- Dec 30, 2011:
- Thank You to Kent Staff for Children Charity Collection
Kent County Councillors Ian Chittenden and Tim Prater collect for Kent Dress-down day Kent Lib Dems are delighted that their annual Christmas dress-down day at Kent Council Council raised £608.62 for the Kent Fund for Children. Over the last few years, over £7,000 has been raised from Kent County Council staff and Councillors for this good cause through the Dress Down Day. You can find out more about the Kent Fund for Children at http://www.kent.gov.uk/news_and_events/news_archive/the_kent_fund_for_children.aspx. Lib Dem Group Leader Trudy Dean said: "Thank you to all Kent Council staff for both their generosity and hard work for all Kent residents in 2011, and best wishes for 2012." Published and promoted by Kent Liberal Democrats, Kent County Council, Sessions House, Maidstone Kent ME14 1XQ Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
- Thank You to Kent Staff for Children Charity Collection
- Dec 20, 2011:
- Lib Dem Concern over New KCC Governance
At the County Council meeting last Thursday, Martin Vye, deputy leader of the Liberal Democrat Group expressed his concern about Councillor's ability to check how the administration is using taxpayer's money, and running services from them. Martin Vye said: "The new arrangements that the Conservative administration are bringing in are deeply flawed. The committees which are there to call them to account should be independent, so that searching questions can be asked and any waste or ineffectiveness exposed. "Under the new arrangements important watchdog committees will be run by the very Cabinet Members we are supposed to be checking. Isn't this a recipe for a situation where awkward facts can be swiftly swept under the carpet? This is not in the interest of the people we serve." Published and promoted by Kent Liberal Democrats, Kent County Council, Sessions House, Maidstone Kent ME14 1XQ Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
- Lib Dem Concern over New KCC Governance
- Nov 15, 2011:
- Kent Businesses can show they are 'A' grade advertisers
Lib Dem County Councillor Malcolm Robertson has backed a new Kent initiative, 'A-board Aware', which is being launched to encourage businesses in Maidstone to show that they are responsible advertisers. Shop keepers, café owners and firms that use advertising boards - so-called 'A-boards' - can demonstrate they display signs on the pavement in a way that minimises obstructions to parents with pushchairs, the elderly, and those with sight difficulties or mobility problems, following a change in policy. Kent County Council Lib Dem Spokesman for Environment, Highways and Waste, Malcolm Robertson, said: "I am very pleased with this new voluntary policy with the window stickers. It is far preferable to the previous proposal where shop-owners would have to pay for a license fee with a whole bureaucracy to support that. "I would urge shop-keepers to sign-up for free to this voluntary code and be seen to be responsible and caring for the interests of those with impaired sight who have to negotiate our crowded streets." Those firms that comply with the regulations will receive a window sticker that they can put up in the shop front, showing that they are taking care to avoid causing an obstruction on the street outside their shop or business. Where an A-board is placed inappropriately, Kent will advise the owner to re-site it and encourage them to sign up to our scheme. However, if the owner doesn't take action, it will be removed. Neville Butteriss and Pat Edwards, who have been campaigning against A-boards, welcomed the initiative. Mr Butteriss also suggested that business could consider using different forms of advertising. Mr Butteriss said: "A-frames are there for a purpose and I'm not here to stop people trading. I'm all for people trading in the town - there's too many shops closing down. It would be nice if more businesses could trade without advertising blocking up the streets. My argument has always been let's have signs hanging outside shops." Chief Executive of Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce, Mrs Jo James, said: "I am delighted that Kent County Council understands the balance that has to be struck between the benefits advertising boards bring traders and how they can add to the cultural environment of town centres, and the requirement to make sure potential hazards are minimised. This is a welcome initiative from Kent County Council." Businesses that want to find out more can visit http://www.kent.gov.uk/aboards. Businesses that want to get a window sticker can email: roadworks.licensing@kent.gov.uk, or write to: KCC Highways and Transportation - Roadworks Teams, Invicta House, County Hall, Maidstone, Kent. ME14 1XX Please include: the business name full contact details confirmation that the business will comply with the KCC A-board requirements. Published and promoted by Kent Liberal Democrats, Kent County Council, Sessions House, Maidstone Kent ME14 1XQ Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
- Kent Businesses can show they are 'A' grade advertisers
- Nov 9, 2011:
- Dean: Cover Up on Children's Services at County Hall?
