Minutes:
1) Mr Baker said the processing and issuing of Kent Travel Saver passes had gone very well. The number of students applying for passes was similar to previous years despite the increase in cost to the user. Additional communications had been shared with schools and students on how to prepare for travel and giving details, where available, of alternative bus routes if a student misses their intended bus. Whilst all passes issued to schools’ operators had been instructed to give a two-week grace period to allow students to travel whilst schools were distributing passes which did not always happen on day one.
Mr Baker attended a Parliamentary reception on 5 September organised by Julia Lopez, MP for Hornchurch and Upminster, Jim Dickinson, MP for Dartford, Logistics UK and National Highways to promote the importance to government on making a decision to proceed with the new Lower Thames Crossing. The Secretary of State was due to make a decision on the Development Consent Order on 4 October. National Highways were running a series of public engagement events across Dartford and Gravesham between 20 September and 1 October to update the public on the progress of the scheme.
Mr Baker also attended a site visit at Galley Hill on 11 September, joining the local MPs for Dartford and Gravesham and the Minister of Future roads, Lilian Greenwood. Mr Baker highlighted the need for urgent government support to enable this major road to be reopened. On the day of the visit, Swanscombe High Street was also closed for repairs necessitated by the discovery of voids and a large washout area caused by further Thames Water leaks. Whilst Galley Hill remains closed, the High Street was a key access route for the community so the Minister was able to see for herself the huge impact on residents and road users due to the Galley Hill collapse.
The public consultation on Local Transport Plan 5 (LTP5) continued until 8 October and Members were asked to encourage their constituents, district/borough councils, parish/town councils and other organisations to respond so that their views could be taken into account in the draft document that was to be brought back to full Council for adoption. Public exhibitions in town and village halls, libraries, gateways and shopping centres across the county had taken place and were to continue over the remaining weeks until early October. All Joint Transportation Advisory Boards had been sent a report on the LTP5 consultation, and where requested, officers were attending virtually. Briefings had also been offered to all district and borough councils. It was important to get KCC’s transport priorities right in the statutory plan so that KCC could engage with the new government on how these essential schemes could be funded and delivered, hence the importance of this consultation.
The Examination of the Development Consent Order (DCO) for Gatwick’s Northern Runway to enable two runway operations, concluded on 27 August. The Examining Authority were to provide a recommendation report to the Secretary of State by 27 November and a decision on whether to grant consent was due to be taken by 27 February 2025. KCC remained opposed to the application throughout the Examination due to the detrimental noise impacts in the west of the county and a lack of evidenced direct economic benefit to Kent.
KCC had produced an updated five year forward works programme covering planned works for most asset groups from 2024-25 to 2028-9, and all of the asset managers and their team members who had contributed were thanked. The programme had been published on the KCC website. It was a dynamic programme and subject to regular review so schemes could be changed or new schemes added during the year.
The Active Travel Interventions team held a popular engagement session with staff offering adult bicycle training, bespoke route planning and a ‘Dr Bike’ for ad-hoc repairs.
KCC also used the Swale Recycle Project to provide refurbished bicycles (refurbished by HMP Swaleside inmates) for staff. KCC were looking to do this at more large employers’ sites in the future.
KCC’s Capability Fund rating moved from 1 to 2. The capability ratings were used to calculate funding allocations to boost technical capability to deliver high quality schemes. Higher rated authorities were eligible to access more funding, ensuring that investment was appropriate to the level of capability.
2) Mr Hills, Deputy Cabinet Member for Environment gave an update on Mr Thomas’s behalf. It was announced that after many years of dedication and hard work by the team, the new Sevenoaks Waste Transfer Station(WTS) was operational. The team held a launch event on 4 September 2024 with KCC’s Chairman, Bryan Sweetland cutting the ribbon to commemorate the special occasion. Work started on the build in July 2023, with development secured through a new leasing arrangement with Darenth River Ballast Company. The new site replaced the old Waste Transfer Station building and was five times bigger. It was designed to enable the recycling of more waste streams collected kerbside by Sevenoaks District Council, and to accommodate government’s future legislative requirements, including the collection of food waste. The Waste Transfer Station could take 60,500 tonnes of waste per year, boasts two weighbridges, and state of the art fire prevention and odour suppression systems. Trees and wildflowers had been planted along the riverbank next to the site. The site was also taking trade waste from local businesses.
Trade waste services had been re-introduced at the Dover facility to meet the growing needs of the commercial sector in the locality. Extensive planning and modifications were required at the site to enable the service to be offered by FCC Environment under contract to KCC. Materials that were to be accepted included bulky waste, green, paper and card and wood to be phased in at a later date.
There were further developments around the reuse offering at the
Household Waste Recycling Centres. Following the success of the
previous year’s re-use pop up shops at a number of the HWRCs
and in response to customer feedback, the team worked with the
Provider FCC Environment to host pop up shops at Dover and
Allington HWRCs in August and September 2024. Visitors to the HWRCs
were pleased to see KCC promoting the reuse of goods and were
thrilled to grab a bargain from the selection of high-quality items
on offer. These popular events were a fantastic way to re-home
pre-loved goods such as toys, electricals, homeware, garden and
bric-a-brac items, which were all sourced from the onsite reuse
containers. The pop-up shop at Allington HWRC comes ahead of the
permanent reuse shop at the site, for which planning permission had
been submitted, with the hope to open the shop by the end of the
financial year. Together with the Resource Management and Circular
Economy team, FCC Environment were leading on the procurement to
find a Kent charity to run the shop in a partnership approach.
