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KENT COUNTY COUNCIL REPORT

Report to Hawkinge Annual Meeting 26 April 2006 by Cllr Susan Carey

Although I have been your County Councillor for less than a year the timing of your Annual Meetings means that this is my second Hawkinge Annual Meeting.  

In the last year I have attended numerous briefings and training sessions about the County Council’s work and have made sure that County is aware of Hawkinge and its special challenges as a community that has grown so rapidly.  As your County Councillor I am automatically o­n the Hawkinge Partnership a body set up specifically set up to deal with some of these challenges.  And now that the funding for the Hawkinge Partnership comes through KCC I was asked to secure a senior officer from KCC to join the Hawkinge Board.  I was very pleased that Robert Hardy from KCC’s Environment and Regeneration directorate agreed to join the Hawkinge Partnership Board and it was Robert who arranged for Jenny Hanna of KCC to take over as the manager of the partnership whilst Deirdre Ferguson is o­n maternity leave.

My initial appointments at KCC were to Cabinet Scrutiny committee, the Highways Advisory Board and the Strategic Planning Policy Overview Committee which deals with transport matters.  In October I was appointed Lead Member for Education supporting the Cabinet Member for Education.  This makes me part of the administration running KCC so I left Cabinet Scrutiny, kept my other appointments and was additionally appointed to the Schools Organisation Advisory Board, Kent Schools Organisation Committee, SACRE (overviewing Religious Education) and the Walking Bus project.

I have now visited about 30 of Kent’s 615 schools including Hawkinge schools and Selsted as well as three of the new children’s centres which deal with 0 to 4 year old children and their parents.  I have planted trees and cut ribbons and sat in o­n classes and taken part in all sorts of school activities.  I have been impressed with the work that is being done in the schools by teachers, pupils and governors.

The big drop in the number of children means that there are around 14,000 empty desks in primary schools across the County.  As schools are funded per pupil this is a major problem for them and the more vacancies they have the less they have to spend o­n children’s education.  Kent County Council is therefore reviewing all areas to merge and close schools so that the number of empty places is reduced.  Schools are merged, closed and opened all the time and this is part of the normal work of the Schools Organisation Advisory Board but the scale of the surplus places is such that we have doubled the number of meetings for the next 6 months and will be looking at two to three areas every meeting.  By merging or closing a few schools in each area the remaining schools will o­nce more be viable.

The Shepway area is also being reviewed but does not have quite such a problem as other areas because the Ghurkha soldiers are being allowed to have their families with them and this is expected to bring up to 400 children into Shepway’s schools.  However, Selsted school is o­ne of the schools that is being proposed for closure subject to consultation.  Pupil numbers are falling at Selsted and few of the children actually come from the village. 

Happier news is that our district has also done very well in securing two of the five new Academies planned for Kent with o­ne in Folkestone sponsored by Roger De Haan and o­ne o­n the Romney Marsh sponsored by Microsoft. 

I have spoken at County Hall about the problems caused to our area by Operation Stack, I have secured funding for a pilot study o­n removing sign clutter from our roads and I have assisted individuals with various problems concerning Highways, Schools and Social Services.

Council tax has risen sharply in the last few years.  Kent County Council has argued that Kent’s share of grant from central government is too low particularly compared with the level of grant paid to councils in the Midlands and the North.  This year the increase in grant for schools was a generous 6.9% but for all other services just 0.3%.  We already know that next year’s settlement from central government will be even lower.  We at KCC will continue to do our best to put the case for fairer funding for Kent and to look to deliver services more efficiently.

Despite the financial pressures, Kent County Council is rated 4 stars (the top mark) and ‘improving strongly’ by the Audit Commission.  o­nly three county councils in the country were awarded 4 stars and of these KCC had the lowest Band D council tax for 2005/06.

It is a great privilege to be the County representative for Elham Valley and I look forward to working with your parish council in the year ahead.

Susan Carey, Member for Elham Valley, Kent County Council