Liberal Democrats on Kent County Council

Kent Lib Dems are delighted that their annual Christmas dress-down day at Kent Council Council raised £608.62 for the Kent Fund for Children.

Over the last few years, over £7,000 has been raised from Kent County Council staff and Councillors for this good cause through the Dress Down Day. You can find out more about the Kent Fund for Children at http://www.kent.gov.uk/news_and_events/news_archive/the_kent_fund_for_children.aspx.

Trudy Dean, Lib Dem Leader of the Opposition at Kent County Council, has called for an independent inquiry to discover whether information about dangerously low levels of staffing in KCC Childrens Services were the subject of a cover up at County Hall.

On 1st June Trudy tried to get the data into the public at the Cabinet Scrutiny Committee she chairs at Kent County Council. Conservative members voted against this, saying it would be a waste of time and money. The webcast of this meeting is available at http://connect.kent.public-i.tv/site/player/pl_v7.php?a=58169&t=0&m=wm&l=en_GB#indx.

Trudy finally received the information in August and has been discussing it with officers since then. On Radio Kent this morning Trudy said:

"The more information I see the more I wonder whether there was a cover up at County Hall. The data tells us that social worker staffing levels were seriously low way back in 2007, leading to soaring case loads for social workers then, not later as we were told. We also now know that a month before councillors were told there were no concerns about professional standards, in 7 of the 12 Kent Districts staffing levels were at 'High' risk level for the majority of the year.

"We were continually being told that there was a national shortage of social workers making it impossible to bring the teams up to full strength, and leaving case workers swamped with work loads of over 120 cases when 25 is the norm. But in the last year we did it, recruiting 60 extra staff who have dealt with the backlog of 2,700 cases in under a year. Why didn't we do it at the right time. Why did it take an unannounced inspection from OFSTED to catch us out?"

Trudy is writing to the Leader of Kent County Council, Paul Carter, to ask him to set up an independent inquiry into whether there was a cover up. She is suggesting that it should be done by Martin Narey, the previous head of Dr Barnados, who is currently working for KCC on a report on Adoption to be presented to the Council in November.

In her letter she wrote:

"This is a serious matter. Either the information was kept from Members by officers, or they only shared it with the senior councillors and together they kept it away from backbenchers. The result of that was that the council failed to vote the necessary money to provide adequate social care and 2,700 children were placed at risk of serious harm.

"In addition the Council's reputation has been damaged, losing its four star rating, and the council taxpayer is footing the bill for over £5.5 million this year and next to clear up the mess.

"Up to 2010 KCC was telling a story which wasn't true, and we are still doing it in our press coverage today. It has to stop. Unless we address this problem of accurate, candid and transparent information, the public can have no trust in what we publish."

Published in the Independent, 27 August 2011

David Prosser comments on Kent County Council's pension fund investment in tobacco companies (24 August).

The council's spend on education campaigns helping people to give up smoking is only a small part of a total £40m spent every year in meeting the excess costs of smoking in Kent over and above the taxes paid by smokers on their cigarettes.

Question by Mrs Dean To The Cabinet Member for Environment Highways and Waste

"Would the Cabinet Member please say when the County Council was first made aware of any interest in developing the former SCA site in New Hythe Lane, Larkfield for treatment of waste, when contact with the County Council was first made by Biossense, and what major planning policy and highway issues will surround any future use of this site?"

On Monday 25th July, County Hall Maidstone is opening its doors to everyone with an interest in the future of Kent's Youth Services.

From 11:00 - 13:00 County Hall will be open for young people, parents, youth workers, volunteers and others to give their view on whether the Kent Youth Service Transformation Plan should be launched for 90days consultation on August 1st.

Under the plan approved by Cabinet on Monday this week, each Borough will have only one "hub" youth centre. All other youth centres will be offered to private or voluntary organisations to run youth services but with a reduced budget. Any centres for which no alternative provider comes forward may be sold off.

The centres which are proposed to remain open as "hubs" are:

The Lib Dem Leader of the opposition at Kent County Council (KCC) has reacted angrily against KCC refusal to allow councillors to question its Action Plan for improving services to Children at risk.

The County's Cabinet Scrutiny Committee indicated that it wished to discuss the Improvement Plan as soon as it was available, and was due to discuss it at Wednesday's meeting after it was published this week.

Liberal Democrats at Kent County Council have welcomed the joint government / Kent County Council plan for the development of East Kent, but warned of the danger of relying too much on any employment opportunities of Manston airport.

Trudy Dean, Lib Dem Leader of the official opposition / Liberal Democrats at Kent County Council, said:

"I am pleased to see that both coalition parties are behind all out efforts to keep the highly skilled workforce at Pfizers in Kent, both in the short and long term.

"There is a long standing problem of lack of emplyment opportunities in East Kent. Lib Dem Minister Vince Cable has recognised the impact of a further loss of up to 4,000 Pfizer and supplier related jobs. I will be asking Vince Cable to support the proposals of this report.

"However, given the uncertain future of Manston airport, the plans should not rely on its development: airports offer mainly low skilled jobs. The plan should instead concentrate on developing a wide variety of jobs benefitting from improved road and rail links to London.

"I particularly welcome any proposal for employment in the green economy especially in the generation of renewable energy which is likely to be increasingly urgent following the devastating current problems with Japan's nuclear power stations."

Kent County Council has announced work will start on replacing the Zebra crossing in New Hythe Lane near the Fire Station, Larkfield in the week starting 14th February. There will be work during that week and then the new light controlled Puffin Crossing (an upgrade on a Pelican!) will be brought into operation over the period 28th February to 4th March.

The new crossing is to improve the safety of people crossing the road at this point especially children going to the schools in Swallow Road and from the 'Trees Estate' area.

The crossing is being provided in response to a local campaign supported by a residents petition of over 500 names submitted to the KCC last year.

The scheme was nearly postponed because of the public spending cuts by KCC but heroically saved when Kent County Councillor Mrs Trudy Dean, who represents Larkfield, agreed to contribute £25,000 towards the costs from her local members Highway Fund.

Trudy says:

"This is a very busy and dangerous crossing serving the schools, shops, library and health services at Martin Square. The accident record made it a top priority for me and I am delighted that it has as a result avoided the cuts."

Tonbridge and Malling Borough Councillor Mrs Anita Oakley representing Larkfield South, helped residents with the petition. She says:

"This is one of the few occasions when we have used the ultimate tool of a petition from residents to get the desired result. The petition was begun after an horrific accident in which three teenagers were injured whilst using the Zebra crossing. This accident confirmed what many people had been telling us, that traffic was simply not stopping in response to pedestrians. Thank goodness it is at last set to go ahead and we can all cross the road in the confident knowledge that the lights, on this new design of Puffin crossing, will stay red so long as there is someone actually crossing."