How to get involved and have your say

The 5 Year Plan is the flagship strategy for Kent County Council. It unites the Council with clear outcomes and objectives.

The 5 Year Plan has been brought together by working with and listening to our residents, young people, local businesses, the voluntary and community sector and staff. We’ve reflected what we heard during our engagement process in this draft consultation document. We are keen to hear your thoughts as we further develop this draft during formal consultation.

The consultation will run from 6th January to 17th February 2020.

You can respond online or request a paper copy of the draft 5-year plan and/or questionnaire. To request paper copies and a prepaid return envelope please contact us on PSRPolicy@kent.gov.uk or call us on 03000 416788.

You can write to us at: Strategy, Policy, Relationships and Corporate Assurance, Rm. 2.70, Sessions House, Maidstone, ME14 1XQ.

What happens after the consultation? 

Following the end of the consultation we will bring together a ‘You Said, We Did’ report which will include an analysis of the engagement and consultation feedback and KCC’s response to this. This will be published on the consultation website. This report will be presented to our Corporate Management Team, our Cabinet and County Council in February and March 2020 as part of the approval process.

We will also be bringing together a shorter summary document of this 5-year plan.

 

Alternative formats  

If you require any of the consultation material in an alternative format or language please email alternativeformats@kent.gov.uk or call 03000 421553 (text relay service number: 18001 03000 421553). This number goes to an answering machine, which is monitored during office hours.

Your privacy

Kent County Council collects and processes personal information in order to provide a range of public services. Kent County Council respects the privacy of individuals and endeavours to ensure personal information is collected fairly, lawfully, and in compliance with the General Data Protection Regulation. Read the full Privacy Notice on kent.gov.uk.

Section 1: About You

 

Q1. Please tell us in what capacity you are completing this questionnaire: 

Please select the option that most closely represents how you will be responding to this consultation. Please select one box.

 

As a Kent resident 

 

As a KCC employee (Kent resident)

 

As a KCC employee (non-Kent resident)

 

As a representative of a local community group or residents’ association

 

On behalf of an educational establishment, such as a school or college

x

On behalf of a Parish / Town / Borough / District Council in an official capacity

 

As a Parish / District or County Councillor

 

As a Kent business owner

 

On behalf of a charity, voluntary or community sector organisation (VCS)

 

As resident from somewhere else, such as Medway

 

Other

 

If Other, please specify:

 

Q1a. If you are responding on behalf of an organisation (business, community group, residents’ association, council or any other organisation), please tell us the name of your organisation here:

 Maidstone Borough Council

 

Q2. Please tell us the first part of your postcode (this will be 3 or 4 characters):

 ME15

Please do not reveal your whole postcode. We use this to help us to analyse our data. It will not be used to identify who you are.

 

Q3. How did you find out about this consultation? Select all that apply 

 

Facebook

 

Twitter

 

Instagram

 

Linked In

 

From a friend or relative

 

Kent.gov.uk website

 

Kent library or Gateway

 

Local KCC County Councillor

 

District Council/Councillor

 

Newspaper

x

An email from KCC 

 

A Voluntary or Community sector organisation

 

Other

 

If Other, please specify:

 


 

Section 2:  Document Title

 

Q4. ‘Your Future, Our Priority’ is the draft title for this document, do you think this is a good title?

Please select one box.

x

 Yes

 

No

 

Q4a. If you have answered ‘No’ to Q4, please give any thoughts or suggestions in the box below.

 

 

 




 

Section 3: Draft Outcomes

We want to improve quality of life in Kent. Working with residents, businesses, young people and the voluntary and community sector we have brought together the following draft outcomes. Please see pages 9 to 42 of the draft 5 year plan.  

Image of a graph

Enterprise and investment

Outline image of a house

Securing sustainable infrastructure

Connected transport and communities

Outline image of a tree

A cleaner and greener Kent

Outline image of three connected hands

Stronger and safer Kent communities

Outline image of person walking up steps

Opportunities for children and young people

Outline image of a hand holding a heart

Quality health, care and support

 

Q5. Do the draft outcomes reflect what is important to your quality of life? Please select one box.

x

Yes

 

Partly

 

No

 

Don’t know

 

Please provide any comments:

 

We feel the outcomes and vision closely align to our aspirations and ambition for Maidstone Borough:

 

“A vibrant, prosperous, urban and rural community at the heart of Kent where everyone can realise their potential”

 

This vision is underpinned by our 4 strategic priorities:

 

·         Safe, Clean and Green

·         Embracing Growth and Enabling Infrastructure

·         Homes and Communities

·         A Thriving Place

 

 

And our cross cutting objectives:

 

·         Heritage is respected

·         Health inequalities are addressed and reduced

·         Deprivation is reduced and social mobility is improved

·         Biodiversity and Environmental Sustainability is respected

 

The foreword from the Leader in your five-year plan is very positive about working with partners and in particular District Councils.

