KCC

Swale Borough Council have raised concerns about Kent County Council (KCC) proposals to change youth services across the borough. 

The council has written to Kent’s Cabinet Member for Communities and Regulatory Services, Cllr Clair Bell, to set out its opposition to cut externally commissioned youth services, as part of proposals to create new family hubs to support children and families. 

The leader of Swale Borough Council and the chair of the council's Environment Committee have raised concerns about the potential borough-wide impact of the closure of the Faversham Household Waste and Recycling Centre (HWRC).

Kent County Council have proposed three options for saving £1.5m from their HWRC’s and every one of those options includes the closure of Faversham HWRC. Two of the three options would also see Sheerness HWRC close for two days a week.

A programme to support people struggling to feed their families and pay their bills has reopened across the borough.

Swale Borough Council has received more than £500,000 from Kent County Council’s (KCC) Household Support Fund to help households access food boxes, get vouchers to pay their electric, gas and water bills, and buy items needed to keep warm until March 2024.

The money is being used to support organisations within the local community who have been on the ground helping people navigate the cost-of-living crisis.

Kent County Council's (KCC) proposed cuts to bus subsidies were debated, for the final time, at a Full Council Meeting on Thursday (20th October) afternoon.

The public consultation prompted 2,562 responses from residents, plus 55 individual letters and 4 responses from local MPs across the county but at the meeting the Conservative-led Council decided to go ahead with the plans.

KCC Leader, Roger Gough, told the meeting that: "it was necessary to balance KCC's budget for this year but we will still spending £3.8m on buses that would otherwise not run".

A day of enforcement action to combat the incorrect and fraudulent use of Blue Badges has been carried out in Swale.

Kent County Council’s Counter Fraud team joined Swale Borough Council’s Parking team as they visited several streets and car parks last Thursday (4th August) to check that the badges were being used by the authorised person and in the correct way.

Families in Sittingbourne will find out today (Tuesday 19th April) which primary schools their children have been offered to join in September 2022, with nine out of ten being offered their first preference.

The parents and carers of 17,592 children who applied for a place at a Kent school will receive their offers via email or online. Of the 17,175 Kent applicants, 16,787 (97.74%) will receive one of their three named schools and 15,486 (90.07%) will be offered their first preference.

Kent County Council (KCC) are proposing to make savings by reducing the money they spend on providing some bus services that private bus companies cannot afford to run, and which are no longer cost effective.

Swale Borough Council is writing to local Kent County Councillors to ask them to oppose £2.3 million of cuts to homelessness support.

The proposals to stop funding Kent Homeless Connect are part of Kent County Council’s budget proposals being discussed  next Thursday (10th February).

Kent County Council (KCC) have confirmed that they are planning to allocate £3 million to "temporarily" enlarge three secondary schools in Sittingbourne, to accomodate extra pupils, from next September (2022) and the following year.

KCC say they have identified the need for extra secondary places schools at Westlands, The Sittingbourne School and Fulston Manor because new housing developments are boosting the borough of Swale's population, saying there is a need for "swift action" as they forsee" a shortfall" of 176 spaces for Year 7 starters in September 2023.

Swale Borough Councilor (Cllr) Richard Palmer (pictured above) has public condemned the KCC (Kent County Council) Cabinet Member for Highways & Transport, Cllr Michael Payne, for ignoring residents’ concerns about the failure of KCC to fully refund money paid for the KCC school bus travel scheme that could not be used because of COVID.  

Cllr Palmer says that he has raised this with Cllr Payne on more than one occasion, but as yet, Cllr Payne has failed to respond to his concerns.