Ash and New Ash Green Ward

Southeastern is proposing that, from December 2012, one of the two fast trains each hour, off-peak and on Saturdays, will stop calling at Meopham and Longfield.  The objective is to speed up one train an hour from Medway and east Kent to Victoria by about 4 minutes.

This will mean we will have a very uneven train service to and from Longfield with trains for Bromley and London departing at 22 and 36 minutes past each hour creating a gap of over ¾ hour with no trains.  Eastbound trains will be at 18 and 37 minutes past the hour.

The bus service between New Ash Green and Longfield runs mainly at half hourly intervals so it will be impossible to provide connections with every train.

Comments are invited by Southeastern.  They must have them by 31 May.

I will be commenting in strong terms to the effect that this change is wholly unacceptable and will result in a much worse service for people from this area, completely at odds with their stated aim of delivering improvements to journey times.  The 4 minute improvement to the one train each hour is for people in Medway who already have the benefit of the high speed service to London if they need to get there quickly.

I would encourage anyone else who feels strongly about this to send comments to Southeastern before the end of this month.  See their website at http://www.southeasternrailway.co.uk/news/latest-news/december-2012-timetable-consultation-begins/ where you may view all the proposed changes.

If you want to write to Southeastern, address your letter to:

Mike Gibson, Public Affairs Manager,

Southeastern,

Friars Bridge Court

41-45 Blackfriars Road

London  SE1 8PG

Cameron

Kent Fire & Rescue Service has now confirmed the times and locations of the forthcoming consultation events:

16 May – Meeting with local residents at Ash Village Hall 1700 – 2000 hrs.
23 May – the Chief Executive and Project Manager will be attending the Annual Parish Meeting to outline the plans and answer any questions.  2000hrs at Hodsoll Street Village Hall.
24 May – Information event at New Ash Green Primary School 1700 – 2100hrs
8 June – Information event at New Ash Green Village Hall 1400 – 1700 hrs.

Cameron

Carol and I would like to record our congratulations to our colleague, Alan Pett, on his election as Vice-Chairman of Sevenoaks District Council last night. We wish him an enjoyable year.

Cameron

Kent Fire and Rescue Service have started to talk to local people about their proposals for a new fire station in the Ash and New Ash Green area.  As a part of their assessment of the suitability of a site between Butlers Place and Chapel Wood Road they have written to everyone living in Butlers Place, Seven Acres and the southern part of Chapel Wood Road.

They are also planning two consultation events in the near future:

Wednesday 23 May: The Chief Executive and Project Manager will attend the Ash-cum-Ridley Parish Council’s Annual Meeting to talk about the proposal and answer questions.  The meeting is at 8:00pm in Hodsoll Street Village Hall.  There’s no hidden agenda in holding the meeting there, it was arranged long before the Fire and Rescue Service’s plans were known and is just because they move the meeting around the main settlements of the parish each year!

Friday 8 June: There will be an Open Meeting in New Ash Green Village Hall from 5:00-8:00pm.  I understand that officers from the Fire and Rescue Service will be available for people to drop in at any time to talk and ask questions.

I believe that some local consternation was caused yesterday when some workmen appeared on the site to start digging holes.  I spoke to the Project Manager who told me that they were surveyors who were taking some soil samples as part of the assessment of the suitability of the site.  He has agreed however that no further work should be undertaken on the site until they have had an opportunity to talk with local residents and explain the process fully.  Even if that site is eventually chosen, no construction work can start until a planning application has been submitted to, and approved by, Sevenoaks District Council.  It will be some time yet before the Fire and Rescue Service is in a position to do that.

Cameron

Last Friday I went to one of their regular meetings for members of the Dartford and Gravesham NHS Trust and other local people with an interest in the hospital.

