Over the past decade Kent County Council have been fully aware that, unless they took action, the condition of our highways would deteriorate rapidly. Previous warnings from Lib Dem councillors, and also from highway officers, were ignored in spite of money being available at the time. As a result, there has been substantial deterioration of both roads and footpaths. And they're getting worse.

"Will the Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport please say how much money has been allocated by the Chancellor to each of Kent's Districts under his £1.3bn road improvement plan, and say more specifically what he plans to do in the light of those allocations to ensure to ease congestion in Maidstone where there is gridlock on all road approaches and a clear need in the south for a southern link road?"

We have just received the following notice from Kent Highways:

It has been necessary this afternoon to close Lane 1 on the Maidstone bound section of Detling Hill from the Shell Garage to Detling Village. This is as a result of the failure of two drainage covers and frames. The defect was identified today, Wednesday (9 November), following heavy rainfall on the hill, as part of a monthly inspection.

Ian Chittenden, Member for Maidstone North-East asked Matthew Balfour, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, the following question:

"The number of sawn-off streetlight columns around th e County seems to be on the increase, most have been taped and left for many months. Not only are they a blot on the landscape, but the lack of light in localised areas increases safety risk for both motorists and pedestrians.

Lib Dem county councillors Trudy Dean, Rob Bird, Dan Daley and Ian Chittenden met with Kent Highways officers on Monday. Councillors expressed concern about the current unacceptable congestion at the northern end of Hermitage Lane and stressed the need for road improvements to be implemented as a matter of extreme urgency.

While there has been a 1% overall improvement in relation to deaths and injuries on Kent's roads in 2015, the number of 17-24 year-olds killed or seriously injured has increased by 16% in the same year. This group accounted for 23% of all vehicle occupants killed or seriously injured last year.

Over a 10-year period the number of people killed or seriously injured on Kent's roads has been reduced by more than 50% thanks to strong co-operation between, Kent County Council, Medway Council, Kent Police, Kent Fire Brigade and Highways England, working together as the Casualty Reduction Partnership. However, recent cuts in government finance to support road safety initiatives is now preventing any significant ongoing improvement.
Kent County Council have re-acted to the increasing numbers of young people killed or seriously injured on our roads and introduced a new initiative aimed at young drivers. Details are as follows:

Most of us love Kent's green landscapes but as I travel along the roads in Maidstone and the surrounding countryside I have noticed that much of our greenery has become overly rampant. More and more roadside signs are obscured, some are completely hidden and footways are becoming impassable.

In most cases residents, farmers and other landowners are responsible for cutting back hedgerows bordering their properties. However, it is Kent County Council that is responsible for safety on our roads.

For a number of years Kent County Council has allowed sponsors to advertise on roundabouts in Kent.

Counties such as Surrey use advertising as a means to directly enhance roundabouts with additional planting and regular maintenance, Kent has no such scheme.

In Maidstone for example, where the majority of roundabouts sit on prime entry roads for visitors to our county town, shrubs and trees are typically choked by grass and weeds. Beyond some low level grass cutting, there is minimal maintenance and there have been no new planting programs for many years.

When they released Maidstone's draft housing growth plan recently, the Conservative cabinet at MBC surely hoped that nobody would notice the lack of traffic strategy for the borough.

This brought into sharp relief at Thursday's full council meeting at KCC when County Councillor Brian Clark, supported by Maidstone Lib Dem members, asked the head of Highways a simple question:

KCC used to count vehicles on roads across Kent (the "Kent Traffic Counts program") to predict the effect of new house building and make sure that house builders pay for any required road improvements. KCC cancelled the program in 2011.

Councillor Ian Chittenden has found that KCC now relies on figures commissioned by house builders themselves. He commented, "These companies would save on the cost of road improvements like wider roads, roundabouts and traffic with lower vehicle numbers, making this a conflict of interest. If the numbers turn out to be too low, congestion will result, creating a cost which will eventually have to be paid for by the tax payer".