Trudy Dean, Lib Dem Leader of the Opposition at Kent County Council, has called for an independent inquiry to discover whether information about dangerously low levels of staffing in KCC Childrens Services were the subject of a cover up at County Hall. On 1st June Trudy tried to get the data into the public at the Cabinet Scrutiny Committee she chairs at Kent County Council. Conservative members voted against this, saying it would be a waste of time and money. The webcast of this meeting is available at http://connect.kent.public-i.tv/site/player/pl_v7.php?a=58169&t=0&m=wm&l=en_GB#indx. Trudy finally received the information in August and has been discussing it with officers since then. On Radio Kent this morning Trudy said: "The more information I see the more I wonder whether there was a cover up at County Hall. The data tells us that social worker staffing levels were seriously low way back in 2007, leading to soaring case loads for social workers then, not later as we were told. We also now know that a month before councillors were told there were no concerns about professional standards, in 7 of the 12 Kent Districts staffing levels were at 'High' risk level for the majority of the year. "We were continually being told that there was a national shortage of social workers making it impossible to bring the teams up to full strength, and leaving case workers swamped with work loads of over 120 cases when 25 is the norm. But in the last year we did it, recruiting 60 extra staff who have dealt with the backlog of 2,700 cases in under a year. Why didn't we do it at the right time. Why did it take an unannounced inspection from OFSTED to catch us out?" Trudy is writing to the Leader of Kent County Council, Paul Carter, to ask him to set up an independent inquiry into whether there was a cover up. She is suggesting that it should be done by Martin Narey, the previous head of Dr Barnados, who is currently working for KCC on a report on Adoption to be presented to the Council in November. In her letter she wrote: "This is a serious matter. Either the information was kept from Members by officers, or they only shared it with the senior councillors and together they kept it away from backbenchers. The result of that was that the council failed to vote the necessary money to provide adequate social care and 2,700 children were placed at risk of serious harm. "In addition the Council's reputation has been damaged, losing its four star rating, and the council taxpayer is footing the bill for over £5.5 million this year and next to clear up the mess. "Up to 2010 KCC was telling a story which wasn't true, and we are still doing it in our press coverage today. It has to stop. Unless we address this problem of accurate, candid and transparent information, the public can have no trust in what we publish." The 2011 Ofsted report on Children's Services in Kent grades Kent County Council as "Performs Poorly" and sets out a number of areas of concern, saying: "Children's services in Kent County Council perform poorly. In October 2010 a full inspection of safeguarding and services for looked after children judged these services, together with capacity to improve safeguarding, to be inadequate. In the light of this evidence, children's services were assessed as performing poorly overall. The local authority recognises the importance of strengthening safeguarding arrangements and services for looked after children however, until further safeguarding inspection evidence is available, the children's services assessment for 2011 remains performs poorly." Kent County Council was one of just 15 local authorities judged to be performing poorly on Children's Services and in the bottom 10% of authorities across the country. Published and promoted by Kent Liberal Democrats, Kent County Council, Sessions House, Maidstone Kent ME14 1XQ Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
- Dean: Cover Up on Children's Services at County Hall?