We heard from the Chief Executive of the Trust about the plans for merging with the Medway NHS Foundation Trust.  It was stressed that this is largely a management merger, and there is no prospect of any services being withdrawn from either hospital.  We were told that the larger operating unit will enable the provision of a greater range of services.  It was admitted that it is driven by the Government requirement for all hospitals to become Foundation Trusts (and Darent Valley’s PFI legacy means that its finances could not support such a move) and as a way of saving some £20 million a year on a turnover of £168 million.  If in future there is some specialisation on one site or the other, it is unlikely that this will be to any greater extent that already occurs between hospitals.

The public engagement process is now reaching its end so peple have until 27 April to respond to the consultation on their website.  Late contributions will however be taken into account as far as possible.  A report on this consultation, and the parallel discussions with local GPs, will be prepared in May.  Plans will then be drawn up for assessment by the Competition and Co-operation Panel (to ensure that the benefits of integration outweigh the loss of organisational choice).  A full business case will be presented to the Health Authority by the end of the summer.  Final integration, if all goes to plan, will be by the end of 2012.

Two other presentations focussed on aspects of the hospital’s work which certainly offer an impressive service.  The first was in lower limb replacement (that is, hip and knee joints) where nearly 700 procedures were carried out last year and waiting times have been brought down; a fourth consultant has now been appointed.  There is a strong emphasis on pre- and post-operative care to ensure that the patient recovers as quickly as possible.  Secondly we heard about the developing work in the diagnosis and treatment of dementia.  This, it was stressed, is an illness and not an inevitable consequence of ageing; it can be treated but early diagnosis is critical to effective treatment.  At present there are some 670,000 peole in England diagnosed with dementia, costing the health service around £19 billion a year and with only an estimated 30% of cases actually diagnosed, this is the tip of the iceberg.  At Darent Valley, more is now being done to spot the early signs in patients presenting for other issues and as they recognise that hospital is probably the worst place for people who may be confused or suffering from memory loss, the emphasis is going to be more on care in the community with hospitalisation as a last resort.

An informal consultation on proposals for changes to parking restrictions around Sevenoaks District starts on 27 April and runs until 27 May.  Letters are being sent to immediate frontagers for their views but anyone is welcome to comment.  Dependant on the outcome of the informal consultation, the proposals may be altered, abandoned, or proceed to formal, statutory consultation.

Ash-cum-Ridley Parish Council has asked that the Highway Authority, Kent County Council consider introducing new parking restrictions to prevent parking on the approaches to and around the Chapel Wood Road roundabout by the entrance road to Milestone School.

Kent County Council has asked that the District Council assist in the promotion of restrictions to prevent parking, in line with the advice set out in the Highway Code.

Let me have your comments and I will pass them on.

Sevenoaks District Council is preparing the Local Development Framework, a statement of its plans for the District up to 2026.  The Core Strategy has already been approved by the Government and adopted.  This sets out the broad policies for the District, including the principle of no new development in the Green Belt, apart from very closely defined exceptions and in existing settlements like New Ash Green which are excluded from the Green Belt by a tightly drawn boundary.  The Core Strategy sits alongside and complements the recently published National Planning Policy Framework which says that, as before, inappropriate development in the Green Belt should not be approved except in very exceptional circumstances.

To supplement these documents, Sevenoaks Council is now preparing its Allocations and Development Management document which defines the land within the District where development might take place and the areas where there will be a presumption against further development.  It will not avoid the need to obtain planning permission for any new building but will make it clearer what is acceptable and what is not.  In the draft document, the main statement affecting Ash and New Ash Green was the inclusion of the possibility of an additional 50 residential units in New Ash Green village centre but only if they would be needed to provide money to help with the regeneration of the centre.  Following an extensive consultation exercise the Council has now published the results.  This has produced one more possible change for New Ash Green.

Bovis Homes currently owns North Ash Manor, which is the company’s head office.  They say they intend to relocate their head office elsewhere in the District during the plan period (i.e. before 2026) and in this case, they have suggested the allocation of the site for residential development, including the restoration of the listed Manor House for residential use.  The proposal for the Allocations and Development Management document is therefore that up to 50 houses or flats could be built on the site while retaining and enhancing the setting of the Manor House.  It is noted that the site would be suitable for housing for older people and that employment space would be re-provided in the regenerated New Ash Green village centre.

