confirmation of chairman

confirmation of vice-chairman

declarations of interest

No interests were declared.

part b minutes for information

highway safety issues - b2231/jenkins hill

Michael Sammut, Senior Transportation Engineer (KHS) gave a presentation on the B2231 Lower Road/Leysdown Route Safety Study. It showed that the study had divided the route into eleven sections, A-K, giving details of remedial measures for each section of the route. It also highlighted that the cost of the remedial measures were estimated to be £227,000 and that £141,000 had been secured to implement the priority measures in this financial year.

suspension of standing orders

public session

The Chairman announced that questions would be taken from members of the public, the details of which are included in the Minutes below.

highway safety issues – b2231/jenkins hill continued

The Chairman stated that SBC were totally committed to improving highway safety on the B2231/Jenkins Hill and that it was included in the Transport Strategy as a priority to receive funding.

Mr Malcolm Bullpit of TMS Consultancy, who had been commissioned by the Parish Councils of Eastchurch, Leysdown-on-Sea, Minster-on-Sea and Warden to carry out a separate report indicated that he was saddened that KHS and their consultants, Jacobs, had responded defensively to the Safety Assessment TMS Consultancy had produced. He added that there were serious safety issues on the B2231 that needed to be addressed. He was concerned that if utility companies carried out work on the road, residents at the eastern end of Sheppey would, in effect, be cut-off. The Head of Transportation and Planning confirmed that Statutory Utility companies had an obligation to notify KHS in advance of any planned works and KHS would require the companies to maintain the flow of traffic using temporary signals (shuttle working) during any works. However, if an emergency such as a gas leak occurred, the road may have to be closed until it was repaired.  With regard to road safety, £141,000 had been secured to implement the majority of the identified remedial measures and that the remainder, £86,880, would be made from the next year's Local Transport Plan (LTP) settlement. He added that with regard to road maintenance, over £230,000 had been spent over the past two years to resurface 1.5 km of the road and improve drainage at Jenkins Hill. He also indicated that the condition survey carried out annually showed that further work, depending on available funding, would need to be carried out over the next five years.

Councillor Tatton from Warden Parish Council asked how would the emergency services get through if a serious road traffic accident occurred on Jenkins Hill, forcing the road to be closed. He considered that it would result in many people including the elderly, disabled and young children being stranded. A resident of Bayview raised similar concerns and advised that an elderly relative had to wait over an hour at Christmas before the emergency services arrived when the road had been closed; road works would only exacerbate the problem. A Member also raised concern that Leysdown and Warden would be cut off if the road was blocked and that this was unacceptable.

Mr Durkan, Station Manager, Sheppey Fire Station advised that if the road had to be closed the Police would ensure that ambulance and fire crews were granted access. In the event of a serious accident completely blocking the road, the Fire and Rescue service had four-wheel drive vehicles based in Sheerness which could be used; the RAF rescue helicopter could also be called on. He could not however confirm that this would not result in delays. In response to a question he advised that no specific plan was in place for such an eventuality, but they were regularly trained for such scenarios.

Councillor Purssord, Chairman of Leysdown Parish Council, thanked KHS for their report. He considered that the £141,000 earmarked to improve safety on the B2231 would not be sufficient. He considered that the only way to improve safety at Jenkins Hill would be to widen the road and asked the Board to agree this would happen.

Councillor Partis of Leysdown and Warden Parish Councils asked why works to Section I, the most dangerous section of the road, were being delayed for another year. He asked how many people had to be killed on this stretch of road before something was done. The Head of Transportation and Planning (KHS) stated that any death on any road was highly regrettable. He explained that given the available resources it was important that the items that provide best crash saving are done first. The KCC Cabinet Member for Environment, Transport and Waste advised that every fatal crash was thoroughly investigated by the Police and if they considered the road to be at fault then KHS would face legal action; so it was not in KHS interests to leave roads un-maintained. He reported that of the 800 serious accidents resulting in 100 deaths last year on Kent's roads, investigations had established that only four of these had been due to poorly designed roads or poor road surfaces. Driver error was the biggest cause of serious accidents, ie. speeding, losing control. He added that alterations made to a particular stretch of road would not necessarily reduce the number of accidents. PC Frost (Area Operations) confirmed that in his experience, most accidents were found to be due to driver error. However, he raised concern that sometimes the road had to be closed for a number of hours and welcomed any improvements to the road.

Councillor Macdonald of Minster Parish Council asked KHS if they could provide exact dates and times of when the Structural Surveys had been carried out, he also asked KHS to provide details of the amount of money KHS had claimed from the Contractors when the Sheppey Bridge was being constructed. He understood a Section 106 Agreement had been made between the contractors and KCC Highways. The Head of Transportation and Planning (KHS) was unsure but agreed to provide this information to the Parish Council.

Mr Martin West, a local resident, drew attention to the fact that several of the road signs in the area were facing the wrong way due to large caravans passing through and knocking them. The Head of Transportation and Planning agreed to look into this problem.

HTP, KHS

Ward Members welcomed the commitment from KHS to Parish Councils and local residents and felt that the recent meetings with KHS officers had been beneficial, however there was concern that not all points made by residents to KHS had been taken on board. A visiting Councillor considered Jenkins Hill needed to be re-engineered to make it safe and asked Officers to accept there was a problem and agree something would be done. The Senior Transportation Engineer advised that a list of issues which had been discussed at the meeting with the Parish Councils had been integrated into a table of works. He advised that they wanted to work with the Parish Councils and were still doing so to produce schemes that would be put forward for funding in the next financial year, as well as measures that would be incorporated with the current year schemes. The KCC Cabinet Member for Environment, Transport and Waste advised that KCC were facing an 8% annual budget cut from Central Government and that it would be unfair for Officers to commit to promises they could not keep.

A Ward Member asked whether items identified through the discussion with the Parish Councils would be included in this years works programme. The Head of Transportation and Planning advised that the £141,000 would be broadly spent in accordance with the work identified in the report and that any additional items resulting from the discussion referred to above, could be included in this year's programme, providing the total cost did not exceed the budget. However, items that could not be done during this year would form a supplement to the bid for the remainder of the funding bid for he next financial year.

The Senior Transportation Engineer explained that the two meetings with the Parish Council Working Group for the Lower Road had produced a number of measures that needed to be further developed and that a third meeting had been sought prior to this meeting of the Swale Joint Transportation Board (SJTB) to confirm the measures with the Working Group and advise them how they would be progressed. The meeting would now take place as soon as was possible.

HTP, KHS