Agenda and minutes

The Chair introduced the meeting and set out procedural matters.

The Chair also provided a brief update on items raised at the last JTB meeting:

-       The report from KCC regarding red brick paving was be brought to a later meeting as KCC were waiting for Budget confirmation to be able to provide accurate and comprehensive information.

-       The suggested topic of Parking Enforcement had been discussed with TWBC’s Parking team and this would not be a suitable report for the Board as it was a service request for a specific area.

-       Kent Police did not have the resources to attend the JTB to discuss enforcement matters.

It was noted that there were audio issues with the online live webcast. These issues were not resolved completely until approximately 6.30PM.

To receive any apologies for absence.

Apologies were received from Councillor Willis and County Councillor McInroy.

County Councillors Oakford and Bruneau were not present at the meeting.

To receive any declarations of interest by Members in items on the agenda. For any advice on declarations of interest, please contact the Monitoring Officer before the meeting.

There were no disclosable pecuniary interests or other significant interests declared at the meeting.

To note any members of the Council wishing to speak, of which due notice has been given in accordance with Council Meeting Procedure Rule 18, and which items they wish to speak on.

Mr Don Sloan and Mr Adrian Berendt were registered to speak on Item 7 – Update on Active Travel. Mr Adrian Berendt was also registered to speak on Item 8 – Update on Town Centre Area Plan.

To approve the minutes of a previous meeting as a correct record. The only issue relating to the minutes that can be discussed is their accuracy.

Members reviewed the minutes. No amendments were proposed.

RESOLVED – That the minutes of the meeting dated 4 July 2022 be approved as a correct record.

The Chair invited Councillor Christine Churchill of Brenchley and Matfield Parish Council to speak about her Parish’s Community Speed Watch and their experience.

Questions and discussion from Members included the following:

-       It was noted that the public often wished to see police enforcement for speeding, but that police resources were so stretched that this could be difficult.

-       Anyone was able to volunteer and training involved bite-sized sessions online. Volunteers could only do hour slots of Speed Watch at a time and weren’t able to do sessions in adverse weather conditions, such as rain or the dark, for safety reasons.

-       Data collected during the sessions was submitted to a central database, and volunteers had nothing to do with contacting drivers. To date, only one driver had queried their warning letter.

-       Members knew of people in other areas who had received warning letters, showing that the system worked.

-       It was questioned whether volunteers could measure speeds under 30mph for areas with 20mph speed limits, as previous Speed Watch training undertaken by Members had stated that this was not possible, and Cllr Churchill confirmed this was still the case. It was thought that this may be because of the equipment’s calibration, but this would be checked and followed up at a later date.

-       An ongoing yearly update on Community Speed Watch at JTB was requested to continue looking at data.

-       The work and efforts by Brenchley and Matfield’s Community Speed Watch group were commended as outstanding and highly useful for KCC Highways Officers.

-       Recruited volunteers had been people interested in improving local highways and recruitment had been organised mostly via word-of-mouth, as well as via the parish magazine and Facebook page.

-       When asked about percentages of cars who would be speeding during sessions, data from Matfield and Brenchley showed around 45 out of 200 vehicles would be speeding, at times even around half of vehicles before word would get around and people would slow down.

-       It was noted that Police support of Speed Watch volunteers was needed to make it effective, as well as putting more resources towards Community Speed Watch groups as Councillors, as complaints about speeding was a popular topic Councillors dealt with. While Police did not appear to have resources to attend the JTB meeting, opening a dialogue with them regarding speeding was deemed a useful suggestion.

During the discussion the meeting was halted temporarily while audio problems were looked into and resolved. During this time, at 18.30 County Councillor Holden joined the meeting and the meeting and discussion was resumed at approximately 18.30.

Registered Speakers – Adrian Berendt and Don Sloan

Jamie Watson, Senior Programme Manager (Active Travel) at KCC, presented an update on the Active Travel programme as well as works on the Pembury Road to facilitate active travel.

Cllr Lewis left the meeting at 18.45.

Questions and discussion from members included the following:

-       The upcoming Tranche 4 of funding for Active Travel would be the largest yet, and would be over 2-3 years, which gave more opportunity to identify and put in place the right schemes for delivery.

-       In relation to the KCC Members on the Stakeholders group being consulted on the Active Travel Scheme, all KCC Councillors were asked if they wished to be part of the group. There were approximately 6 on the group, none of whom were from Tunbridge Wells. A County Councillor from Tonbridge and Malling was on the group, providing some West Kent representation. There was still opportunity for County Councillors to volunteer for the group as there was still a lot of work to be done.

-       In relation to works on Pembury Road, plans were not set in stone and were dependent on sufficient funding.

-       The Pembury Road was chosen for such works due to the growth areas in Pembury and Paddock Wood.

-       Hilary Smith, TWBC Economic Development Manager, stated that improving the cycle route along Pembury Road was a key priority for Tunbridge Wells’ Local Cycling and Walking Infrastructure Plans (LCWIP) and that TWBC and KCC together had commissioned wok to look at how bus services could be improved.

