Food supplies disrupted as safety testing becomes impossible
Schools, social care, transport and business will face severe disruption
County Council forced to spend over £20 million on reinforcing Kent's roads and hundreds of thousands of pounds to employ more staff to cope with chaos
The true impact of a catastrophic no deal Brexit has been laid bare in a report published on Wednesday detailing Kent County Council's emergency plans.
Wera Hobhouse's speech to the County Councils' Network on Tuesday 20th November
Wera Hobhouse is the Liberal Democrat MP for Bath and Spokesperson for Communities and Local Government.
Good afternoon everybody. It is a pleasure to be here with you all at the County Councils' Network Conference.
The 12 months since you last came together in Marlow, have been a mixed bag for local government as a whole. One can argue it has been harsher on the counties than other local authorities. The events in Northamptonshire have been a stark warning to all.
On Monday the Chancellor announced that he was providing £420m extra to councils for pothole and other urgent highways repairs. Kent can expect to receive about £10 million. Kent Liberal Democrat Group are calling for at least half of this extra money to be spent on long overdue pavement repairs.
The backlog for pavement repairs in Kent has hit £84 million, leaving more than a third of paths and pavements across the county in a poor and potentially dangerous condition.
Liberal Democrats joined a cross-party group of 40 MPs and members of the House of Lords calling on the Chancellor to bring forward preferential tax rates for company electric cars in his forthcoming Budget. The letter to Philip Hammond comes shortly after the Government scrapped grants for new plug-in hybrids and slashed discounts on other electric vehicles.
Highways England officials have been accused of ignoring the people of Kent after refusing to face councillors to account for the traffic chaos caused by multiple roadworks on the M20 and M26.
Highways England chiefs were invited to come to the Maidstone Joint Transportation Board (JTB) to explain to councillors how they are managing the various works on the M20 and how they will operate the controversial Operation Brock post Brexit.
Parents buying Young Person's Travel Passes still have no choice but to pay upfront, or in two large payments following further delays to a direct debit system proposed back in February.
Liberal Democrat Cllr Dan Daley has called for clarification over when the scheme to allow parents to pay the £290 cost in monthly instalments would be introduced, but Mike Whiting, the Conservative Cabinet Member, has given no firm timescale.
Kent County Council's Autumn Statement shows Conservative Austerity is set to continue
Council Tax set to rise by another 5%, twice the rate of inflation
Kent's Conservative Administration mulling a further £51.5 million of cuts that will hit the most vulnerable
The most vulnerable in society will suffer under a £51m raft of cuts proposed by the Tories if more money cannot be secured from Central Government, the Liberal Democrats have warned.
Community wardens, children's centres and services for pupils with special educational needs could all be in the firing line in a new round of austerity measures.
The Conservatives are also planning to charge for more council services, further disadvantaging the poorest in society, despite Tory councillors hiking council tax by almost 5%, twice the rate of inflation and the maximum allowed without a referendum.
The council tax increase is well above average pay increases, and will add £56 to the annual bill for Band D properties.
Under pressure from the Liberal Democrat opposition during the council's Autumn Statement debate, the Tories accepted a budget amendment tabled by Opposition Leader Rob Bird, calling on the Government to maintain Kent's Revenue Support Grant and protect the people of Kent from further unacceptable cuts.
