Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from Mr Baldock and Mr Collor, for whom Ms Hawkins and Mrs Hudson were present.

There were no declarations of interest.

RESOLVED that the minutes of the meeting held on 14 September 2023 were an accurate record and that they be signed by the Chairman.

1) Mr Oakford outlined the report.

2) Members comments on the following points in relation to the report:

·       Cabinet Members were asked to clarify what kind of recommendations or changes to the proposed budget they would be ‘open to’. Advice was given to committee members that this was their opportunity to make suggestions on the budget but Members should bear in mind when making suggestions that largescale decisions such as bringing all SEND home-to-school transport in-house were not able to be undertaken ‘overnight’.

·       A Member suggested that savings should be made for home-to-school transport by ‘stopping taxis ripping [KCC] off’.

·       A Member suggested that KCC adopt the network of speed cameras in order to receive the revenue from Transport Management Penalties.

3) RESOLVED to note the initial draft capital and revenue budgets including responses to the consultation.

Apologies were received from Southern Water. The presentation would be made to the committee at the January meeting.

Simon Jones (Corporate Director, GET) was in attendance for this item

1) Mr Baker said whilst Kent avoided the worst conditions from Storm Ciaran, KCC’s teams planning and resilience during the storm and its aftermath ensured services continued as well as possible with the least disruption and impact on residents. 

KCC’s drainage team received over 400 enquiries between Wednesday, 1 Novemberand Monday, 6 November, of which 100 were classed as emergencies. KCC had organised for all contractors to be available dealing with the aftermath of the storm to clear blocked drainage systems.

Tree surgeons were also deployed across Folkestone, Dover, Thanet and Ashford and West Kent surgeons assisted East Kent to clear fallen trees and branches.

There were also acts of personal assistance. Highways Inspector, James Pesad happened upon a fallen tree in St. Augustine's Road, Ramsgate. Mr Pasad pulled over and put his beacons on to allow him to make the site as safe as possible. He then called in to have the incident logged and requested the Operations team to get it safely removed. Luckily nobody was hurt, but a roof was lost from a nearby outhouse, as was featured on BBC News.

The work of KCC’s highways maintenance teams continues to be noticed nationally:

• KCC won the Connected Parking award for our Park Map Project at the 2023 British Parking Awards, and;
• The Chestfield Tunnel Lighting Project had been shortlisted for the Caron and Sustainability Initiative of the Year 2023 and Innovation in Tunnel Fit-Out, Maintenance and Refurbishment 2023 at the New Civil Engineers Magazine Tunnelling Awards 2023. The results were to be announced on 7 December. The new lighting was to deliver energy savings of over 1m kWh per annum which is a 63.23% reduction in energy consumption; the equivalent to over 340 homes per annum.

Other completed schemes included:

• Preservation work on the A229 to avoid water ingress and oxidisation which will extend the life cycle of the road by 5 years. The work was done using a new emulsion, Finaphalt-G which is less expensive, takes less time and is more environmentally friendly than traditional surfacing methods.
• The team also completed a 4km full depth road reconstruction at Morsham and a stabilisation of the carriageway reconstruction scheme at Boughton Hill Embankment.

2) Members responded to the update as follows:

·       Officers were commended for their efforts during Storm Ciaran. Thanks were also given to Mr Baker for his communication and efforts during the storm.

3) Mr Hills said a newsletter had been produced and sent to Members regarding the environmental circular economy.

4) Members thanked Miss Carey for the work that she had done in the role of Cabinet Member for the Environment and had been undertaken regarding the environmental circular economy.

5) Mr Jones added to the update on Storm Ciaran, saying that while Highways were at the front end of the response, the Public Rights of Way team, County Parks team and Waste team had also responded to the challenges brought by  ...  view the full minutes text for item 6.

Matt Wagner (Interim Chief Analyst) and Simon Jones (Corporate Director, GET) were in attendance for this item

1) Mr Wagner introduced the report for quarter 3 of the 2023/24 financial year. There were 19 key performance indicators (KPIs); 13 were rated green, 5 amber and 1 red.

The indicator rated red was under Highways and Transport: Priority (Member) enquiries completed within 20 working days.

2) Further to Members’ questions, it was noted:

• The figures showed a 9-year high on reports of road defects and naturally, where service provision is scaled, there will be a delay where the volume of work is more due to exceptional events. The response to this had been encouraging and service provision was meeting the volume of work only months later.
• It was felt that quality of responses to highways related enquiries had improved. There had been some historic issues with how enquiries had been dealt with but the situation had since improved.

