Kent Freedom Pass

This is from 38 Degrees: It’s crunch time. Over 15,000 of us have told Kent council to extend discounted bus travel to 16-18 year olds, and it’s forced them to hold a debate on our campaign this Thursday. [1] I’ll be there with students and other 38 Degrees members to hand in the biggest petition Kent council has ever seen. Now it’s time to ramp up the pressure. Not everyone who signed will be able to make it to the debate. But if we all email David Brazier - the key cabinet member for transport in Kent - before the meeting, we can all be there in spirit. [2] We can make a dramatic impact on the future of our buses on Thursday. Please can you email David Brazier now? It won’t take more than 3 minutes: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/kent-freedom-pass I’m so proud of how big we’ve made this issue. When I started this campaign I had no idea it would get this much support. [3] Thank you to everyone who has shared the petition on Facebook, with friends and classmates. We’ve made Kent council schedule a debate - now let’s get the key cabinet member for transport on board. David Brazier won’t be used to getting thousands of emails from people in Kent about a single issue. If loads of 38 Degrees members write to him before Thursday in support of discounted bus travel, he’ll see how serious we are about this. Please click here to send an email now: https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/kent-freedom-pass Thanks for everything you’ve done so far, Lynne Miller, 38 Degrees member from Kent PS It would be great if you could make it on Thursday! The more of us that are there, the more impact we'll make. I’ll be there with students and 38 Degrees members from all over Kent. Here’s the details: On the day, David Brazier the Cabinet Member for Transport & Environment will meet us at 1.30pm to receive our huge petition. Then at 2pm the debate begins. There’s space in the chamber to watch the debate, and the council will also be showing a live link of the discussion in another room, in case it gets too packed. When: Meet at 1.15pm on Thursday 18th July (until about 3pm) Where: Outside Kent County Council, County Hall, Maidstone, Kent, ME14 1XQ Please RSVP to events@38degrees.org.uk to confirm if you’ve arranged to come. NOTES [1] My campaign on Campaigns By You: Freedom Passes for Ages 16-19: http://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/freedom-pass-for-ages-16-19 [2] David Brazier, Kent County Council: https://democracy.kent.gov.uk/mgUserInfo.aspx?UID=179 [3] Kent Online, Thousands sign petition calling for Freedom Pass to be extended up to the age of 18: http://www.kentonline.co.uk/kentonline/news/Council-defies-thousands-over-Freedom-3274/

Lydd Airport - the fight continues

Well done to the Lydd Airport Action Group and the RSPB on taking the campaign against an airport at Lydd to the High Court. The Un-Greenest Government Ever agreed that a huge expansion was needed on the peninsula, home to many rare birds and next to a nuclear power station.

We don't need more airport capacity. We need to radically reduce our carbon emissions not increase them.

No Drive Thru McDonalds in Fant

I was pleased to read that McDonalds plan for a drive through restaurant on the site of the old Renault garage on the Broadway has been rejected. Although I have warmed to McD's a little over recent months (which was difficult from my starting point), we don't need a McDonalds there - the traffic implications would be awful.

What we really need in the town is a good sized theatre and the Renault garage site would be a good spot to put it on.

A21: road widening vs ancient woodland

This is from the Woodland Trust - please help the campaign.

The Highways Agency has resurrected plans to widen a stretch of the A21 between Tonbridge and Pembury in Kent. If these plans go ahead they will result in the direct loss of 9 hectares of irreplaceable ancient woodland.
Anyone who has visited the area will know that there are traffic issues and solutions need to be found. However this scheme will have a substantial negative impact on the local environment whilst in all likelihood only being a short term fix for the problem.

TfK: Transport for Kent and the Whitstable Oyster Card

I was interviewed by John Warnett on Radio Kent's Breakfast Show this morning about Transport for London wanting to run services from the edge of Kent, i.e. Dartford and Sevenoaks.

