Minutes:
Mr Neil Baker, Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport and Mr Robert Thomas, Cabinet Member for Environment, presented their updates.
1. KCC had been awarded in December 2024 just under £1.9 million of active travel fund tranche 5 funding. (£1.67 for capital and £215,000 for revenue). This funding would support new construction aspects such as less complex high impact schemes and the retrofitting of routes to existing housing developments.
a) It was noted that change control funding had been used to unblock existing schemes to secure delivery, deliver essential maintenance and to address safety or accessibility concerns on existing routes to a maximum of overall budget. These funds would also aid in the early development of future active travel schemes. Individual schemes had been identified and would be required to be submitted to Active Travel England (ATE) for assurance by the end of March 2025.
2. KCC had also been awarded a Consolidated Active Travel fund of £5.78 million (£4.45 m for capital and £1.3m for revenue). This revenue funding would support network planning, community engagement and identified training activities. The fund would be a combination of the Active Travel Fund and Capability Fund for the 2025/26 financial year. Work to identify named schemes in combination with the AFT5 programme would begin shortly.
3. £35.1m of BSIP funding would be used to support public transport initiatives. Aspects such as school routes that had the withdrawal of commercial operators would be reviewed. Funding would also be used to support and assist families with the Kent Travel Saver allowing the cost to remain supressed. Three major bus priority schemes in Rennie Drive in Dartford, Pencaster Road in Dover and the Thanet LOOP Superbus scheme had now been delivered or was nearing completion.
4. The latest bus grant funding offer from the government was £11.9million in capital and 9.9 million in revenue. This funding was essential in supporting 60 services that may otherwise face commercial withdrawal. The public team had worked through the enhanced partnership meetings and aimed to agree a delivery plan that would be submitted to Government by the end of March 2025.
5. In May 2024 the proposed procurement for the next road asset renewal contract was discussed. This had been awarded to GW Highways LTD. Work would commence in April and award approximately £20 million per year in road renewal and construction works. The key focus during procurement was to ensure that the very best value for money whilst retaining a high-performance expectation of the service remained. Competitive prices for the next 5-10 years had been secured and included an embedded carbon reduction framework; this would include an annual performance assessment of the carbon emissions throughout the lifecycle of the contract.
6.Last year the earth bank behind the road of remembrance (Folkestone) collapsed. Highway Officers had been working on design works to stabilise the bank to enable the road to reopen. The design for stabilisation had neared finalisation and would undergo several more technical and verification checks. Legal matters had also progressed, with preparatory work anticipated tobe completed in the coming months. Once complete, considerations on how and when the stabilisation works would begin.
7.The 4G upgrade of the street lighting central management system was now back on track after some initial issues. The upgrade had expected to be completed by July 2025. Planned work performance was an issue throughout 2024 but after some assurances and two risk reduction meetings, plans to improve the service were now underway. April 2025 would also see an increase in resources to aid in the targeted improved performance.
8.The procurement of the Highway Term Maintenance contract (HTMC) had progressed well. It was added that progress was currently at the submission of the Initial Tender stage (ISIT). The four remaining bidders had until the 24th of February to submit their tenders. The project team and Highway Officers would complete a thorough moderation and evaluation process led by KCC’s Corporate Commissioning Team. This process was due to be completed by the 25th of March to determine the three successful bidders. Those three successful bidders would then be invited to submit a further detailed tender which would include pricing schedules by the 2nd of June 2025. Feedback would be provided to the bidders before submission of the final tender on the 25th of July. Current progress is on track to sign the contract with the successful bidder to be in place by the 7th of November.
9.A paper was submitted to the transport select committee highlighting the increased disruption from street works. Keys areas of recommendations included:
· Amending the legislative definition of emergency works.
· Promoting technology to reduce the length of time roads were occupied.
It was also recommended that a study should be undertaken on the economic and societal impact of street works by all promoters to assess the economic benefit of minimising the duration of roadworks. Evidence had been accepted and was published on the committee’s website. An invitation to an oral evidence session on the 19th of March had been received.
10.Street works continued to be busy with the demand on road space having increased. Water companies were now entering into the new asset management planning period phase when additional funding would be released. Southeast Water had advised that extensive main laying schemes over the next five years would take place throughout Kent. Coupled with the Government’s drive for house building, it was highlighted that the demand on street works would not lessen.
11. A recent success story associated with the works completed on Gloucester Avenue in Margate. There had been a co delivery scheme between KCC Highway Drainage Team and Southern Water who had provided funding. The pathfinder project would aim to reduce the rate and volume of run-off from the road and alleviate the stress on pumping stations. Roadside swales and tree pits would be installed to manage rainwater sustainably. Landscaping would also take place to improve the street scene. This work was currently underway andwas due to be completed by the end of March.