- Nov 8, 2011:
- Primary school applications now open
Is your child due to start primary school in September 2012? If so, you have until Monday 16 January 2012 to apply for your preferred schools. The easiest way to do so is online at www.kent.gov.uk/ola, where families can register all their details and select up to three schools. Paper copies of the application form are available from primary schools or by calling Kent County Council's Admissions Team on 01622 696565. There is a lot of information online about the county's primary schools at www.kent.gov.uk/primaryadmissions, including a database of schools and frequently asked questions. Families have 10 weeks to submit their application. It's not first come, first served, so there is plenty of time to visit nearby schools and select your preferred ones. The online application system is really user-friendly and last year more than 90% of parents applied through the KCC website. All families that applied will be sent a letter on Friday 30 March 2012 to tell them which school they have been offered. Families that applied online will be sent an email after 4pm on the same day. Published and promoted by Kent Liberal Democrats, Kent County Council, Sessions House, Maidstone Kent ME14 1XQ Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
- Primary school applications now open
- Oct 31, 2011:
- Urgent Review of Kent Special Schools Needed
At the County Council on the 20th of October Martin Vye, Liberal Democrat spokesperson for Education, asked how many children with special educational needs in Kent had to travel more than 20 miles to attend their special schools. Martin said: "Cases brought to my attention cause me concern. Children with special needs in every district have schools specialising in their disability allocated for them. But from casework we know that journeys in excess of 20 miles there and 20 miles back are being made every day which is tiring and time-consuming for the children, and costly to the taxpayer." The Cabinet Member for Education responded that 216 children with special needs currently had to make these excessively long journeys. Martin Vye commented: "We were told some years ago that special schools were being located where the need was. But it looks as if some schools have not enough sufficient places. My estimate of the cost of transport for these 216 is around £2 million. I will be pressing for an urgent review of the level of need in each district and the places in special schools available." Published and promoted by Kent Liberal Democrats, Kent County Council, Sessions House, Maidstone Kent ME14 1XQ Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
- Kent Near Bottom of League for Children in its Care
Martin Vye, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson for Children's Social Services on Kent County Council reacted with concern at the publication today of figures showing the performance of local authorities in looking after children in their care. Canterbury County Councillor Martin Vye said: "In 2010, government inspectors judged KCC's care for it's looked after children to be inadequate. A year later it seems little has changed. Kent is near the bottom of the league tables announced today. A large proportion of these vulnerable children are doing much worse in Kent at school than other children, both at the end of primary school, and at GCSE. "On adoption, Kent ranks joint 110th out 139 authorities when rating the percentage of children who ceased to be looked after who were adopted, and joint 105th out of 139 in terms of the percentage of looked after children adopted within 12 months of the decision to go for adoption. "We councillors are being told about the measures being put in place to improve the service we give to the children that have to be taken into care. These figures show that these efforts need to be redoubled." Published and promoted by Kent Liberal Democrats, Kent County Council, Sessions House, Maidstone Kent ME14 1XQ Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
- Kent Faces £1.5 million loss despite Iceland's Unfreezing of Kent Cash
Lib Dem Kent Finance Spokesman Tim Prater has welcomed news that Kent county Council should now recover the large majority of money from its investments in Icelandic banks, but has pointed out that losses and costs over recovery of the funds will still have cost Kent CC around £1.5 million. The Icelandic Courts ruled on 28 October that Kent County Council and other UK Councils are "preferred creditors", and as such should shortly see the large majority of funds held in Icelandic banks Landsbanki and Glitnir when they crashed in 2008 starting to be paid back to Kent. A third bank, Heritable, has been making staged payments back to Kent for a year and is expected to pay back at least 85% of the total deposit of £18 million Kent County Council had with them. Folkestone West County Councillor Tim Prater said: "Getting the majority of the money back is welcome, and that's about the best news we could have expected from Iceland last week. Some outstanding work has been done by the Kent Finance Team who have worked with other councils to stop this crisis becoming a complete disaster. "The real