Faster motorway speeds in Kent 'will mean more pollution' say Greens

This is from Kent News:
Green campaigners have vowed to push for reduced motorway speed limits despite transport chiefs in Parliament considering a possible rise by the summer.
MPs could be asked to vote as soon as July on plans to raise the limit from 70 to 80mph as part of a new road safety strategy, due to be considered in May.
Kent Green Party has also repeated calls for 20mph limits in residential areas, prompted by a rise in the number of child casualties on the roads.
Chairman Stuart Jeffrey said: "This problem has gone on far too long. It’s time for action. Kent needs an immediate change to 20mph limits in all residential areas. As we know, residents overwhelmingly support this, the last government supported this and public health experts support this.
"There is no excuse not to implement it."

Get these criminals off our roads

Listening to Norman Baker on the news last night trying to justify increasing the number of people killed and injured on our roads left me feeling thoroughly sickened.

Every six and a half weeks on our roads around 322 people are killed, about the same number as the total UK military casualties in Afghanistan from 2001 to date. The UK has its own Afghanistan 8 time each year, except this death toll includes 120 children.

But in the name of personal freedom and in the name of unnecessary cuts, the ConDems are happy to see more people being killed and injured and more families plunged into a lifetime of grief.

Speeding is a crime that kills people. Cars are the most lethal and widely deployed weapons in the UK. The government must be no let up on road safety measures and indeed it must be harder on criminals - those people who break speed limits. The government and police should be cracking down on speeding drivers, it should be treated with the seriousness of drink driving and it should become just as socially unacceptable. It is time to get these criminals off our roads.

Sadly Mr Baker must think it acceptable to increase the number of children killed on our roads. He should be ashamed of himself.

Salt pavements in snow and ice

Letter to Kent County Council calling for pavements to be salted in snow and ice. Pavements in Maidstone were still impassable a week after the snow and many people were trapped in their houses right up to Christmas. KCC did manage to salt a small area from the council offices to the member's car park though.

Dear Cllr Chard,

The week before Christmas has proved miserable and dangerous to people in Maidstone, especially the elderly and socially isolated. Despite the rhetoric in Kent County Council’s ‘Winter Service Plan’, pavements around Maidstone remained unsalted demonstrating another clear example of KCC putting cars before people. Please can you ensure that KCC acts on its own policies.

One in six households do not have access to a car in Maidstone and these households are mostly older people who are less confident about walking in snow and ice. These people have been confined to their homes in the run up to Christmas – a situation that is clearly intolerable. KCC is supporting car drivers at the expense of pedestrians which clearly disadvantaging those who need the most help.

I also understand that there was a dramatic rise in fractures reported at Maidstone’s A&E, yet there seem to have been very few car accidents. The health impact of not salting pavements is quite clear and the extra loss of independence, and possibly life, for the elderly must be stopped.

Furthermore, the only path that I found that had been salted by yourselves was between County Hall and the member’s car park – this is simply unacceptable.

I urge you to make salt available for pavements and to ensure that it is used. There needs to be a balance between roads and pavement clearing that reflects the real needs of the people.

Yours sincerely

Stuart Jeffery
Green Party Parliamentary Candidate for Maidstone and the Weald

Fant road safety - timeline and spin

The traffic calming debacle in Fant needs to be set out properly so below is a timeline of events:

Sept 2008: Greens collect 346 signatures from residents on Bower Place, Upper Fant Road, Gatland Lane and Glebe Lane calling for less traffic and better safety on their roads.

Autumn 2008: Lib Dems hold a demo on Gatland Lane / Fant Lane at the junction where traffic calming / improvements were already planned to be implemented. (We welcome these plans and I'll be commenting on them in a future blog). (p.s. I have subsequently established that although the scheme there was on the long list, it hadn't yet been agreed for funding).

Dec 2008: Petition goes to Kent County Council and Maidstone Borough Council

28 Jan 2009: Petition discussed at Maidstone Transportation Board. The minutes state: "The Board considered the reference from Council regarding the petition received on the Fant Traffic Campaign. RESOLVED: That it was noted the Kent Highways Services had received the petition and that design work had started on a scheme and that consultation will take place in due course."

A fairly amazing response which seemed too good to be true so we waited for other evidence that KCC had acted quickly in response to the petition...

