Agenda and minutes

Apologies were received from the following Members:

Parish Councillor Hovenden, substituted by Parish Councillor Bransfield;

County Councillor Heale;

County Councillor Wiltshire;

County Councillor M. Elenor;

Councillor J. Scobie, substituted by H. Scobie.

To approve the Minutes of the Joint Transportation Board meeting held on 16 December 2015.

County Councillor Terry proposed, Councillor D. Saunders seconded and Members agreed the minutes of the previous meeting held on 16 December 2014.

Sally Benge, Strategic Transport and Development Planner, led discussion with a power-point presentation on the proposed Thanet Transport Strategy that is intended to improve traffic flow into Thanet and address some of the pinch-points on Thanet’s road network. She presented the proposed the new road layout that highlighted the network development that focused on developer led funding from the strategic site allocations in the Draft Local Plan. These included the Birchington site and Westgate & Garlinge site. This will see junction improvements and road widening for a number of roads.

Members noted the report.

Ryan Shiel, Kent County Council Traffic Engineer introduced the item for discussion and said that there had been correspondence with the residents association and the proposals had been amended as a result of the consultation. He said that all the objections received wanted the zebra crossing to be on the other side of St Mildreds Avenue. The proposals would mean that one car parking space would be lost on either side of the Westgate Bay Avenue. Members said that the proposals would afford elderly residents to access the shopping amenities without being trapped by traffic on the busy road.

Councillor K. Gregory proposed, County Councillor Terry seconded and Members agreed that all funding is to be delivered by the local County Council Member who has agreed to fund any additional costs incurred by relocating the proposal. Based on the consultation results and the suggested relocation of the proposed site it is recommended that the scheme proceeds.

Toby Howe, Highway Manager for East Kent, Kent County Council presented a report on the approved Thanet Highway Works Programme for 2014/15. The report highlighted the construction schemes for the year. One Member requested that the Board met more often than the current quarterly. He said that under current arrangements; by the time the Board meets there would have been an accumulation of issues and concerns that would have been raised by residents which require the in some cases the immediate attention of the Board to resolve.

Members congratulated officers for the good work done in Station Road and St Mildreds Road. However some uncooperative motorists were parked in the parking bays just outside the cinema building all the while the resurfacing works were going on and therefore about 140ft of road got missed out. Officers where requested to go back to complete the resurfacing of that area left out. The pathway area between the new village green and the school had become too dark for residents to walk through as only two out of seven lights were working. Members also reported that the footbridge lighting was poor along The Grove into Station Road as some lights were not working.

Some Members also reported that the Nursery Fields green had not been re-instated after some drainage repair works had been undertaken. Toby Howe agreed to liaise with TDC officers to resolve the issues raised and report back to the Board Members.

Members noted the report.

*NB The day after the Board Meeting, Toby Howe provided the following responses by email to some of the queries raised by Members:

With reference to the queries raised by Members last night regarding the Highway Works Programme;

·  Appendix A – Machine Resurfacing: Cllr King asked about Station Road/ St Mildred’s Road. This will be completed when Northdown Road is surfaced, currently scheduled between 25th March & 10th April;

·  Appendix B – Drainage Repairs: Cllr Bransfield Asked about Nursery Fields, that the grass on the Green had not been reinstated. KCC H,T&W are waiting for the ground to dry when we will return to make good and re-seed the green;

·  Appendix C – Street Lighting: Cllr King. Pathway at Westgate towards school, 2 out of 7 lights working, owned by TDC. TDC need to request KCC H,T&W Streetlighting team to carry out works so KCC can charge TDC.

·  Station Road, lights over Railway are TDC. Again, if TDC require KCC to repair on their behalf, they need to request for works to be carried out.

As there were no questions from Members; the Board noted the report.

2.  That the proposals which require statutory consultation are advertised, and that any traffic related objections are reported back to a future meeting of the Board.

Robin Chantrill-Smith introduced the item and reported that the deadline for the public consultation was end of March 2015. Speaking Under Council Procedure 24.1, one Member requested for a review of the current restriction measures that have put in place regarding the junction in St Mildreds Road. He expressed the concern that these measures were inappropriate. He said that waiting for the statutory six months before the review can be made to this decision would increase the likelihood of an accident happening.

In response, Robin Chantrill-Smith said that the Council was obliged to follow procedure and review the issue after the mandatory six months waiting timeframe. He was going to have a meeting his counterparts at KCC and see whether any more could be done to resolve the problem.

Members noted the report.

Robin Chantrill-Smith introduced the item and said that the Council had initially introduced interim bays and was now moving towards making longer term provision by recommending that the Board approves the adoption of an enforcement order for the bay facilities to become permanent.

County Councillor Terry proposed, Councillor K. Gregory seconded and Members agreed the following:

1.  To adopt Option 1- that the parking places for disabled person’s vehicles as listed in annex 1 would be exposed for formal public consultation.

2.  That the proposals which require statutory consultation are advertised, and that any traffic related objections are reported back to a future meeting of the Board.