kicker though is despite this result, which I'm sure will be much trumpeted by Conservative Kent, the losses and costs of recovery are still likely be around £1.5 million in total, to say nothing of the lost interest on the total £50 million since 2008 until when we actually get the money back! "Whatever Conservative Councillors try to say, it's clear that in 2008 a number of Kent's investment processes and advice were weak. "When urgent notifications on the worsening position of banks went to an email box that was not then read until too late, then there is a serious problem. "When you have paid financial advisers that later deny that they actually give advice, then you have a serious problem. "If you can't learn and accept the lessons of the past, you are damned to repeat them. "However, there has to be credit given to officers and members across Parties for their work since 2009 on looking at those processes and making changes and putting checks in place to ensure that the same mistakes are not made again. "But those past failures have still cost Kent and its taxpayers around £1.5million. Given, for example, that Youth Centre funding across Kent is being cut by around £1 million a year next year, it's clear the impact that sort of money could have had on protecting frontline services." Published and promoted by Kent Liberal Democrats, Kent County Council, Sessions House, Maidstone Kent ME14 1XQ Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
- Urgent Review of Kent Special Schools Needed
- Oct 21, 2011:
- Vye: Our Young People Are Being Treated Badly
Martin Vye, Liberal Democrat County Councillor for Canterbury, is angry and concerned about the proposed cuts in the Kent Youth Service. Youth Service cuts were discussed at a meeting of Kent County Council on 20th October, with the Conservative run authority seeking to cut Youth Service funding by almost one-third and "outsourcing" much current provision. Liberal Democrat Kent Ediucation Spokeman Martin Vye said: "Cutting £900,000 will not go a long way towards the savings the county has to make but it is a massive blow to this valuable service. The Conservative administration should never have considered doing this. Our youth workers are second to none but even when times were good the service was never funded as it should have been, and there are gaping holes in provision of youth facilities in the county anyway." He accused the Conservatives of bungling the consultation process. Martin said: "They talk of using KCC funds to commission the voluntary sector to take over youth services in the Centre they are going to vacate but surely this should have been planned and negotiated well in advance, so that young people do not go into next year not knowing whether their Centre will be open. The administration is adopting a high-risk strategy, as the social cost of getting this wrong is immense. "This is the wrong service to cut. But if they are hell-bent on doing it, I call upon the authorities to get their act together and get voluntary and community sector groups, district councils and Adult Education, round a table and hammer out an agreement that will keep Centres open. If they don't act now young people will be left after December not knowing whether there are going to be services for them" Published and promoted by Kent Liberal Democrats, Kent County Council, Sessions House, Maidstone Kent ME14 1XQ Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
- Vye: Our Young People Are Being Treated Badly
- Aug 31, 2011:
- Letter to the Independent: Council tax goes up in smoke
Published in the Independent, 27 August 2011 David Prosser comments on Kent County Council's pension fund investment in tobacco companies (24 August). The council's spend on education campaigns helping people to give up smoking is only a small part of a total £40m spent every year in meeting the excess costs of smoking in Kent over and above the taxes paid by smokers on their cigarettes. That's not just the costs to GPs and hospitals, but includes the fire authority costs of cigarette fires in the home, police enforcement work on the 10 per cent of cigarettes illicitly imported, and local councils clearing litter bins and streets of stubs. So the county's own public health figures show the council invests £24m in a business which costs Kent residents £40m each year. If Kent County Council doesn't care about the ethics, shouldn't they at least get the economics right? Trudy Dean, Lib Dem Leader of the Opposition, Kent County Council, West Malling Published and promoted by Kent Liberal Democrats, Kent County Council, Sessions House, Maidstone Kent ME14 1XQ Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
- Letter to the Independent: Council tax goes up in smoke
- Jul 27, 2011:
- M2 and A2 bridge work to start