 

We have recognised that partnership working and collaboration is crucial to the achievement of our own ambitions and would emphasise that this is beyond local government and involves many partners and stakeholders especially the health sector and the business and voluntary sectors.

 

The importance of all stakeholders and partners needs to be recognised throughout the document within each of the objectives.

 

We welcome the statements throughout the Plan that you will collaborate positively with district and borough councils preparing and delivering Local Plans.  In particular we note and welcome the intention “to play our part in making a success of the new Garden Towns and Communities by supporting district and borough councils to achieve their Local Plan ambitions to match housing growth with quality employment opportunities, supporting infrastructure as well as being carbon neutral. These are complex new developments, so we will do all we can to collaborate with district and borough councils in the planning process. “

 

We believe there are a number of ways that KCC can constructively contribute including:

·         Providing timely Information about infrastructure requirements

·         Providing informed  feedback on the implications of different spatial options

·         Working positively with  local planning authorities to identify solutions when infrastructure capacity is insufficient

·         Provide expertise in the specialist areas including  transport, ecology, minerals and waste , education, and archaeology

 

 

 

Section 4: The Objectives

In order to deliver these outcomes, we have suggested some draft objectives. Some of these objectives we seek to achieve in the next few years, others are longer term.

We’ve also included work we can do with our partners and things we will ask from the government.Image of a graph

Outcome 1: Enterprise and investment

Please see pages 13 and 14 of the consultation document.

 

Q6. Do you think that the draft objectives will help us deliver outcome 1 Enterprise and investment? Please select one box.

 

Yes, the draft objectives will deliver the outcome

x

In part, the draft objectives listed will help to meet the outcome (please list anything missing below)

 

No, the draft objectives listed will not meet the outcome (please give us more detail below)

 

Don’t know

 

Please provide any comments below:

In our Strategic Plan we have recognised that Maidstone is a Borough that is open for business, attractive to visitors and is an enjoyable and prosperous place to live for our residents. Maidstone as the Business Capital of Kent is seeking to continue to grow our economy with high employment, good local jobs and thriving businesses and we look forward to working with you to achieve the objectives you have set out.

 

Our adopted Economic Development Strategy has the following 5 key priorities which all align with the proposed plan:

 

1.    Retaining and attracting investment

2.    Stimulating entrepreneurship

3.    Enhancing the town centre

4.    Meeting the skills needs

5.    Improving the infrastructure.

 

In particular we fully support the desire to have a defined collective lobbying position for devolution and the UK shared prosperity fund.  We would like to see more recognition of the vital role of District Councils in delivering the objectives for Enterprise and Investment and some clarity in the document on a mechanism for achieving the objectives involving district councils for example a KCC/District Agreement/Partnership or Committee.

 

We would like to see the North Kent Enterprise Zone and the Kent innovation Centre to paragraph 3 on page 11 along with the other examples of innovation.

 


 

Outline image of a houseOutcome 2: Securing sustainable infrastructure

Please see pages 17 to 19 of the consultation document.

 

Q7. Do you think that the draft objectives will help us deliver outcome 2 Securing sustainable infrastructure? Please select one box.

 

Yes, the objectives listed will meet the outcome

x

In part, the objectives listed will help to meet the outcome (please list anything missing below)

 

No, the objectives listed will not meet the outcome (please give us more detail below)

 

Don’t know

 

Please provide any comments below:

The acknowledgement of the vital importance of KCC working collaboratively and constructively with local authorities to help secure the right infrastructure for a growing county aligns with our Strategic Plan focus on working with partners to plan, fund and deliver infrastructure and the outcome of having sufficient infrastructure planned to meet the demands of growth.

 

We strongly welcome your intention to act to secure funding for, and the delivery of, significant infrastructure to support the growth planned for the county and Maidstone borough in particular. We understand the intention to find creative ways to forward-fund key pieces of infrastructure so that they can be delivered in advance of development. We have some concerns that the headline of  ‘championing an infrastructure first approach to housing growth’ could be misleading as the Government has not given local planning authorities the power to require this of developers. Without moderation or additional explanation, this part of the plan could falsely raise expectations.

 

In terms of maximising developer contributions, we apply both Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy on new development, where appropriate. We would wish to continue to work closely with you in regularly updating our Infrastructure Delivery Plan, as this is the key document setting out infrastructure requirements for the borough to support the level of growth contained in the Local Plan. By ensuring the accuracy of the IDP across all infrastructure types (including predicted costings, funding sources, priority and timescales of delivery), we will be best placed to ensure that maximum developer contributions are secured and allocated towards priority infrastructure in the borough.

