Cabinet Member decisions

The Cabinet Member is asked to:

1. increase the designated number of places offered at Five Acre Wood School from 330 to 465 places (including Satellite and Nursery provision) from 15 March 2019.
2. expand the Satellite provision of Five Acre Wood School at Holmesdale School, Malling Road, Snodland ME6 5HS from 70 to 150 students aged 11-19 with moderate to severe learning difficulties from 15 March 2019.
3. establish a Satellite provision of Five Acre Wood School at Palace Wood Primary School, Ash Grove, Allington, Maidstone, Kent, ME16 0AB for 30 students aged 4-11 with moderate to severe learning difficulties from 01 September 2019.
4. establish a Specialist Resourced Provision (SRP) within the school for students with an Education, Health and Care Plan (EHCP) for autistic spectrum disorders (ASD) at East Borough Primary School.

During last year’s Capital bidding round, Highways, Transportation and Waste submitted a bid for £31m to fund the resolution of 177 unfunded highway maintenance issues.  This bid was separate to maintenance backlogs reported in Kent County Council’s Asset Management Strategy documents.  The £31m bid related to a range of sites and issues that highway teams had identified had failed or will fail and which represented a significant safety or other risk to the business and are therefore being monitored.  Funding of £7.52m for the highest priority 27 sites (high risk issues requiring intervention in the very short term) was approved and included in the capital budget, £3.495m for four sites in 2018/19, £2.925m for thirteen sites in 2019/20 and £1.1m for ten sites in 2020/21.

The £2.925m allocated for 2019/20 includes £2.5m for the major renewal and strengthening of the A28 in Thanet, principally the section between Birchington and Margate, and that is the subject of this key decision.

The A28 is an ‘Other Strategic’ road in our highway maintenance hierarchy.  It also forms part of our Resilient Highway Network, the portion of our 5,400-mile road network that is considered to be absolutely vital to maintaining economic activity and access to key services during extreme weather emergencies and other major incidents.  It is also likely to form part of the new Major Road Network that the Department for Transport has recently consulted on.  (The MRN will be a new category of road between Highway England’s Strategic Road Network and Local Authorities’ local roads and this is being set up to put these important roads on a similar investment/improvement planning footing as motorways and trunk roads from 2021/22. Local Authorities will continue to be responsible for maintaining these roads and any funding streams are unlikely to be used for maintenance save major structural renewal.)  This road is also a key link between the channel ports and Manston in respect of interim lorry parking arrangements. In short, this road is vital to the economy of East Kent.

As part of our regular mechanical condition surveys and safety inspections, we have identified that the existing road surface on the A28 between Birchington and Margate is nearing the end of its serviceable life.  There are also signs of structural weakness in places. Most of these serious defects are not obvious to untrained eyes that tend to focus on pothole formation.

The main risk if left untreated is that the road surface will quickly deteriorate and need regular and numerous pothole repairs. In our professional judgement, we are very close to that eventuality now, and if allowed to occur would have a significant negative effect on the local economy as this is the only main road link into north Thanet from the west.

The road surface needs to be renewed throughout and, in some places, deeper strengthening repairs will be needed.  We plan to deliver these works from April 2019 to avoid the summer holiday season.  There are no commissioning implications relating to this decision as these works will be delivered under our recently awarded Road Asset Renewal Contract with Eurovia.  There are also no planning or compulsory purchase aspects to this work.

As Cabinet Member for Planning, Highways, Transport & Waste, I agree to:

(i)            the proposed works to renew and strengthen the A28 road surface between Birchington and Margate; and

(ii)          (ii) the delegation to the Corporate Director of Growth, Environment & Transport, under the Officer Scheme of Delegations, to take further or other decisions as may be appropriate to deliver the scheme in accordance with these recommendation

KCC Membership of a shadow Sub- National Transport Body for the South East known as Transport for the South East (TfSE)

The Cities and Local Government Devolution Act makes provision for the establishment and constitution of Sub-National Transport Bodies (SNTBs) for any area in England (outside of Greater London. An SNTB can prepare a Transport Strategy for an area which would set out proposals for the promotion and encouragement of safe, sustainable, integrated, efficient and economic strategic transport facilities and services to and from the area of the SNTB.

The South East Seven (SE7) Councils (Kent, East Sussex, West Sussex, Hampshire and Surrey County Councils, and Brighton & Hove City Council and Medway Council) and the Local Enterprise Partnerships (LEPs) that represent the area have discussed the establishment of an SNTB for the South East, to be called Transport for the South East (TfSE). A TfSE on this geographic scale would fulfil the DfT’s minimum geographic size requirements.  Discussions will shortly commence with Portsmouth, Southampton and the Isle of Wight  and the Solent LEP about joining TfSE. 

The proposed TfSE would enables authorities to influence national and regional infrastructure providers, helping to secure the infrastructure required to support continuing economic growth. A TfSE would see Government, South East Transport Authorities and/or Combined Authorities and LEPs working together with Highways England, Network Rail and port, airport and bus operators. TfSE would require strategic transport providers to take account of its priorities.

TfSE would provide a mechanism for the area to speak with a strong, common voice on transport infrastructure and provide a single platform for strategic transport and infrastructure issues, giving partners greater, and potentially direct, influence over decisions that are currently made elsewhere. Its key outcome will be the development of a single, strategic transport infrastructure framework which would align the investment programmes from key agencies, such as Highways England, Network Rail and the LEPs.

Options

·         Do nothing and not engage in the development of the SNTB for the Southeast.

·         Set up the SNTB for Kent and Medway, but this would not be supported by DfT

·         Engage in the development of the Shadow SNTB Board and Transport Strategy for the Southeast

How the proposed decision meets the objectives of ‘Increasing Opportunities, Improving Outcomes: Kent County Council’s Strategic Statement (2015-2020)’

The cornerstone of TfSE is the Transport Strategy. It will build upon existing Local Transport Plans, including Kent’s Local Transport Plan 4: Delivering Growth without Gridlock, currently out to consultation, and evidence already in place amongst the constituent Authorities, including the LEP’s Strategic Economic Plans and growth and infrastructure frameworks/studies being undertaken by a number of upper-tier Authorities, including the Kent and Medway Growth and Infrastructure Framework.  In this way, the decision would support the Council’s second strategic outcome, “Communities benefit from economic growth by being in work, healthy and enjoying a good quality of life.”

As Leader, in accordance with Article 10 (1) & (4) of the council’s constitution, I agree:

1.    to establish, and participate in, a shadow Sub National Transport Body (SNTB) for the South East, known as Transport for the South East (TfSE), at the cost, for the purposes, and with the membership, set out in the accompanying report; and

2.    the proposal to establish, and participate in, a formal Sub-National Transport Body for the South East, also known as TfSE, and with the same purpose and membership.