A package of work by the Highways Agency to refurbish four bridges over the M2 and the A2 in Kent starts on Monday 01 August. The bridges - Painters Forstal and Champion Court bridges on the M2 near Faversham, and Stuppington and Renville bridges on the A2 near Canterbury - will be all be re-waterproofed and resurfaced, as well as having important components refurbished. There will be no restrictions on the M2 or the A2, but the local roads that run over the bridges will be closed while work is underway. Work will be complete by the end of the month. Highways Agency structures manager Bala Vishnubala said: "We are responsible for more than 300 bridges and viaducts in Kent, and periodic maintenance of this kind is essential to keep the road network in good condition. To minimise disruption for people living near the bridges, we will be carrying out work between 8am and 6pm each day, Monday to Friday. However, for safety reasons, some traffic restrictions will remain in place 24 hours a day." Fully signed local diversion routes will be in place whenever bridges are closed. Drivers are advised to plan their journeys and leave a little extra time for their journeys if needed. Published and promoted by Kent Liberal Democrats, Kent County Council, Sessions House, Maidstone Kent ME14 1XQ Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
- M2 and A2 bridge work to start
- Jul 21, 2011:
- Kent has "No plans" for Mass Sackings and Rehiring
County Councillor Tim Prater has welcomed a reassurance from Kent County Council Leader Paul Carter that the Council "had no plans" to follow other local authorities in making large numbers of staff redundant and offering jobs back on a reduced salary. The commmitment was made in response to a question from Tim Prater to Paul Carter at Kent County Council's meeting on 21 July. Lib Dem County Finance spokesman Tim Prater asked: "Can the Leader of the Council reassure this Council and its staff that Kent will not use the approach of making large numbers of staff redundant and offering jobs back on a reduced salary, a practice recently used by a number of other authorities?" Paul Carter responded saying: "I can confirm that we have no plans to use such an approach. "This is a practice used in extreme circumstances in both the public and private sectors and can have a rolein responding to significant issues concerning staffing structures, numbers and costs. It has recently been used by some other local authorities who have had to make significant decisions on such issues over short timescales. "The approach carries significant risk and potential impact - as is being experienced by others, who are currently the subject of both legal challenge and industrial dispute. "Most importantly, this course of action introduces real risks to service delivery, both in terms of continuity of provision and the engagement and motivation of staff in the front line. "There are circumstances where the method of change will be appropriate for some employers. However, we have a good track record of delivering savings and managing staffing levels and costs, over medium term planning cycles, without this approach. Wherever possible, such changes have been acheived through suitable consultation, communication and transition arrangements. It is my expectation that this continues." Tim Prater commented: "Staff across Kent County Council will hopefully feel reassured by the answer of the Leader of the Council. I'm sure he will now stick to what he has said: to go back on this statement would be a U-turn too far, and a devastating slap in the face to Kent staff who have had a pay freeze for two years and are helping to deliver millions of pounds of efficiency savings across the Council. "It is right that the Council should commit to not repeating the acts of other authorities, where staff have been incredulous to be told that unless they accepted their existing job for less money, they would be made redundant. That's no way to run a whelk stall, still less a Council." Published and promoted by Kent Liberal Democrats, Kent County Council, Sessions House, Maidstone Kent ME14 1XQ Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
- Question to Kent County Council, 21 July: Larkfield Waste Treatment
Question by Mrs Dean To The Cabinet Member for Environment Highways and Waste "Would the Cabinet Member please say when the County Council was first made aware of any interest in developing the former SCA site in New Hythe Lane, Larkfield for treatment of waste, when contact with the County Council was first made by Biossense, and what major planning policy and highway issues will surround any future use of this site?" Published and promoted by Kent Liberal Democrats, Kent County Council, Sessions House, Maidstone Kent ME14 1XQ Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
- Question to Kent County Council, 21 July: Roadside Trees
Question by Mr I Chittenden to the Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways & Waste "In recent years hundreds of trees on County Council land, in particular on verges and green areas adjacent to roads and footpaths have been cut down, with very few replaced. Many become diseased and die due to grass cutting around the base of trees with strimming tools which cut and removed the bark from the main trunks, resulting in disease and a slow death. "As the Cabinet Member responsible for the grass verge contracts will the Cabinet Member for Environment, Highways and Waste inform this Council when this destructive practice will stop and what action he will take to replace the trees removed from our tree lined roads due to this negligence? Please include in your response details of how many trees have been cut down over the past 5 years and how many have been replaced?" Published and promoted by Kent Liberal Democrats, Kent County Council, Sessions House, Maidstone Kent ME14 1XQ Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