The Low Carbon Kent team took their next cohort of 12 learners through the Institute of Environmental Management and Assessment (known as IEMA) workforce and manager courses. Joining them were representatives from 10 different KCC teams, all keen to see how positive improvements could be made across the council. KCC's status as an accredited training centre was allowing the team to fully engage our partners and supply chains in sustainability skills and practical case studies. This was delivering co-benefits aplenty as we seek to embed better ways of working and justify the changes we all need to make both from the bottom up and top down of our organisations.
3) Following Mr Hill’s update, Members asked questions and it was noted that:
· Districts made their own decisions about food waste but this was due to change, making it compulsory for district councils to do separate food waste collections.
4) Mr Jones said that the works to repair and refurbish the existing fans in Chestfield Tunnel were progressing. It was expected that this work would be completed by end of October. After testing and installation, the contraflow would be removed.
New fans for the tunnel were to be delivered when the new ventilation system is designed and procured in the 25/26 financial year, however this was subject to a key decision. The new ventilation system was to be installed in both tunnels.
Building on the Galley Hill update provided by Mr Baker, KCC’s contractor had completed their investigation work and KCC was waiting for the report which it was hoped would identify the cause of the collapse. Consultants had been appointed to undertake a costed options analysis to provide to the Department for Transport (DfT). The report would show what needed to be done to reopen the road and the costs.
Work had continued with specialists to identify a solution to stabilise the bank on Road of Remembrance. The ground investigations work started on 9 September and are due to be completed 30 September. Once the investigations were completed, the data would give KCC the information required to begin the design which scoping work was being undertaken. KCC could not commit to an opening date until the design had been prepared.
Network Rail had informed KCC that they had been unable to complete essential repairs of the Kingsferry Bridge during the previous closure and required a further closure from Friday, 25 October until Sunday, 3 November. This had been scheduled during school half term in order to minimise disruption. There continued to be discussions about how to further minimise disruption, including looking at free recovery based on site, what other local highways activities could be stood down and how the Grovehurst scheme could be moved forward.
As reported at the recent All Member Briefing the latest implementation date for the Entry Exit System (EES) was 10 November. In response to concerns regarding long queues affecting tourist travel, the DfT was developing options for a couple of sites that could be available to hold tourists off the road network until the time for them to travel to the Port. The sites, and use of them had not been confirmed by Ministers. The Port of Dover and Eurotunnel were working hard to be ready for implementation.
It was reported that as of 3 September; KCC’s contractors had delivered 208,849 square meterage of patching and filled 5,326. Work was to continue to be delivered into mid-October.
An application for planning permission had been submitted for a new transfer station to serve Folkestone and Hythe. The district council took the collected waste into Ashford Waste Transfer Station, along with Ashford Borough Council. As a result of housing growth including the Otterpool development and future legislative requirements, transfer station infrastructure was needed to serve the area to ensure sustainable waste disposal.
Since last year, the team had been avidly collecting mobility aid equipment at four of the HWRCs in Swanley, Dover, Allington and Tunbridge Wells. This was an ongoing partnership project between the Resource Management and Circular Economy team, Adult Social Care and Health teams along with the NHS and NRS Healthcare. Equipment such as crutches, wheelchairs, grab rails and rollators were placed in dedicated containers at the HWRCs and then repaired, if required, and cleaned before being reused in local communities. The project had proved to be such a success that it was being expanded to include Pepperhill and New Romney HWRCs.
The ‘Nothing Wasted’ recycling campaign had launched to
encourage residents to recycle as much as possible at HWRCs. There
was plenty of content on thee Greener Kent Facebook page and there
was a campaign on local radio and on the back of buses. The
Engagement and Behaviour Change team had spent time at various
HWRCs to create a positive campaign that put site staff and
residents at the fore, sharing all the good practice seen to model
and normalise recycling and reuse. Contractors were out with
engagement stands on sites over the summer to continue having
valuable conversations and changing behaviours on site. Many people
had actively approached staff to ask if they could recycle anything
more from their mixed bags of waste, rather than just taking them
to the bays destined for incineration.
5) Further to questions from Members, it was noted that:
· Subject to the report received about the propagation of the defect on Galley Hill, Members were assured that the subsequent solution would be safe, viable and consider the long term use of the road.
· District and borough councils would need to be collecting paper and card, plastics, glass, metal, food waste and garden waste at kerbside by 31 March 2026. The development of the Sevenoaks Transfer Station was to get ahead of that date - with the amount that would be recycled countywide increasing and the amount being incinerated going down.
· There would not be requirements around how district and boroughs containerised waste, but food caddies would be separate. However, how KCC was able to process the waste collected by the district and borough was affected by how it was containerised.
· There were challenges around making HWRC accessible to pedestrians, particularly as all the sites were different.