15 Apr 2009: Committee papers detailing agreed schemes includes on page 12 a mention a a new scheme for traffic calming in Fant under in Agenda Item 8 in "APPENDIX A. Integrated Transport Improvement Schemes for Maidstone Borough"




Then in Agenda Item 11: "Integrated Transport Programme for Maidstone 2009/10 and
beyond" (page 27)...










In case the writing is too small it says "Integrated Transport Schemes approved for implementation in 2009/10, Fant Traffic Calming £85,000: Speed Cushions on Bower Place, Upper Fant Road, Gatland Land and Glebe Lane and a crossing facility in vicinity of Bower Grove School to reduce vehicle speeds"

Jun 2009: I spoke with Ben Hilden, the engineer at KCC to clarify when the traffic calming scheme would commence. I was told that there were two schemes, one going to be implemented this year and one next year. He also said that Glebe Lane would not be included.

29 Jul 2009: The agenda papers for the Transportation Board (Agenda Item 11):











I spoke at the meeting to demand an explanation for the U turn by council and none was given. They claimed that previous reports were produced by mistake! None of the councillors, neither Lib Dem or Tory spoke to back the urgent need for action on the other three roads or to question why KCC had got it so wrong.

While I completely acknowledge that the Gatland Land / Fant Lane scheme was going ahead first, it looks to me like they have used the agreement for that scheme as a way of saying that they have met the demands of the petition. This is appalling spin to say the least and frankly I am quite disgusted.

Traffic calming in Maidstone

Maidstone's roads are unbelievable as are some of the drivers.

I saw two drivers mount and drive along the pavement to get past a queues of traffic. Frustratingly I couldn't see their number plates so I couldn't report them to the police. I then witnessed a driver overtake a line of queuing cars about 200m long, on the wrong side of the road only to try to pull in at the far end... the driver came past the queue at high speed too. Any pedestrian would have been minced.

I know that traffic is annoying but these dangerous and illegal practices must stop. Where was the law - nowhere to be seen.

Rant over...

24% rise in Kent's traffic

From the Kent Messenger: "Traffic levels in Kent have grown by nearly a quarter in 15 years - a greater rate than neighbours Essex, Surrey and most other counties in the south east."

Only Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire had higher rises in the South East. I see that Kent County Council wouldn't put a councillor up for comment and left it to one of their officers to claim they are trying to reduce traffic.

Frankly, this is basic political cowardice and typical of the business as usual grey parties. The Tories are doing nothing to promote alternatives to cars aside from issuing the occasional platitude. They are still building roads, refusing to improve public transport, cycling and walking. They won't make our roads safer by slowing down traffic. They are not building a sustainable society.

Well done to the CPRE for exposing them!

£100k to knock a minute off travel time

Letter from Ian to the Kent Messenger:

Dear Editor,

So travel times through Maidstone by car have fallen by 40 seconds per mile, getting people to their destinations perhaps 1.5 minutes quicker, and average speeds have increased from 14mph to 17mph (KM 27 Feb) as a result of £100,000 of investment to get the traffic light sequences
working properly.

While this will help to bring about a negligible improvement in air quality in Maidstone, and almost imperceptible improvements in average journey times, surely this money could have been more wisely spent on improving public transport, along with cycling and walking facilities, and thereby reducing traffic volume rather than getting it to travel slightly faster than at present.

The daily congestion that throttles Maidstone cannot be overcome by tinkering with traffic lights; only major improvements in the quality, cost, and convenience of adequate public transport, together with healthy alternatives to car dependence, can provide an effective solution to Maidstone's transport problems, as many other major UK cities have proved, with bold initiatives, and appropriate levels of county and civic political and financial support.

Ian McDonald
Transport Spokesperson, Maidstone Green Party

LibDems join the road safety campaign in Fant

The papers have reported that the LibDems staged a protest on Gatland Lane against the speed of traffic at the junction with Fant Lane. While it is good to have cross party support for our campaign it seems, perhaps, that they are a little twitched by the diligent work we have been doing knocking on every door along the Fant rat run to collect our petition signatures.

It is also frustrating that they have represented the ward at both county and borough level for many years and the road safety problem still remains. The Lib Dems have had plenty of time to tackle this issue and have failed to do so; it's time to give others a chance.

When we were canvassing earlier this year, almost every person on the rat run from Bower Place to Glebe Lane wanted action taken to reduce the speed and volume of traffic. I have witnessed countless cars speeding down all four roads.

We need to recognise that these roads are where people live and should be driven along slowly and not used as cut throughs. We need a blanket 20mph limit across Maidstone and especially in Fant.