- Question to Kent County Council, 21 July: Youth Services
Question by Mr D S Daley to the Cabinet Member for Customer & Communities "The Cabinet Member for Customer & Communities is reported as having said that the Youth Service proposals "... are intended to transform the way we deliver services to young people so that we can continue to provide a first-class service...". As I understand it you are expecting volunteers and Kent's voluntary sector to rush to the challenge. "Will the Cabinet Member inform this Council of the results of the market testing undertaken with Kent's voluntary sector and local community groups prior to the development of the Kent Youth Service Commissioning Model which has satisfied him that there is the interest to ensure locally provided first class youth services; and in the absence of any prudent market testing, do you intend to carry on with your closure programme before you are sure youth services will be taken up by local appropriately qualified volunteers and not a few 'professional' (non-county) providers?" Published and promoted by Kent Liberal Democrats, Kent County Council, Sessions House, Maidstone Kent ME14 1XQ Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
- Question to Kent County Council, 21 July: Voluntary Services Commissioning
Question by George Koowaree to the Cabinet Member for Children Services "Will the Cabinet Member for Children's Services remind the Council of the total expenditure in 2010/11 on commissioning from the voluntary sector of services relating to children's safeguarding and wellbeing, of the planned expenditure on this in 2011/12; inform the Council of the numbers of Service Level Agreements with voluntary organisations working in this field which will be discontinued during this financial year, and of those due to be decommissioned on the 31st of March 2012?" Published and promoted by Kent Liberal Democrats, Kent County Council, Sessions House, Maidstone Kent ME14 1XQ Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
- Question to Kent County Council, 21 July: KCC Staff
Question by Mr T Prater to the Leader "Can the Leader of the Council reassure this Council and its staff that Kent will not use the approach of making large numbers of staff redundant and offering jobs back on a reduced salary, a practice recently used by a number of other authorities?" Published and promoted by Kent Liberal Democrats, Kent County Council, Sessions House, Maidstone Kent ME14 1XQ Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
- Question to Kent County Council, 21 July: School Appeal Hearings
Question by Martin Vye to Sarah Hohler, Cabinet Member for Education, Learning & Skills "Given the recent finding by the Local Ombudsman of maladministration on the part of Kent County Council will the Cabinet Member for Education, Learning and Skills inform the Council of action being taken, first, to establish procedures to rectify any errors or incidents which may affect selective testing at the time of testing; and second, to ensure that clerks, and chairs and members of Appeal Panels provided by the authority have sufficient capability and training to conduct hearings properly, and to make reasonable judgments on the complex issues presented to them in those hearings?" Published and promoted by Kent Liberal Democrats, Kent County Council, Sessions House, Maidstone Kent ME14 1XQ Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
- Kent has "No plans" for Mass Sackings and Rehiring
- Jul 20, 2011:
- Kent County Council Minerals and Waste Consultations
The following Kent Minerals and Waste Development Framework public consultations will close in one week at 5pm on Tuesday 26 July 2011. - Core Strategy Regulation 25 'Strategy and Policy Directions' Consultation - Mineral Sites Regulation 25 'Options' Stage Consultation, and - Waste Sites Regulation 25 'Options' Stage Consultation The majority of participation in our consultations so far have related to the minerals and waste sites consultation. The Core Strategy consultation document also requires your views; it sets out the need for new sites and contains draft policies to be used when minerals and waste applications are determined by the County Council. This is your opportunity to send your views and help shape the documents for the next phase of consultation. You are invited to give us your views on: what these documents should contain; the proposed preferred options for managing Kent's minerals and waste; the proposed draft planning policies; and the site options that are identified. To submit your views use the online consultation portal - http://consult.kent.gov.uk/ to inspect the consultation documents and evidence base topic papers, and the accompanying Sustainability Assessment Commentary and Habitat Regulations Assessment Report. If you prefer, you can email your comments to mwdf@kent.gov.uk or write to us at MWDF Project