I think that the TfL model for public transport is better than we have in Kent - London public transport is accountable to the Mayor rather than central government. They also run more reliable services, so extending them to the edge of Kent is a reasonable thing to do, especially as it is likely to improve services.

But I also think Kent County Council should be discussing the model with the Department of Transport. Currently our train service, South Eastern Trains is franchised by the DfT to Govia, i.e. Kent people have no say in it.

So how about bringing the accountability to local government with a similar model to London and we can call it "Transport for Kent" complete with a Whitstable Oyster card? It's not quite renationalisation but at least would be accountable to local people.

20mph meeting with Ann Barnes, Police and Crime Commissioner

I met with Ann Barnes during the week at her request following our correspondence late last year to discuss the level of support that the public has for 20mph limits in residential roads. Let's hope that she was persuaded and will support the introduction of these.

I explained that:

1. Bristol residents’ support for a maximum speed limit on their own street of 20 mph or less rose after implementation from 73% to 88%. Residents’ support for a maximum speed limit of 20 mph or less on all residential streets rose from 67% to 83%.
2. British Social Attitudes Survey 2011: 73% favoured 20mph limits for residential roads. Only 11% were against
3. Other authorities: Chichester, York and Oxford all found between 70 and 80% support
4. Maidstone: 2008 survey of 346 homes showed 72% in favour – presented to MBC in 2008
5. Local Authorities surveyed by the Independent: One third of local authorities are considering 20mph limits
6. National Government: Department for Transport Circular 01/2013: “Traffic authorities are asked to keep their speed limits under review with changing circumstances, and to consider the introduction of more 20 mph limits and zones, over time, in urban areas and built-up village streets that are primarily residential, to ensure greater safety for pedestrians and cyclists”
7. EU: Recommends 20mph in residential streets

Lydd Airport Expansion

What Kent needs is not another large airport at its farthest corner, we already have one international airport at Manston that is desperate to grow and Lydd has been on that same growth drum for many years but now seems to have won, sadly.

Greens were campaigning hard to stop the expansion, as well as many others across the country. We are the only party consistently opposing airport expansion. The impact on climate change from air travel is disproportionately large - the number of flights needs to reduce not increase. Climate change is reaching its tipping point towards catastrophe.

Keith Taylor, the Green Party’s MEP for the South-east England, said: “It’s hugely disappointing that the Government has given the green light for this damaging expansion. The large number of people that requested a public inquiry into the expansion of Lydd Airport shows that there are huge concerns about the impact these proposals would have in terms of the increase in pollution for local residents and the threat to important wildlife.”

Objection to St Peters Street supermarket

I have just sent the letter below in to the council on the proposed supermarket on one of the most gridlocked streets in the town. We have also collected 100 signatures from local people against it.

Dear Development Control,

Planning Application Ref: 13/0297 - Objection

We, along with local residents, are very concerned about the planning application to convert the 'Power Hub' on St Peters St into a supermarket. We append a 100 signature petition that has been signed by local residents.

Firstly, the site could be put to better use, for example for light industry or affordable homes, both of which are in short supply. Neither of these uses would create the volumes of traffic associated with a supermarket yet industry and homes are necessary for the town.

Secondly, the specific grounds on which we object to the supermarket are as follows:

1. Another supermarket in the area is unnecessary. There are already six large supermarkets within a mile of the site: Tesco and Lidl in Tovil; Sainsburys at Romney Place; Aldi on Well Road; Waitrose in Allington and another Lidl in the Broadway Shopping Centre. These are supplemented by three huge supermarkets at Grove Green, Senacre and Aylesford. Furthermore Morrisons are keen to take over the Army and Navy site just a short distance from Baltic Wharf.

As Maidstone residents are not starving as a result of being unable to find a local supermarket it seems that there are no good reasons to think that additional supermarket capacity is needed in the town.

2. The opening of Asda Home alongside TK Max, Homebase, Wickes and Hobbycraft has reduced St Peters Street and Buckland Hill to gridlock at the weekends. There are three schools that are accessed via Buckland Hill which create serious congestion at 8.30 am and 3.30pm each weekday.

