Agenda item

Mr N Baker (Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport), Ms H Chughtai (Director of Highways and Transportation), and Mr S Jones (Corporate Director for Growth, Environment and Transport) were in attendance for this item.

1. Mr Baker introduced the report and explained that Joint Transportation Boards (JTBs) were not currently working to the best of their ability, and KCC wished to consider the system to ensure a good relationship between boroughs, districts and KCC continued. 

2. Members asked the following questions and made comments to Mr Baker:

a)    A Member raised concerns regarding the attendance of KCC officers at JTBs, as their attendance had reduced over recent years which made it difficult to share views and reduced the opportunity for engagement and discussion. A Member asked if KCC officers could attend evening JTB meetings?

b)    Members highlighted the disparate amount of time that JTB meetings lasted, as some JTBs were often cancelled or lasted only a few minutes, compared to JTBs elsewhere in the county that could last for many hours.

c)    A number of Members felt that the items contained within JTB agendas were not very focussed, and often one agenda could contain items regarding multimillion-pound motorways as well as more parochial issues such as dropped kerbs and yellow lines.

d)    A Member suggested introducing local area committees where a number of boroughs could meet to deal with more parochial issues.

e)    The Chairman highlighted the issues with financing JTBs as they could take a lot of officer time and energy, which was not always necessary or appropriate.

f)     A Member highlighted that JTBs were not decision-making and were advisory boards, and this could present problems when issues arose.

g)    A Member raised concerns regarding the lack of communication between JTBs and KCC, as information was not currently shared effectively, for example the minutes from JTBs were not shared with the KCC Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport.

h)    A number of Members felt that residents were not involved in the JTB process, as JTB minutes were not communicated to residents, and members of the public were not always invited to attend hybrid or virtual JTB meetings.

i)     A Member suggested that all JTB meetings be moved to the evening to improve attendance, and be simplified to ensure their effectiveness.

j)     Members agreed that a Working Group was necessary to discuss if/how JTBs could be improved, or if they needed to be replaced with a different mechanism.

k)    A Member raised a number of concerns as not all boroughs had signed up to the JTB process, which made it difficult to coordinate. They also felt that JTB Chairs had too much power over the Work Programme and agenda setting. They felt that communication needed to be improved between officers, KCC Members, and district and borough councils. The Member highlighted that only some members on the JTB, such as borough or parish councillors could send substitutes, whilst KCC Members could not, which did not appear to be a fair process. Other governance issues were raised such as which constitution should be used for the meetings (either the KCC constitution or the borough constitution), and issues with the clarity of the petition scheme. The Member felt that JTBs should form part of the wider governance review.

l)     A Member highlighted 7.1.3 of the report and agree that a Working Group be established to review JTBs and should include the Kent Association of Local Councils as they could provide support.

RESOLVED: That the Committee recommend to the Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport the abolition of Joint Transportation Boards and that they set up a Task and Finish Group, working with the Kent Association of Local Councils, to establish a mechanism for Districts and Boroughs to consult with the County Council on highways and transport matters.