Team, Planning and Environment, Kent County Council, Invicta House, Maidstone, Kent ME14 1XX. These views will be added to the other comments submitted via our consultation portal and will not be published anonymously unless specifically requested. You can inspect copies of all three documents at the main Kent County Council offices and in local libraries. A limited number of copies are also available on request. Presentations and notes from stakeholder meetings on the consultations held in early June are now available online. For any further information contact us at the addresses above or visit www.kent.gov.uk/mwdf. Published and promoted by Kent Liberal Democrats, Kent County Council, Sessions House, Maidstone Kent ME14 1XQ Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
- Kent County Council Minerals and Waste Consultations
- Jul 19, 2011:
- County Hall Opens Its Doors for You to Have Your Say on Kent's Youth Services
On Monday 25th July, County Hall Maidstone is opening its doors to everyone with an interest in the future of Kent's Youth Services. From 11:00 - 13:00 County Hall will be open for young people, parents, youth workers, volunteers and others to give their view on whether the Kent Youth Service Transformation Plan should be launched for 90days consultation on August 1st. Under the plan approved by Cabinet on Monday this week, each Borough will have only one "hub" youth centre. All other youth centres will be offered to private or voluntary organisations to run youth services but with a reduced budget. Any centres for which no alternative provider comes forward may be sold off. The centres which are proposed to remain open as "hubs" are: Ashford North Youth Centre, in Ashford (Ashford District Hub) Riverside Youth Centre, Canterbury (Canterbury District Hub) Thames Gateway YMCA, (Dartford District Hub) Archers Court Youth Centre, in Dover (Dover District Hub) Northfleet Youth Centre, Gravesend (Gravesham District Hub) INfoZone, Maidstone (Maidstone District Hub) The Junction, Swanley (Sevenoaks District Hub) Café IT, Folkestone (Shepway District Hub) New House Sports and Youth Centre, Sittingbourne (Swale District Hub) Averbury Ave Adult Education Centre (Tonbridge & Malling District Hub) Quarterdeck Youth centre, Margate (Thanet District Hub) Town Centre Retails Space - yet to be identified, (Tunbridge Wells District Hub) KCC will consider closure of all these centres, if no provider comes forward: XC Youth Centre (Ashford) SK8side Youth Centre (Ashford) Whitstable Youth centre, Whitstable (Canterbury) The Bridge Youth Arts Centre, Dartford (Dartford) Linwood Youth Centre (Dover) Aylesham Youth and Leisure Centre (Dover) Miracles Youth Centre, Gravesend (Gravesham) The Gr@nd, Gravesend (Gravesham) Shepway Youth Centre (Maidstone) Lenham Youth Centre (Maidstone) Edenbridge Community Centre, opening 2012 (Sevenoaks) Hythe Youth Centre (Shepway) Folkestone Youth Project, Folkestone (Shepway) Sheerness County Youth Centre and Activity Centre (Swale) Faversham Youth Centre (Swale) SAMAYS Youth Centre, Snodland (Tonbridge & Malling) Concorde Youth Centre (Thanet) Artwise Youth Centre, Ramsgate (Thanet) Mascall Youth Centre, Paddock Wood (Tunbridge Wells) Monday's meeting is the idea of Trudy Dean, Liberal Democrat Chairman of the Cabinet Scrutiny Committee. It is supported by the Labour and Independent Councillors, but not by the Conservative Spokesman. Trudy said: "We are providing this opportunity for everyone to come and tell us what they think in a relaxed and friendly get together. Personally, I am keen to hear from young people whether they think it is appropriate to go out to consultation with these proposals", she added "This is the first time we has tried a public pre-Cabinet Scrutiny Committee event to encourage people to come and give us their views and I am absolutely delighted that Dara Farrell has accepted my invitation to chair the event." Dara added: "This is great opportunity for young people and their workers to hold an open and frank discussion on the future of our service. Come and tell the County's decision makers how the dismantling of Kent Youth Service may affect young people across the County." Dara is the leading campaigner for the British Youth Council "Save Our Youth Services" Campaign, a member and former Chairman of Kent Youth County Council, and a senior member of the XC Youth Centre in Ashford which is listed as one of the centres threatened by closure. County Councillors have been invited to observe the meeting as preparation for their more formal meeting of Cabinet Scrutiny Committee which will start at 2pm on the same day when councillors will be directly questioning Cabinet Members, Officers, and witnesses about the plans. All the information regarding the Kent Youth Service Transformation Plan is available on the Cabinet Scrutiny Committee meeting online agenda - Item C1. Published and promoted by Kent Liberal Democrats, Kent County Council, Sessions House, Maidstone Kent ME14 1XQ Printed (hosted) by Prater Raines Ltd, 98 Sandgate High Street, Folkestone CT20 3BY
- County Hall Opens Its Doors for You to Have Your Say on Kent's Youth Services
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