The plans state that there will be an extra 710 vehicles an hour along these roads, a rise of 54%. The planning application seems to focus on the impact on the gyratory system and London Road, however the real impact will be on St Peters Street and Buckland Hill and these roads will simply not cope with this additional traffic which equates to an extra car passing every 5 seconds.

The new ‘drive thru’ McDonalds proposed for the Broadway is already destined to bring more congestion and worsen air quality in the area.

There are no bus services at all along St Peters Street, and the site is 400 metres from the nearest bus stops. Inevitably almost all customers will arrive and leave by car contributing further to the traffic congestion and pollution in this part of the town.

The impact on air quality for the 800 homes in the Buckland area will be devastating. For some reason the council has not been assessing the area in your pollution control work, however it is opposite Fairmeadow which has exceeded the NO2 targets for the past three years and we can only assume that this level of pollution already extends to Buckland Hill and St Peters Street.

Furthermore, as European research has shown that the UK has around 29,000 premature deaths occur in the UK as a result of PM10, there can be no justification in reducing air quality levels for people already living in an Air Quality Management Area, an area that is clearly experiencing excess deaths due to air pollution.

3. Other local shops will become unviable and will close. The Corner Shop by Maidstone Barracks Station is well used by local residents and provides useful employment and a friendly local business that will be destroyed by a supermarket on its doorstep.

Maidstone Borough Council should be encouraging local businesses not closing them down.

We urge you to reject the planning application.



Stuart Jeffery
Maidstone Green Party

Huge supermarket planned for Maidstone town centre

A new supermarket in Maidstone on an already gridlocked street? They must be mad but that is what is proposed for the old Tilling-Stevens factory - now known as the Power Hub on St Peter's St.

Space for 318 cars, with 3716 sq metres of retail - a significant shop, 60 metres by 60 metres.

The local corner shop won't survive and the road, which is already impassible for most of every weekend after they allowed an Asda Living at the far end, simply will not cope.

Bizarrely, the applicants cite the following in support of their application...

Policy R1

permits retail development within the defined urban and village area (includes Baltic Wharf site) subject to the following criteria:

•That the proposed development will not threaten the overall economic vitality and viability of established retail centres;

•That arrangements for road access, parking and servicing of the land and buildings are adequate and that there are no highway objections;

Association of British Drivers - attack on 20mph streets

Letter to the Kent Messenger in response to the one by the Association of British Drivers

Dear Editor,

Terry Hudson of the Association of British Drivers made some bizarre and misleading claims in last week's KM.

In claiming that 20mph speed limits are outdated he fails to say that the 30 mph speed limit was introduced in 1934 when there were less than 2 million cars on our roads - now there are 31 million. Moreover, the Department of Transport guidelines from 2009 now call for 20mph limits in residential areas and just two months ago the EU recommended the same. Current thinking is clearly against the 1930's 30mph limits.

Claiming that 20mph residential roads would create congestion and make journey times unreasonable is also wrong. As most residential roads are close to arterial roads that should remain at 30mph, the average increase in travel time is around 40 seconds. Congestion does not increase, the evidence suggests that it decreases.

Most importantly, 20mph areas have shown significant reductions in accidents. I find it astonishing that a road lobby group is arguing against a scheme that saves lives.

With 72% of people supporting 20mph residential streets, the weight of public opinion is on the side of the campaign - hardly 'social engineering by political parties'. Finally, the Green Party does not 'loathe' people who travel by car; we simply want safer streets, viable alternatives to travelling by car, less pollution and lower use of fossil fuels.

It is about time that Mr Hudson looked at the facts rather than making them up.

Stuart Jeffery
Maidstone Green Party

£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

Knife Crime Surveys Soar

With all the scare stories about knife crime, it is worth remembering that the number one killer of 15 to 24 year olds is the car.

