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Liberal Democrats on Kent County CouncilThe Official Opposition on Kent County Council |
The Future for Kent's Highways
September 29, 2004 12:00 AM
Management of Kent's Roads 'to be Clawed Back' by the County Council
Kent County Council is to claw back responsibility for all Highway matters, despite opposition from 7 out of 12 District Councils in Kent.
At present all Highway works are jointly run by 12 partnerships, one in each Borough, between the County Council and the Borough Councils. The Partnerships have generally improved KCC's worst regarded service, by having all highways staff based in the Borough and therefore having good local knowledge of problems and priorities.
Priorities for spending were agreed by joint committees where County, District and Parish Council representatives ALL had their say for spending within THEIR Borough. Though these joint committees are to continue, their role will be ADVISORY to a new layer of bureaucracy - a Kent Transport Board comprising 12 County Councillors, 12 District Councillors, 3 Parish Council representatives, and Government officials.
At today's meeting of KCC's Cabinet Scrutiny Committee, members agreed that it was regrettable that the County Council's Cabinet had made its decision before much needed information was available.
In answer to questions put by Lib Dem Group Leader Trudy Dean, officers accepted that no costs had been worked out for redundancies, retirements, increased travel and costs of a new computer system, whilst staffing costs and new office costs had been "assumed" to remain the same.
Cabinet member Richard King also replied to Trudy that the County Council does not plan to make up the £1.7 million which the Borough Councils currently contribute to highway services such as verge grass cutting. Several Districts have said they may withdraw this subsidy if the partnership arrangements are ended.
District Council officers invited to the meeting, said they did not feel the KCC Cabinet had received enough information to make an informed decision. They felt the centralisation of the services would lead to loss of local knowledge, and doubted that computer software could compensate for this. District Services such as planning and parking control would also suffer from the loss of local highways advice. They also said that highways problems which residents normally report to their local District Council would now have to be referred on to KCC'S Contact Centre.
"We Fear A Return To The Bad Old Days!"
After the meeting Trudy said "Before these partnerships existed, highway services were in even more of a mess. Most of the money was spent in towns, and the rural areas rarely got a look in. The County's basic information about where verges and drains were, and when and where pavement inspections were carried out, were very incomplete. A great deal of effort has gone into straightening that out, and the service has improved. The public know that Kent's roads and pavements are still a disgrace, and the reason for that is decades of underspending by Kent County Council . Now the County Council is going back to square one, controlling everything, and we fear a return to the bad old days".