Minutes:
1) Mr Baker said, despite the continuing unsettled weather creating high demand on the service, continued progress was being made by officers to keep the highways safe. This included KCC’s highways team being on course to complete its £37.5 million planned road and pavement maintenance programme for 2023/24. By the end of March, 1,250,000m2 of Kent’s roads will have been resurfaced and 90,000m2 of its pavements during 2023/24. This programme was preventing potholes and other surface defects appearing in the first place, keeping the highways safe.
The Pothole Blitz programme had commenced and was to run through the year into the autumn, making best use of the fine weather. £8 million of additional Department for Transport (DfT) grant funding was to be put to good use to repair Kent’s roads.
Work was to start on a major project to reconstruct a section of the A299 Thanet Way at Whitstable to permanently resolve undulations that regularly occur. These works were funded by £4 million of the DfT’s Challenge Fund which KCC successfully bid for, together with an allocation of about £420,000 from KCC’s own road maintenance budget. It was expected that works would be completed by 20 July. Once this essential maintenance was completed, Mr Baker was confident there would be a noticeable difference in the quality of the surface, which would be welcomed by all road users.
The safety of road users was an important priority and in the Members’ newsletter were details of recent schemes including Wrotham Road, A225, Shoreham Road, Oakfield Lane, Beaver Lane, Margate Road in Herne Bay, A2990 Old Thanet Way and at Lower Halstow.
Officers and members of the Active Travel working group (cross party) met in Hythe on 27 February to look at some of the local issues and opportunities for Active Travel. There was an excellent presentation by Sustrans. It was hoped that these sessions could be repeated in other areas of Kent.
The Bikeability team had secured additional funding to support and enhance KCC’s offer in this area. Cycle training was offered to almost 9,000 children each year.
There was good news when the Secretary of State for Transport announced, in a parliamentary debate, that he had approved funding for recommended schemes put forward by Kent County Council to Active Travel England. Whilst no specific schemes were named, KCC’s bid for £1.2m for funding of the Aylesford Towpath was looking favourable. Any announcement in this regard was subject to a media embargo.
The Public Transport and Fastrack Team had awarded a new bus electrification infrastructure contract to VEV. The contract covers the electric fleets for both Kent Thameside and Dover. The mobilisation of the project was underway and the three sites for the chargers were to be at Dartford Acacia Hall, Gravesend Bus Hub, and Dover Priory Station respectively and were to all be live by March 2025.
The Member Task and Finish Group steering the development of the new Local Transport Plan had met twice in 2024. Following the public consultation on the emerging plan last year, a full plan was being drafted. Engagement with district and borough councils at officer level was also underway and a full draft new Local Transport Plan was to be going back out to public consultation in summer 2024. All KCC Members were to be briefed in advance of this with the opportunity to influence the plan before the County Council vote on its adoption later in the year.
The newsletter detailed the engagement to date on the new Highways Term Maintenance Contract. Invitations had been issued for a second Environment and Transport Cabinet Committee Member meeting on 26 April.
2) Mr Thomas said he would continue to send the newsletter out in advance of meetings of Environment and Transport Cabinet Committee.
Contamination of waste had continued to be a problem and recycling weights in Kent needed to go up. The cost from contamination was high and so work was ongoing to make improvements across the county.
The data from the Windmills Consultation was to be presented at the next meeting of Environment and Transport Cabinet Committee.
Mr Thomas had been spending time with officers and he was looking forward to working with colleagues and in the community in his new role as Cabinet Member.
3) Mr Jones said there were four road inspectors appointed and they were receiving training. In addition to statutory inspections carried out they also carried out additional activity to consider;
· If the road is closed whether other forms of traffic management could have been utilised;
· Is the road closed but there is no work started;
· Is the work completed but the road is still closed;
· Is the road signage correct;
· Is the site safe; and
· Whether the diversion for the closure was suitable?
59 audits had been completed. It was found that three of the 59 closures could have had alternative traffic management options, three were closed but the work had not been started, three had been completed but were still closed, four had incorrect signage, five were unsafe of which three were KCC's own sites and all of the diversions were suitable for the road closure. Around 30% or 18 of these audits raised concerns and information about further work on these would be brought to a future meeting.
Women and young people were being encouraged to become engineers and 2024 saw the 9th year of the Challenge Cup sponsored by AMEY which sought to encourage girls into engineering. The latest event was to design and cost a replacement bridge and was held on 25 January and involved 14 schools.
Officers also attended a recruitment fair at East Kent College on 30 January where they spoke to many young people about careers in engineering and in KCC.
Work on Galley Hill continued and while legal issues were still being resolved, a contractor was in place for the stabilisation and investigation works.
The Road of Remembrance in Folkestone & Hythe remained closed and further land slips had occurred in recent weeks. Clearance work continued and the road was only be re-opened when it was safe enough.
On Lower Thames Crossing, KCC had sealed a legal agreement with National Highways to secure financial compensation for the potential loss of revenue at Shorne Woods Country Park as a result of the Lower Thames Crossing’s six-year construction period. Further updates on the Lower Thames Crossing Development Consent Order application were not expected until June 2024 at the earliest after the Secretary of State had considered the Planning Inspectors’ recommendation.
The examination of the Development Consent Order Application by Gatwick Airport for routine use of its standby northern runway commenced on 27 February and was to last for six months until the end of August. KCC was opposed to the expansion of Gatwick as set out in our policy on Gatwick Airport which had been in place for nearly 10 years following its adoption by Cabinet in December 2014.
This opposition was based on the noise impacts in west Kent being made worse by an increase in flights.
In addition, the DfT had launched a consultation on the next night flight regime for Heathrow, Gatwick, and Stansted (effective from October 2025 until October 2028). The consultation was to run until 22 May 2024 and sought views on proposals for movement and quota count limits for Gatwick Airport to maintain the same level of night flights as they were permitted in 2024. KCC’s Transport Strategy team were to prepare a response to the consultation and Members would be contacted for their input.
In February 2024, Mr Jones joined 36 GET and Medway Valley Thursday Action Group volunteers at Boxley Farm cluster where they planted over 1,400 hedges in one day, helping to create a new 250m biodiverse native hedgerow.
A special thanks was given to Andrea Griffith for organising the day and Kent Downs National Landscapes who provided the funding.
4) Further to comments from Members, it was noted that:
· The assessment and risk profile on all the highway assets was an ongoing issue for KCC. The road and off-road network had been affected by weather conditions.
· There was discussion around Members receiving notifications on all road closures. Concerns were raised that there were cases where works had been completed but the road was still closed.
· Members were able to use a platform called One Network and sign up for alerts on road closures. It was proposed that Members be trained on how to use the platform.