This fascinating map published by Mark Easton is from the Grim Reaper’s Road Map and is an atlas of mortality in Britain. 3200 people of all ages are killed on our roads each year yet little is mentioned on the news. We scream when 1000+ die of cholera in Zimbabwe, but bizarrely over look the fact that three time more dies because of our love affair with the car.

It is worth remembering that 3200 are the direct deaths, when you add in air pollution which the EU puts at 40,000 attributable early deaths in the UK and then obesity deaths because we won't walk to the corner shop for a loaf of bread, you have a startling picture.

Our society has been built around the car and will need massive investment to change. Until politicians are elected with the guts to put real money into public transport, cycling and walking; guts to challenge the communter society and out of town shopping, then we will carry on killing our young. I see few politicians with these guts in the grey parties.

Finally, thanks to Beau Bo D'Or for the image above and to Velochick and Quickrelease.tv for pointing this out:

THE FLYING KING

There was once a devil in Hell named Carnifex, who liked to eat small children. Sometimes he would take them alive and crush all the bones in their bodies. Sometimes he would pull their heads off, and sometimes he would hit them so hard that their backs snapped like dry twigs…But one day, Carnifex got out of his bed in Hell to find there was not a single child left. ‘What I need is a regular supply,’ he said to himself. So he went to a country that he knew was ruled by an exceedingly vain king. He found him in his bathroom…and said to him: ‘How would you like to fly?’ ‘Very much indeed,’ said the king, ‘but what do you want in return, Carnifex?’ ‘Oh . . . nothing very much,’ replied Carnifex, ‘and I will enable you to fly as high as you want, as fast as you want, simply by raising your arms like this,’ and he showed the king how he could fly. ‘I should indeed like to be able to do that,’ thought the king to himself. ‘But what is it you want in return, Carnifex?’ he asked aloud. ‘Look! Have a try!’ replied Carnifex. ‘Put out your arms - that’s right, and now off you go!’

The king put out his arms, and immediately floated into the air…He went higher and higher, until he was above the clouds… Then he landed back beside the devil and said: ‘But what is it you want in return, Carnifex?’ ‘Oh, nothing very much,’ replied Carnifex. ‘Just give me one small child every day, and you shall be able to fly - just like that…there are thousands of children in your kingdom…I shall only take one a day - your people will hardly notice.’ The king thought long and hard about this, for he knew it was an evil thing, but the idea of walking anywhere, now he’d tasted the thrill of flying, seemed to him so slow and dull that in the end he agreed. And from that day on he could fly - just like that.

….Every day some poor family would find that one of their children had been taken by Carnifex the devil. Now the king’s youngest daughter had a favourite doll that was so lifelike that she loved it and treated it just as if it were a real live baby. And she was in the habit of stealing into the king’s bathroom (when he wasn’t looking) to bath this doll in one of his baths.Well it so happened that she was doing this on the very day that the king made his pact with Carnifex, and thus she overheard every word that passed between them. Naturally she was terrified by what she had heard, but because girls were not reckoned much of in that country in those days, and because she was the least and most insignificant of all his daughters, she had not dared tell anyone what had happened. One day, however, Carnifex came and took the king’s own favourite son. The king busied himself in his counting-house, and would not say a word. Later that day he went off for a long flight, and did not return until well after dark.

Eventually all the people from all the corners of the realm came to the king to protest. They gathered in the main square, and the king hovered above them looking distinctly uneasy. ‘You are not worthy to be our king!’ the people cried. ‘You have sacrificed our very children just so that you can fly!’ The king fluttered up a little higher, so he was just out of reach, and then he ordered them all to be quiet, and called out: ‘Carnifex! Where are you?’ There was a flash and a singeing smell, and Carnifex the devil appeared, sitting on top of the fountain in the middle of the square. At once a great cry went up from the crowd - something between fear and anger - but Carnifex shouted: ‘Listen! I understand how you feel!’