 

Any Kent wide approach to infrastructure first would need to be led by the development required in each area, for example Maidstone has a larger housing requirement so would need investment in infrastructure to match. Previously infrastructure has been prioritised in some areas of the county at the expense of those receiving development when county wide infrastructure plans have been in place. We ask that infrastructure plans match the growth required and address historical lack of investment where growth has already taken place. We ask for clarity and collaboration on the development of the Infrastructure Proposition, in particular reference to brown field sites where viability challenges are inhibiting re-use alongside the garden community propositions from East Kent and look forward to working with you on this.

 

With regard to ensuring high quality design we welcome the approach of protecting biodiversity and creating quality green spaces, however, there needs to be an agreed and shared evidence base for this to support Local Plans and Planning Policy.

 

We are pleased to see the recognition of digital infrastructure to support our communities both in terms of economy and community connectivity.

 


 

Outcome 3: Connected transport and communities

Please see pages 22 to 24 of the consultation document.

 

Q8. Do you think that the draft objectives will help us deliver outcome 3 Connected transport and communities? Please select one box.

 

Yes, the objectives listed will meet the outcome

x

In part, the objectives listed will help to meet the outcome (please list anything missing below)

 

No, the objectives listed will not meet the outcome (please give us more detail below)

 

Don’t know

 

Please provide any comments below:

We endorse the collaborative approach to transport planning and in particular the recent, useful joint-working between KCC and MBC for the Maidstone Local Plan Review. This has included the appointment of a shared staff resource and pragmatic work to bring forward transport and air quality modelling. Looking forward, the MBC-KCC joint working should continue with:

 

·         Expert collaboration to deliver robust transport modelling;

·         Working together to identify transport solutions where capacity problems are revealed;

·         Effective promotion of alternative transport modes to provide realistic choice to the borough’s residents; and

·         Collaboration on preparing and implementing an Integrated Transport Strategy and Local Cycling & Walking Implementation Plan 

·         Joint lobbying on Thameslink services

 

Transport issues will require locally led and designed solutions and we would like this to feature more strongly in your strategy.

 

In terms of transport infrastructure, we would like to see a focus on smoothing out demand on the highway network so as to minimise excessive peak time congestion. For example, smaller catchment areas, more staggered opening and closing times for schools across the borough and or staggered holidays too, or improved walk, bus or train to school options. The reality is that there is more than adequate capacity on the network for the majority of the time, and so KCC could dedicate more resource to the exploration of creative and subtle solutions working with partners to tackle congestion. We would also like to see more on park and ride and modal shift in relation to future transport planning.

 

Air quality is also a key concern. Whilst the draft strategy includes actions for electric vehicles in your own fleet we also believe there should be an action on electric vehicles on our public transport network and in particular buses and infrastructure to support wider use of electric vehicles by the general public.

 

 


 

Outline image of a tree

Outcome 4: A cleaner and greener Kent

Please see pages 27 and 28 of the consultation document. 

 

Q9. Do you think that the draft objectives will help us deliver outcome 4 A cleaner and greener Kent? Please select one box.

 

Yes, the objectives listed will meet the outcome

x

In part, the objectives listed will help to meet the outcome (please list anything missing below)

 

No, the objectives listed will not meet the outcome (please give us more detail below)

 

Don’t know

 

Please provide any comments below:

In our Strategic Plan we have highlighted the importance of taking action against those who do not respect our public spaces, and we seek to ensure that Maidstone is an environmentally attractive and sustainable borough. This mirrors your ambition to protect the environment for future generations and to improve the quality of Kent’s public realm through strengthening local partnerships. In working towards net zero carbon emissions by 2050, both authorities have formally recognised the Climate Emergency and we support the shared commitment to progress towards net zero emissions in the shortest possible time. We would ask that you lead the way on tackling the climate change emergency by matching our time horizon of 2030 in line with the majority of Kent district council ambitions.

 

With regard to the proposed objective to ‘develop and approve a tree policy’, further clarification may be useful in understanding where this policy would sit and how local authorities might be expected to utilise and/or incorporate such a policy e.g. through their Local Plan. Thought will need to be given to which trees in which locations and this will need to be undertaken with others including district councils, businesses and land owners.

 

What specific actions are proposed to protect the trees, wetland, marshland, wildlife habitats already in place and established?

 

Outline image of three connected hands

Outcome 5: Stronger and safer Kent communities

Please see pages 31 and 32 of the consultation document.

