A useful 20 minute conversation with Donna Rixson at KCCs Member Highway Fund this morning. A few notes: TWBC were asked to consult residents by KCC, but only on the yellow lines, not the overall junction redesign (this was not at all clear in the Jan 29 letter and falls short of our expectations about the overall requirement for consultation on the junction design). She is unaware of what consultation happened apart from the notice on the lamppost (but our FOI request to TWBC should get this information - we certainly did not see ant leaflets or letters). Objections were raised, but the number raised were not judged sufficient to merit halting the order, so it has been made. The junction changes are funded by Member Highway Fund rather than from Kents general road fund, and if the works are not complete by the end of March 2015, funding may be lost. This realistically means that works would need to start by February at the latest but there is no exact scheduling in lace yet, pending discussions with contractors. The Budget has been signed off by Sean Holden, and the plans have been reviewed with KCCs Director of Highways who has approved and sealed them. I reiterated that our issue is that full consultation on design was promised (via the 2009 FOI request which I have now emailed to her) and hinted at in the letter earlier this year, but no consultation on design was ever made. Had we been consulted, and most importantly, had a wider group of road users been consulted, a different (better?) design may have come about and different input (including from pedestrians, dog walkers, runners, mobility scooter users etc) may have come about, as well as better assessment of the implication of residents cars blocking the road to the north and south of the junction. Discussions are already planned with contractors but the meeting today is now on hold pending further investigations by KCC.
Posted on: Wed, 15 Oct 2014 09:10:28 +0000
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