…But the king’s youngest daughter stood up on her stool, and cried out: ‘He’s a devil! Don’t listen to him!’ ‘Quite, quite,’ said Carnifex, licking his lips at the sight of the little girl still clutching her favourite doll. ‘But even I can sympathize with the tragic plight of parents who see their own beloved offspring snatched away in front of their very eyes.’ ‘Don’t listen!’ shouted the king’s youngest daughter. ‘So I’ll tell you what I’ll do,’ said Carnifex, never taking his beady eyes off the little girl clutching what he thought was a small baby. ‘I’ll give you some compensation for your tragic losses. I will let you all fly - just like that!’ And he pointed to the king, who flew up and down a bit and then looped-the loop, just to show them all what it was like. And there was not a single one of those good people who wasn’t filled with an almost unbearable desire to join him in the air. ‘Don’t listen to him!’ shouted the little girl. ‘He’ll want your children!’ ‘All I ask,’ said Carnifex in his most wheedling voice, ‘is for one tiny. . . weeny. . . little child a day. Surely that’s not too much to ask?’ And, you know, perhaps there were one or two there who were so besotted with the desire to fly that they might have agreed, had not a remarkable thing happened. The king’s youngest daughter suddenly stood up on tiptoe! and held up her favourite doll so that all the crowd could see, and she cried out: ‘Look! This is what he’ll do to your children!’ And with that, she hurled the doll, which she loved so dearly, right into Carnifex’s lap. Well, of course, this was too much for the devil. He thought it was a real live baby, and he had its head off and all its limbs torn apart before you could say ‘Rabbits!’ And when the crowd saw Carnifex apparently tearing a small baby to pieces (for none of them knew it was just a doll) they came to their senses at once. They gave an angry cry, and converged on Carnifex where he crouched, with his face all screwed up in disgust, spitting out bits of china and stuffing.

And I don’t know what they would have done if they’d laid hold of him, but before they could, Carnifex had leapt from the fountain right onto the back of the flying king, and with a cry of rage and disappointment, he rode him down to Hell where they both belonged. And, after that, the people gave the youngest daughter a new doll that was just as lifelike as the previous one, and she was allowed to bath it in the king’s bathroom any day she wanted. As for Carnifex, he returned every year to try and induce the people to give up just one child a day to him. But no matter what he offered them, they never forgot what they had seen him do that day, and so they refused, and he had to return empty-handed. And all this happened hundreds and hundreds of years ago, and Carnifex never did think of anything that could persuade them.

But listen! You may think that Carnifex was a terrible devil, and you may think that the flying king was a terrible man for giving those poor children to Carnifex just so that he could fly. But I shall tell you something even more astonishing, and that is that in this very day, in this very land where you and I live, we allow not one. . . not two. . . not three… but twenty children to have their heads smashed or their backs broken or to be crushed alive every day - and not even so that we can fly, but just so that we can ride about in things we call motor cars. If I’d read that in a fairy tale, I wouldn’t have believed it - would you?

Carnifex is Latin for killer or executioner.

Kent on Sunday

Two pieces in the Kent on Sunday today. Firstly a news item on an emergency motion passed by the Green Party conference last week for an investigation into the policing at Kingsnorth. Hazel Dawe gets the credit for organising the motion. Secondly a letter from me on the Maidstone Goes Green:

Dear Editor,

Putting the blame and guilt on individuals for using their cars is what I expect from the Tories and LibDems mentioned in your article on Maidstone Goes Green Week (KOS 7th Sept).

Encouraging people to travel to work without using their car is a worthy goal but KCC have repeated failed to invest in alternatives to car based travel. The implementation of the traffic management system in Maidstone has coincided with a doubling of road fatalities, the bus services in Maidstone are infrequent enough to be non-existent and the tiny number of cycle lanes simply don't work.

How can people be expected to do 'do the right thing' during Maidstone Goes Green week, when Kent County Council refuses to invest in the changes needed to support people?

Individual changes are vitally important to tackling climate change and the rising cost of living but local and national government must ensure policies and infrastructure are in place to make these changes possible.

Stuart Jeffery
Green Party Prospective Parliamentary Candidate for Maidstone and the Weald