 

Q10. Do you think that the draft objectives will help us deliver outcome 5 Stronger and safer Kent communities? Please select one box.

 

Yes, the objectives listed will meet the outcome

X

In part, the objectives listed will help to meet the outcome (please list anything missing below)

 

No, the objectives listed will not meet the outcome (please give us more detail below)

 

Don't know

 

Please provide any comments below:

Our Strategic Plan notes that Maidstone is a safe place to live and we want our residents to feel safe. Over the next five years we will place particular importance on improving community safety by working with our partners to make people less vulnerable to crime. We welcome the commitment to invest in community wardens, and work with partners to better support rural areas.

 

The document needs to include references to the district Community Safety Plans and the Police and Crime Commissioners priorities. We would like to see a commitment to continue to fund domestic abuse supported accommodation and we would welcome the opportunity to be involved in the Civil Society Strategy.

 

Through the Local Plan Review, we as a district council can promote community safety through good development design and planned provision of community facilities and services. We therefore encourage you to develop and deliver the Rural Strategy in order to support rural communities with the challenges they face and to identify where, through the Local Plan, we may be able to support the delivery of the Strategy.

 

 


 

Outline image of person walking up steps

Outcome 6: Opportunities for children and young people

Please see pages 36 and 37 of the consultation document.

 

Q11. Do you think that the draft objectives will help us deliver outcome 6 Opportunities for children and young people? Please select one box.

 

Yes, the objectives listed will meet the outcome

X

In part, the objectives listed will help to meet the outcome (please list anything missing below)

 

No, the objectives listed will not meet the outcome (please give us more detail below)

 

Don’t know

 

Please provide any comments below:

Our vision for Maidstone encompasses that our borough is a place where everyone can achieve their potential. To this end our strategic plan is focused on ensuring we have safe and desirable homes that enable good health and wellbeing for our communities. We want to improve the quality of community services and facilities including for health care and community activities.

 

One of our desired outcomes for 2045 is to have community facilities and services in the right place at the right time to support communities, this includes facilities and services for young people. Infrastructure such as sure start centres who can support children and families have been very important previously.

 

 

We agree that “improving children’s health and wellbeing begins by giving every child the best start in life to support children and young people to achieve the best outcomes possible.” Housing as one of the social determinants of health is an area we are focussed on improving, to ensure people can reach their potential. Poor quality housing and homelessness impacts negatively on the ability of young people to reach full educational attainment as well as impacting on their health and wellbeing. This needs to be part of the conversation on giving young people the best start in life.

 

Financial Inclusion and Inclusive growth projects in Maidstone are there to create opportunities for those children from disadvantaged backgrounds to reach their potential.

 

There is a lack of engagement with young people with the public sector and public services and this needs to be addressed to ensure services are fit for young people and fit for purpose.

 

 

 


 

Outline image of a hand holding a heart

Outcome 7: Quality health, care and support

Please see pages 40 to 42 of the consultation document.

 

Q12. Do you think that the draft objectives will help us deliver outcome 7 Quality health, care and support? Please select one box.

 

Yes, the objectives listed will meet the outcome

X

In part, the objectives listed will help to meet the outcome in part (please list anything missing below)

 

No, the objectives listed will not meet the outcome (please give us more detail below)

 

Don’t know

 

Please provide any comments below:

Maidstone has a cross cutting objective to address and reduce health inequalities in the Borough as well as an ambition to ensure existing housing is safe, desirable and promotes good health and wellbeing.. Poor housing is associated with poor health which in turn can lead to poor outcomes for adults and children including homelessness, we all need to work together to tackle this.

 

There are a number of stakeholders involved in the successful delivery of this outcome including health partners, district councils and others. District councils have been working on health projects and with the public health service for several years the continuation of this work is not clear in the actions and ambitions.

 

We note the “starting well, living well and ageing well interventions” proposed however the existing supported accommodation funding has not been mentioned and this is important for both prevention and ensuring residents can stay in their own homes.

 

We note the section on mental health and emotional wellbeing and the promotion on mental wellbeing as a priority however, improvements are required to mental health services and these need acknowledging.

 

 


 

Section 5: Overall

We have completed an initial Equality Impact Assessment (EqIA) on the draft 5 year plan. An EqIA is a tool to assess the impact any service change, policy or strategies would have on age, disability, sex, gender identity, race, religion or belief, sexual orientation, pregnancy and maternity, marriage and civil partnership and carers’ responsibilities. The EqIA is available online at www.kent.gov.uk/5yearplan or on request.

Q13. If you have any comments about equalities and/or the Equality Impact Assessment, please provide them below.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Q14. If you have any additional comments on any area of the draft 5 year plan, please let us know them here.