3) RESOLVED to note the Performance Dashboard.

Simon Jones (Corporate Director, GET) was in attendance for this item

1) Mr Baker introduced the report.

2) Members asked questions and the following was noted:

·       It was hoped that more would be done in east Kent and broader geographical spread of schemes.

·       Work needed to be undertaken with the district and borough councils as they had a great deal of influence on Active Travel Schemes.

·       The schemes were welcomed but concerns were raised about funding of the schemes in the longer term and getting the best value for money from contractors, due to the funding arrangements of the schemes.

3) RESOLVED to endorse the recommendations as outlined in the report.

Stephen Pay, Planning and Operations Manager, was in attendance for this item

1) Mr Baker introduced the report.

2) Mr Pay outlined the report.

3) Members asked questions and it was noted:

·       There was some flexibility on how the funding was used in terms of bringing back services. Value for money needed to be demonstrated.

4) RESOLVED to endorse the recommendations as outlined in the report.

Stephen Pay, Planning and Operations Manager, and Barry Stiff, Senior Project Manager

1) Mr Baker introduced the report.

2) Mr Pay and Mr Stiff outlined the report.

3) Members asked questions and the following was noted:

·       There were additional on-street parking spaces available suitable for disabled parking in the immediate area. It was hoped that more people would use the buses.

4) RESOLVED to endorse the recommendations as outlined in the report.

Graham Killick, MCP Project Manager was in attendance for this item

1) Mr Baker introduced the report.

2) Mr Killick outlined the report.

3) Members asked questions and the following was noted:

·       The scheme was welcomed and it was felt that projects such as this would mean that there were fewer car journeys.

4) RESOLVED to endorse the recommendations as outlined in the report.

Matthew Smyth (Director for Environment and Waste) and Lis Dyson, Heritage Conservation Manager were in attendance for this item

1) Mr Hills introduced the report.

2) Mr Smyth outlined the report.

3) Members asked questions and the following was noted:

·       It was clarified that there was to be one consultation but options to answer questions on the individual windmills.

·       Concerns were raised about the placing of responsibility for the windmills on volunteers, how sustainable this was in the long term and the liability on cost for trustees. Also raised, was the concern that when in private ownership, other windmills in Kent were not all being well maintained.

·       It was noted that when the windmills were acquired, the financial responsibilities of upper tier local authorities were different (particularly in the case of those acquired in the 1950s). It was felt it was important to consider the careful disposal of assets and take forward a consultation on the matter.

·       The changes proposed were very specific to the divestment of the windmills and did not apply to wider heritage assets.

·       Following a consultation process, a key decision would need to be made and therefore, the matter would be brought back to the committee.

4) Councillor Chittenden proposed and Mr Lewis seconded the following motion:

To recommend that the Cabinet Member for Environment not undertake a consultation on the proposed change to the Heritage Conservation Strategy (Windmills policy).

5) Upon being put to the vote, the motion was declared LOST.

6) RESOLVED to note the recommendations as outlined in the report.

Sharon Thompson (Head of Planning) was in attendance for this item

1) Mr Hills introduced the report

2) Mrs Thompson outlined the report regarding the pre-submission draft of the Kent Minerals and Waste Local Plan 2024-39 and the Kent Minerals and Waste Development Scheme Update. It was clarified that what was being considered was the Minerals and Waste Local Plan. Members were not being asked to comment or consider the Mineral Sites Plan or, in particular, the nominated site at Oaken Wood, Aylesford. The Mineral Sites Plan work was not due to come before Members until the autumn of 2024 after detailed assessment work was completed.

3) Further to questions from Members, it was noted that:

·       It was explained that in relation to the nominated site at Oaken Wood, which was designated as a PAWS site (Plantations on Ancient Woodland Sites), it was the soils that are the vital component, rather than the trees themselves.

·       The amount of aggregate based upon the government’s calculations showed that there was a shortfall in hard rock, hence there was a need for a call for sites as part of the plan making process. How the need was to be met, was a matter for the Sites Plan work.

·       There was a policy set out in the plan for circumstances where development was proposed for the Dungeness Nuclear Power site and for certain types of development at the site also required an environmental permit from the Environment Agency.

4) RESOLVED to endorse the recommendations as outlined in the report.

RESOLVED to note the work programme.