-week period for representations prior to submission of the Plan to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, had closed at 5pm on Friday 12 September 2014.
(6) 167 representations had been received from 54 respondents. Responses had been received from individual local residents, district councils, parish councils, landowners, minerals and waste companies and statutory consultees. By comparison, the consultation on the pre-submission draft MWLP carried out earlier in 2014 had received 355 representations from 82 respondents.
(7) The representations would be submitted along with the Submission Document to the Secretary of State, who would appoint a Planning Inspector to hold an Examination in Public into the Plan later in the year.
HIGHWAYS, TRANSPORTATION & WASTE
Maintenance
(8) Following the award of the latest Pothole Grant district teams had been busy measuring up and committing works. There had been a varied approach across districts depending upon the highway repairs required; some had already spent their allocated funding on minor patching and pothole repairs while others had put together larger areas of resurfacing to prevent pothole formation and it was intended to deliver these works through the resurfacing contract. All funding from this grant had to be spent by 31 March 2015, it was expected this would be achieved well in advance of this date.
(9) Pothole numbers remained low and at expected levels for the time of year and repairs were able to be undertaken in the fine weather. District teams had been under some additional pressure due to overgrowth enquiries which could be time consuming. Highway safety inspections were being fully undertaken and low numbers of enquiries for insurance claim forms were being experienced.
Safe and Sensible Street Lighting
(10) KCC had been exploring the possibility of converting the entire stock of 118,000 street lights to Light Emitting Diode (LED) technology with a Central Management System at a cost of around £40m. This would reduce energy consumption and carbon emission by a further 50-60% with associated savings in respect of lantern replacement, electrical testing and maintenance.
(11) An interest free loan offer of £20m from Salix (a Government organisation, funded by the Department of Energy and Climate Change) had recently been secured and the intention was to apply for EU grant funding to cover the balance of this work. Work was being done to gain formal approval which would be followed by a programme of procurement and implementation. The conversion works were likely to take four years to complete with the earliest start date of late 2015/early 2016.
(12) The Cabinet Member had arranged to meet senior officers at the Highways Agency to discuss safety issues on the A249 Sheppey Bridge including the lack of lighting on this fast road which was in use 24 hours a day.
COMMUNITY SERVICES
Update on Wardens’ Service
(13) The Cabinet Member for Community Services reminded Members that the County Council’s budget decision in February had confirmed a reduction of the Community Warden Service funding of £1.28m. Since then, a proposal had been developed to restructure the service to meet these financial challenges and consultation was due to start on 29 September on these proposals.
(14) As much of the reduction as possible had been taken from the management and administration costs of the service and a plan had been produced for a robust warden service across the county. As part of the consultation process, parishes and communities were being asked if they would wish to buy into the warden service if this was possible. This was an option that had been suggested several times and had been trialled by Police with Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) in the past. The consultation would also ask if parishes and communities were in favour of having volunteer wardens in addition to KCC wardens which would be much the same as the volunteer constables across the Police force to reinforce the warden presence on the ground.
(15) Following the consultation a firm proposal would be reported to the Environment and Transport Committee on 5 December before the Cabinet Member took the decision.
(16) The Corporate Director for Growth, Environment and Transport gave Members a brief update on the following topics:
Energy Saving - Low Carbon Plus and Low Carbon Kent
(17) The Low Carbon Plus project had awarded £225,247 worth of grant to 20 Kent businesses, levering in £379,510 of private sector funds and creating 28 new jobs.
(18) Low Carbon Kent had recently hosted the 3rd Annual Green Business Conference in Ashford with over 150 delegates in attendance.
Warm Homes
(19) From May 2013 to March 2014 the Warm Homes project had provided more than 1,000 eligible households across Kent and Medway with fully funded energy saving improvements such as cavity wall insulation, loft insulation and heating.
Major Highways Projects - LEP Funded Schemes
(20) With the welcome announcement relating to the allocation of South East Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) funding from the Single Local Growth Fund, the following schemes were currently being prepared for progression to the next stages of delivery:
· A28 Chart Road Widening, Ashford;
· M20 J4 Eastern Overbridge Widening;
· Rathmore Road, Gravesend;
· Maidstone Gyratory; and
· Sturry Link Road, Canterbury.
(21) An update on the design and development work and current position of the first three projects listed above were subjects of reports later in the meeting’s agenda.