Kent County Council (KCC) will “refuse” future green travel schemes that have not been fully consulted with the public after controversy over a lack of engagement with communities.
At least 24 ‘active travel’ schemes were set up across the county’s 13 districts from July to August as part of a national drive to promote cycling and walking, with KCC receiving a total of £1.6million to invest in these initiatives. But, five of the 15 road trials in Ashford, Thanet, Dover and Tonbridge have been scrapped after outcry from residents over public safety, disruption to businesses and a lack of proper consultation.
Cllr Michael Payne (Con), KCC’s cabinet member for highways, said “useful lessons” had been learnt as he promised a tougher stance with regards to future schemes during a County Hall scrutiny committee meeting yesterday. He said no scheme should be “allowed to proceed” without engagement with affected Kent residents, even if meant losing access to around £6.4 million of cash from the Department for Transport for longer-term green travel projects.
Speaking to the panel of 12 councillors, he said: “Even if Kent were to be awarded further funding there would have to be time allocated for normal public consultation to be taken.”
His stance received cross-party support in the meeting. KCC opposition leader Cllr Dara Farrell (Lab), of Ashford south, said active travel should not come at the cost of “abject misery” for motorists. He said: “That certainly won’t encourage people to cycle.”
Cllr Dr Lauren Sullivan (Lab), of Northfleet, said she thought it was “appalling” that the council would be forced to “refuse” money if it comes with short consultation engagement due to Whitehall failings.
She said: “As a council, we are looking for crumbs here to fill some gaps and good for our community and the government is hamstringing us so we can’t do this effectively.”
KCC’s highways director Simon Jones said there is a “hope” that the projects which have “survived” will begin to reap positive benefits
In Maidstone, town centre businesses have criticised the new pedestrianised zone on Earl Street which has replaced several loading and disabled bays near Wagamama and Nando’s. A new cycling link between Maidstone East Station and Mote Park via King Street has left residents frustrated.
Cllr Rob Bird (Lib Dem), of Maidstone central, said: “With the Earl Street scheme it would have been helpful if county council members were given some briefing beforehand.
He added: “The businesses were not told about what was being done until after the work started, which was very unfortunate.”
In response, Nikola Floodgate, KCC schemes planning and delivery manager, said: “The messaging was slightly delayed and I can only put that down to the fact we were doing things at pace.”
However, Mrs Floodgate assured the committee: “We have tweaked the scheme repeatedly and will continue to monitor.”
KCC said the performance of the schemes was being monitored in different ways. Some were created to stop “rat-runs” and cut traffic levels. Others were set up to check how many people were using the area for walking and cycling. However, the future of the Kent schemes remains in question as Whitehall bosses have yet to decide whether the extra £6.4m will be given to KCC.
A DfT spokesman recently said: “We have said from the beginning that we will not fund councils who cannot demonstrate that their schemes will be genuine improvements, and this remains the case.”
Article originally appeared on Kent Online
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