12.KCC had made a written submission response to the Department for Transport’s call for ideas for the new integrated National Transport Strategy. Inputs received from the Members briefing sessions held on the 8th of January assisted in formulating a response. KCC submissions included suggestions on integrated transport, improving coordination, concise decision making, better utilisation of data and leveraging new technologies to enhance journeys. It was discussed that there was an anticipation that the Government would use the provided evidence to draft a strategy that could require further consultation later in the year.
13. Officers highlighted KCCs role of coordinating the works currently in place. Many works currently undertaken were not KCC specific. Legally KCC could not prevent utilities from accessing their assets that they had a statutory requirement to maintain. It was noted that the larger numbers of utilities companies present in Kent with 29% of 50% completing works currently under the emergency process with KCC only being informed of works beginning commencement two hours prior to the start of the required works.
14. Officers responded to questioning regarding an update on Galley Hill. Mr Baker noted the query and would circulate a written update on Galley Hill after the conclusion of the meeting.
15. Members highlighted the need for an improved cycle adjacent to the main road of the B245. The subject had been raised at the Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council meeting. The matter had also been raised to the Joint Transport Board.
16. Members queried if the Government would be responsive to lobbying for an increase in average fines of utility companies. An increase in fines was due to be implemented in the Summer.
17. The Chair raised the recommendation that any disruption to the community due to roadworks should seek consultation with the locally elected representative for the impacted area. Officers noted that legally the responsibility would fall with the works undertaker.
18.It was announced that KCC, nominated by SAS Energy had won the regional council local authority body of the year award at the energy efficiency awards. In addition, KCC had been recertified for its ISO 14001 Environmental Management Accreditation.
19. Progress on rounds three and four of the local authority treescape fund had continued. Planting efforts progressed with 17 KCC staff members,12 corporate volunteers and 85 students from Cobham Primary School all completed a 1,500-whip site at West Park. Extensive planting was also planned throughout Kent with an aim of a further 6,330 trees to be in place by the end of winter.
20.The E-Waste warrior’s initiative would be launching shortly with 25 schools targeted. This school based electrical recycling, repair and reuse project across the county would be funded by Material Focus.. Team repair kits combined with recycling and repair bins would help raise awareness, teach repair (STEM) skills and build networks across communities. A competitive element would also see clusters of schools working together to try and achieve a target of 19 tonnes of electricals goods recycled and 480 items either repaired or donated. The first cluster of schools in Maidstone would begin this initiative next month (April).
21.The Resource Management and Circular Economy Team along with the Engagement and Behaviour Change Team had jointly launched a successful food recycling campaign in Dover. The campaign had targeted 89,000 households from September 2024 for an 8-week period. Initiatives such as stickers on residual bins, informative leaflets and caddy liners with an accompanying social media campaign had all successfully launched. An additional 1,400 caddies had been ordered for the targeted area and an 11% increase in recycling was observed in both districts from October to November. The project had led to an 106 tonnes of additional food waste, with a saving of around £14,000 in disposal costs being recorded. The success of this pilot would see a similar initiative rolling out to residents in Canterbury in February.
22.The Energy and Climate team in tandem with the Engagement and Behaviour Change Team had organised a successful double bill event featuring Christmas freecycling and electrical device recycling. Staff collected four large boxes of electrical goods and would be added to the Digital Kents device recycling scheme.
23.The long-standing partnership with The Pilgrims Hospice had enabled residents to continue in the recycling of Christmas trees. This year (2024) had marked the most successful yet. The charity had collected over 4,200 Christmas trees and raised £78,465 in donations. The collected trees were taken to Ashford’s transfer stations and onward to a compositing facility.
24. The Low Carbon Kent team had continued to deliver the training, sustainability action plans and grants elements to the Growing Green innovation support programme for horticultural and plant-based business in Kent and Medway. The tailored support would help 70 businesses move towards net zero carbon emissions and find value in waste materials and would run for the next three months..
25.The latest HWRC customer survey have remained positive with a 96% satisfaction rate. Customer feedback had been collaborated with the system provider of the HWRC booking system to develop a customer account facility. This new feature would launch shortly.
26.Mrs Deborah Kapaj had begun her role as the strategic lead for the Kent Resource Partnership. Meetings with partners to establish priorities and works streams would take place soon and aimed to capture increases of food waste, reducing contamination in recycling and reviewing the Kent Joint Municipal waste strategy.
27. The current collaboration of the Adaptation Team and the Flood Water Teams in conjunction with Southeast Water and Thames Water was underway. The audit programme was aimed at improving water efficiency in non-domestic sites across Kent. These programmes involved conducting water audits, installing water saving measures and fixing leakages. These initiatives had already resulted in significant savings for the participating 80 sites in Southeast Waters catchment and the 46 sites situated in Thames Waters designated areas.
28. Members asked if a list of schools participating in the E-Waste initiative be made available. It was confirmed to Members that a list of all schools participatingwould be provided.
RESOLVED that the verbal updates be noted.