Camden Road - a little brighter, a little safer

Went out this morning to check on the Kent Highways crew who were replacing the street lighting down Camden Road in St James'. The work was scheduled for a Sunday to minimise disruption to local traffic.

I've been pushing hard for this scheme over the last two years. It started when local residents showed me how dark the bottom end of Camden Road towards Albion Road had become, with no less than three lights out in succession. Age, wear and tear and a car crash had all taken their toll, and working with Kent Highways I managed to get not only the faulty lamps replaced, but a brand new scheme at the top end of Albion.

Now, in the new budget year we're turning our attention to a range of repair and replacement schemes, and today was Camden Road's turn. New lighting columns have been installed - not as many as were intended to be installed as unforeseen power cables will now have to be dealt with. But Kent Highways is on the case, and over the coming weeks locals will see a big improvement in street lighting generally around St James' area.

I'll be contacting residents to ask for their help in reporting lighting faults, but in the meantime, if you'd like to report a lights that's on all day, or not on at night, or even an old or broken column, please either post a comment here on my blog, or go to www.kevinlynes.com and leave a message for me.

But for the moment, Camden Road at least will be a little brighter, and a little safer.

St James' roads and pavements

During the recent Borough Council elections I received a spiteful little email from the LibDems to berate me for not attending the Highways Advisory Board. I take the view that we don't need a talking shop to get things done - councillors should get out in their patch and make things happen.

In both Pembury and Sherwood, I work really well with the Borough Councillors and we seem to get things done as a team, but since I've never been contacted by the St James' Lib Dems it's no surprise that roads and footpaths have become so bad. Two weeks ago I set up a meeting with Kent Highways and St James' parents.

I've been concerned about the state of the roads and footpaths in St James' for a while, and never understood why the area always seemed to lose out when it came to the normal repair and maintenance programme that seem to be a matter of course in other areas.

I agreed a plan of action with locals to address the various school routes, then took Kent Highways on an hour's 'walkabout'. They agreed with me that things have reached crisis point, and went away to work up a programme.

Yesterday I met with Keith Ferrin, KCC Cabinet Member for Highways, and showed him the photos I'd taken of potholes, broken footpaths, eroded yellow lines and zebra crossings and bad patching by the utility companies.

I only hope we can make a start in St James' before we see a major accident. Watch this space.

A Fascinating Insight

Having promised my new PA for some months that I would take her into my constituency and show her around, yesterday I finally managed to get around to keeping that promise.

We met in Tunbridge Wells at 9am, and I showed her around Pembury, stopping to admire the new Football Pavilion and new classroom block at the Primary School. It confirmed to me that Pembury is really very well served by amenities. The new children's playground at the recreation ground, pavilion and football pitches, new classrooms, an excellent village hall, plenty of elderly care facilities, a large supermarket at the end of the village, great pubs and restaurants.

Before leaving Pembury we stopped to admire the new and imposing Cornford House residential home, before stopping at Pepenbury for a coffee in the sunshine, being impressively served by one or two of the learning disabled residents.

Moving on to Sherwood, we visited the Primary School, saw the new Little Forest Children's Centre, the changing room block used so effectively as a base by the Community of Oak Road Estate, then drove round to the new TN2 Community Centre. It was great to see the centre so well used - pre-school toddlers playing so happily alongside a busy library with story time in progress, a well-attended community cafe and downstairs the "Fred Club" - activities and outings for young adults with learning disabilities. It was also good to see the resurfacing work to Greggs Wood Road had begun!

In St James, there's much to do; litter, graffiti, general parking and traffic issues. Pavements and road surfaces leave much to be desired, but meetings have been set and the pressure will be on Kent Highways to deliver. St Barnabas Church, cheek by jowl with the school, have moved mountains to be able to offer good pre-school nursery facilities, and the take-up by local children has been astonishing. The newly re-elected Borough Councillor will need to impress with action after the promises made at local elections.

But throughout the day, I was struck by the sense of community. Local people improving their surroundings and facilities by pushing and cajoling local decision makers. To see all three wards - each with their own character - in one visit was as useful to me as I hope it was to my colleague. It was a fascinating insight into a large part of Tunbridge Wells.

No Truck with Labour

This weekend saw the first advert in the Saturday Observer paid for personally by the Conservative Councillors at kent County Council.

Under the strapline "No Truck With Labour", thre advert underlined the unfairness of foreign lorry drivers crossing into and through Kent, often with a tankful of cheap French diesel. Their lorries cause damage to Kent roads (a laden freight lorry causes the same wear and tear to a road surface as 100,000 cars), and add to the congestion (on an average day there are seventeen miles of freight lorries on Kent roads if parked end to end). Not to mention the policy of "job and lob" which leaves paper parcels on our hard shoulders and hedgerows - I'll leave you to work out what that is.

The half page advert, which is reproduced above - calls for readers to visit the Kent Conservative website - http://www.conservativekent.com/ - and sign the online e-petition. The response to the advert has already been excellent - watch out for more campaigns in coming months.

Holding the Council to account

Last September, I organised a public meeting in Sherwood for long-suffering residents to vent their anger about the state of Greggs Wood Road - the main access through the estate.

Keith Ferrin, KCC Cabinet Member for Highways and his officers promised at that meeting that at least the most important end of Greggs Wood Road - from Sherwood Road down past the Medical Centre, the entrance the the primary school, the shops and the new TN2 Community Centre - would be resurfaced in six months.

Last night, together with Borough Councillor Frank Williams, we organised a follow up meeting with Keith Ferrin to make sure KCC was delivering on its promises.

Local residents voiced a range of concerns - about the quality of the work, about when the job would be completed; about when the rest of the road would be resurfaced as well. It wasn't an easy meeting, for Frank, for me or for Keith Ferrin. But it did show that council taxpayers can have a say in hoiw and when their local services are delivered, and that they should hold the Council to account.