Tag Archives: Graveney

Swale Borough Councillors’ Report March 2023

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Travel & Sustainable Development

A better way of getting about is possible! The problems with Dunkirk Hill being closed has again highlighted the problems of getting an adequate bus service and will have pushed some people to travel by car instead. However, when it comes to planning for new homes, we are often told that developments need to be “sustainable”, which is the idea that one’s daily needs could be met without the use of a car. This raises the question, what does a realistic alternative to using the car mean?

We feel it ought to be that public transport, and the cycling and walking network, are so good that using them would be the obvious thing to do. This might mean that buses came every 15min or less, and cost less than it would to use the car. They would run from early morning to late evening so shift workers could use them, they would be clean and comfortable. Cycling routes would be safe from traffic so all ages could use them with confidence and not be intimidated by fast and close-passing traffic.

Very often we are told that restrictions on development on highways grounds can only come if safety is involved, but this always seems to mean that there has to have been some injury or fatality before action can be taken. Apart from the fact that this is an approach to safety that would be unacceptable in any other sphere, it also is a very narrow definition of safety , and does not take into account the damage done by increased emissions, both of CO2 and other pollutants, and the damage to health done by time sat in cars rather than being active: even if it just walking to the bus stop. A recent study showed that just 11 minutes walking a day could cut the risk of early death by 10%.

It is a huge challenge to provide high quality public transport and walking & cycling routes in our rural ward. Swale Borough Council has been working on plans to improve walking and cycling routes in the ‘Parishes to Town’ project started through the Eastern Area Committee. It is critical that a better model to fund rural public transport must be found. This is a challenge for all levels of government, but it must be met if local plan policies for sustainable development and a transition away from the car for local journeys are to be anything other than empty promises.

Alastair Gould (AlastairGould@swale.gov.uk)

Tim Valentine (TimValentine@swale.gov.uk) 07752 191807

Swale Borough Councillors for Boughton & Courtenay.

Swale Borough Councillors’ Report March 2022

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The Cost-of-Living Crisis

We are all facing a big increase in the basic cost of living. The cost of gas, electricity and petrol have all increased sharply. Food prices have increased too, with the largest increases on the basic everyday foods. These price rises have come on the back of the removal of the £20 uplift to universal credit, and in April there will be a significant increase in national insurance deducted from pay packets. All this is leaving some having to chose between heating and eating. Here we set out how to get help locally if you find yourself in a difficult situation or know a family who are struggling.

Swale Borough Council fund a Fuel and Water Home Advisory Service. Run by Stevie Pettit at Seashells Children’s Centre in Sheerness, the service offers free advice to anybody in Swale. Stevie can help with understanding bills and tariffs, energy and water efficiency measures, advice on mould and condensation, and help dealing with suppliers and energy debt. In some cases, energy or water debts can be reduced or even written off. For free advice and support contact Stevie on 07862158783

Citizens Advice Swale offer free, confidential and impartial advice including debt advice and help applying for universal credit. For help visit citizensadviceswale.uk/get-advice/ or call 0808 278 7979.

To get help from Faversham Foodbank you need a voucher. Citizens’ Advice Faversham can issue food vouchers via their helpline on 0808 278 7979. There is a list of other agencies who can issue foodbank vouchers at faversham.foodbank.org.uk

The food bank relies on voluntary help and support to make sure that no one in our community has to go hungry. If you’d like to offer voluntary help, or donate food or money, you’ll find the information you need at faversham.foodbank.org.uk

If you’re in the fortunate position to be able to consider fitting solar panels to your home to reduce you fuel bills, the rising cost of electricity makes this an ever more financially attractive investment. Once again Swale Borough Council are working with Kent County Council to offer a group buying scheme to get the best value installer. You’ll find further details and can register your interest, with no obligation, at solartogether.co.uk/kent/

Tim Valentine

TimValentine@swale.gov.uk

Alastair Gould

AlastairGould@swale.gov.uk

Swale Borough Councillors for Boughton & Courtenay

KCC Councillor’s Report February 2022

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Rich Lehmann Swale East

After a much needed break over the Christmas and New Year period, things are back in full flow already and my inbox is as busy as ever. One topic that I and my colleagues continue to be asked questions on is our position on housing, and specifically the amount of it that is looking like it might be built on some of our local high grade farmland.

Finding enough locations in Swale to put all of the houses is particularly tricky as so much of the land is ‘constrained’. Large amounts of land north of the A2 are susceptible to flooding and much of the area south of the M2 is part of the highly protected Kent Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. This leaves a narrow belt, primarily close to the A2, as the target for most potential housing development.

Our government’s housing targets seem to be driven more by economic factors rather than based on genuine local need. Coupled with the changes they have made to national planning policy in the past decade, which have taken a lot of power away from local councils, the story all across Kent is one of huge housing estates being built at a truly dizzying rate. In the past the majority of these large estates have been expansions of towns, but now they are increasingly being in rural areas, sometimes dwarfing the villages they are being built alongside.

The Prime Minister raised people’s hopes at the Conservative Party conference last October when he gave a speech stating that new homes should not be built on ‘green fields’, but sadly three months later there is still no indication that any change to policy is forthcoming. Current planning policy states that if the borough council fail to get a revised local plan agreed before the previous plan expires, then the door is effectively opened for speculative developers to build where they please.

A local environmental campaigner started an excellent and well researched petition to Michael Gove in December which has already gained over 50,000 signatures. If you would like to add your name, please go to https://www.change.org/p/westminster-halt-harmful-housing-with-new-environmental-planning-law-no-more-greenfields-building 

Hopefully there is still time for the government to see sense on this issue and review both planning policy and their housebuilding targets. It would be great if we could be building a few hundred low cost houses based on local need rather than thousands of houses that are unaffordable to the majority of those people who have grown up in Swale and work in the area.

Rich Lehmann

rich.lehmann@kent.gov.uk

Kent County Councillor for Swale East