-       In relation to Section 106 funding, KCC Planning Officers worked closely with TWBC to negotiate with developers to secure funding from planning applications. Already having schemes set up, such as Pembury Road works, with costings etc was better for negotiations. But it was mentioned that it was difficult to resource officers to work on such schemes.

-       When asked whether it would be preferential to have cycle lanes along each side of Pembury Road be one way only in order to avoid confusion, especially at bus stops and shelters, Mr Watson stated that while single direction lanes were best generally, Pembury Road’s cycle lanes were wide enough to accommodate both directions, but that this suggestion would be considered as it was a sensible approach.

-       The route and scheme were still open to discussion and feedback, as the scheme was in very early stages and hadn’t gone to consultation yet.

-       The ‘top’ part of Pembury Road (towards Pembury) was being considered separately, and KCC had only been asked to focus on the specific stretch detailed in the presentation.

Registered Speaker – Adrian Berendt (on behalf of the RTW Town Forum)

Hilary Smith, TWBC Economic Development Manager, presented a verbal update on the ongoing Town Centre Area Plan:

-       Work was being led by the TWBC Planning Policy team, working alongside a working group including cross-party Members, CALC, the Town Forum, youth representatives and local businesses.

-       The working group took part in the procurement process to appoint external consultants – LDA Design – who were working on the project. As part of their consortium they had Urban Designers, Planners, Property Agents and specialist transport consultants.

-       The working group had had their first meeting with the LDA Design team, which had been a good meeting with opportunities for working group members to highlight key local issues, including traffic in/out of the Town Centre, and active travel options.

-       A meeting had also taken place with LDA Design and KCC to discuss transport issues and previous works undertaken by KCC.

-       TWBC had just received an initial report from the consultants which was to be reviewed by officers.

-       Engagement events were planned for early September but were postponed due to the period of national mourning following the Queen’s death and had been rescheduled for the week following the JTB meeting (10^th-12^th October) to include an in-person walk around the Town Centre with Consultants and the working group as well as several workshops.

Questions and discussion from Members included the following:

-       Due to the postponement of some of the engagement events for the Town Centre Plan, a timeline of when the Plan would be ready was unavailable.

-       The consultants were preparing a Town Centre study which would be fed to officers in Planning Policy.

-       Public engagement was seen as a great opportunity for the local community to feed into the Plan and could contact town centre Councillors or the Town Forum.  

Richard Emmett, KCC West Kent Highway Manager, presented the report as set out in the agenda.

It was noted that there were Parishes not included within the report who had provided recent HIPs. The Chair read out a short statement from KCC:

‘The HIPs update report is generated from a new system, which has been introduced to generate resource efficiencies. It would appear that an administration error has meant that the data supplied for the HIPs part of this JTB update is not up to date. However, we will ensure that this is corrected and fully maintained moving forward. Please be assured that the HIP documents themselves have been appropriately processed, and the inaccuracies in this document are a reporting issue only.’

County Cllr Holden left the meeting at 19.45.

Questions and discussion from Members included the following:

-       A previously proposed TWBC workshop for Parishes on HIPs had been cancelled as KCC Parish Seminars had been expected to cover the same topic and it was felt unnecessary to duplicate this. However it was discussed that the Parish Seminars’ agenda had been released and did not cover HIPs, so the HIPs team at KCC would be consulted to look at speaking with Tunbridge Wells Parishes and Town Councils.

Richard Emmett, KCC West Kent Highways Manager, presented the report as set out in the agenda.

Questions and discussion from Members included:

-       It was pointed out Five Oak Green Road had needed a full survey for some time, with it partly taking place in Spring 2022 but had since stalled and flooding problems were ongoing. An update was requested and noted for after the meeting.

-       Details of ongoing issues on Reynolds Lane had been sent to Mr Emmett by the Chair and were to be discussed with KCC’s Highways Improvement Team and reported back.  

To agree any topics for future meetings, of which prior notice must be sent to the Chairman and Democratic Services Officer no later than 4pm on the working day before the meeting. There can not be any substantive debate/discussion or any decision on any topics raised, except to agree whether the topic may come forward in future.

Discussion included the following comments:

-       County Councillor Hamilton proposed an item on the KCC School Streets scheme, as one of the two School Streets within the County was in Southborough. The scheme involved closing the roads around suitable schools when children were going to and from school and Cllr Hamilton asked that the KCC officer in charge of the scheme be invited to give a presentation to promote the scheme for further locations to be developed. The Chair agreed with this item.

-       A further update on Active Travel funding was proposed by the Chair as the funding window for Tranche 4 would have closed by the next JTB meeting in January.

To note that the next scheduled meeting will be held on Monday 30 January 2023 at 6.00pm.

The next meeting was scheduled for Monday 30 January 2023 at 6pm