The Council is now asking for views on this change before the document is finalised and submitted to the Government for the process of public examination and its final approval.  Your views will be important so if you want to comment, visit planningconsult.sevenoaks.gov.uk and add your contribution before 10 May 2012. The full details of the proposal can be seen if you follow that link.

Billet Hill is a steep, narrow road with quite a few residential properties.  It also forms a very well used through route from Ash and New Ash Green for traffic heading west towards the A20, Swanley and London.  I was contacted by a local resident of Ash who said that traffic in the morning rush hour was regularly brought to a standstill by refuse freighters collecting from the houses along Billet Hill.

Following discussions with the Council’s managers I am now pleased to say they have agreed that the collection schedules will be altered so that collections from Billet Hill will be made later in the day.  Obviously there will still be the possibility of delays at whatever time the collections are made, and no doubt any time would be inconvenient for someone, but hopefully this change will minimise the impact by moving the collections away from the peak time for traffic.

Cameron

The Government has offered grants of up to £100,000 to 12 shopping centres that put forward bids to test the recommendations from Mary Portas’ recent review into the future of our high streets.

New Ash Green’s shopping centre needs all the help it can get if the decline over the past 15 or so years is to be reversed.  So your District Councillors have worked with officers from Sevenoaks District Council to put together a bid for Portas Pilot funding.  We have the support from a wide range of organisations; the Parish Council, Village Association and local traders (including the Co-op) are amongst them, as well as our Member of Parliament, Michael Fallon.

We know there is stiff competition to be one of the 12 successful high streets but there is nothing to lose and, potentially, a lot to gain.  New Ash Green is a unique place and our shopping centre could once again be something for the village to be proud of so we now wait until May when the results will be announced.

That may not be the end, however, because the Government announced today that because the call for bids has produced so many applicants, they will fund a second round of 12 grants in three months’ time.  All bids that were unsuccessful this time will be reconsidered in the next round.

Our video submission in support of our bid

Well, it’s arrived, after all the fuss and commotion.  The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) was published today and over 1,300 pages of often impenetrable jargon in 44 separate documents is condensed into a clear, readable guide of 50 pages (83 pages if you include the Annexes and Technical Guidance).

The document has changed from the one that led to all the press coverage and it now:

• Makes it clear that the Local Plan – Sevenoaks District Council’s Core Strategy – is the basis for decisions in the planning system, and that the presumption in favour of sustainable development works through, and not against, the Local Plan;

• Emphasises that the definition of sustainable development embraces social, environmental and economic objectives, and that none can be pursued in isolation of the others;

• Clarifies that the relevant policies – such as those protecting the Green Belt – cannot be overridden by the presumption in favour of sustainable development;

• Recognises the intrinsic value and beauty of the countryside, whether or not it is specifically designated;

• Reinforces the vital importance of town centres to thriving communities while recognising that businesses in rural communities should be able to expand;

• Allows councils to give greater protection to residential gardens to stop unwanted ‘garden grabbing’; and

• Strengthens the requirement for new buildings to be well designed.

The NPPF also sets out very clearly how Neighbourhood Plans can support the Local Plan and give communities direct power to develop a shared vision for their neighbourhood.  A Neighbourhood Plan will be able to shape and direct sustainable development in the area.  That is what we are now doing in Ash-cum-Ridley as the Parish Council takes the lead, with the District Council and New Ash Green Village Association, to develop a Neighbourhood Plan for the parish.

There are other useful statements in the NPPF which will help us in this area, such as the need to recognise town centres as the heart of their communities and pursue policies to support their viability and vitality and, where town centres are in decline, saying that local planning authorities should plan positively for their future to encourage economic activity.

With the Local Plan that Sevenoaks District Council already has in place and the work that is under way to develop this with a Neighbourhood Plan for our local area, the NPPF should be an asset for us as it brings to an end much of the uncertainty that has surrounded the planning process in recent months.

Cameron