KCC’s outgoing Chairman David Brazier was delighted to be able to hand over a cheque for £2,000 to Josephine McCartney, Chief Executive of The Kent Community Foundation, which was Mr Brazier’s chosen charity for his year in office. The money was raised through the Good Friday Sportive, which started at finished at Cyclopark in Gravesend and…
Dementia Action Week runs from May 21-27 and Kent County Council (KCC) is urging residents to do their part to help people with the condition. Whether it’s reaching out to someone with dementia or rallying your town or village to make local facilities more accessible, every action makes a difference to the 21,000 people in…
Children splashed in water, played in sand, and enjoyed the great outdoors as their new eco-friendly nursery was declared officially open. Abacus Nursery and Childcare Limited in New Romney, which is rated Outstanding by Ofsted, first opened its doors in 2005 with just six members of staff and only 20 places available per session. Staff…
The future of electric buses in Kent is being considered after a trial in Dartford came to an end. Back in March, Kent County Council launched a seven-week trial on the Fastrack route. Working with Volvo and ABB, a Swedish-Swiss engineering group, the electric bus produced no emissions and is driven by electric motors. The…
NHS England and Public Health England have today announced £667,000 of new funding for suicide prevention across Kent and Medway. The investment, announced today by Department for Health and Social Care, Public Health England (PHE), and NHS England marks the start of a three year programme worth £25 million that will reach the whole country…
It was a double win for KCC’s road safety team at the FirstCar Young Driver Road Safety Awards. The awards recognise the efforts of road safety professionals to reduce casualties among young drivers. Speak Out was named the winner in two of the five categories at the 2018 awards ceremony for Best New Scheme and…
Renovation work on a Kent petrol station was so poor and dangerous that it could have caused an explosion, a court was told. Following an investigation by KCC Trading Standards, the contractor has been sentenced to 200 hours unpaid work and ordered to pay £12,000 in costs at Canterbury Crown Court for breaching health and…
Kent County Council (KCC) needs more than 150 new households to join its team of foster carers and help change the future of vulnerable children in the county. The Local Authority is backing Foster Care Fortnight 2018, the UK’s biggest foster carer recruitment campaign which runs until May 27. Lucy Buck, 48 and from Folkestone,…
A report into KCC’s waste disposal has found that just under 1% of the county’s rubbish goes to landfill. At a meeting of today’s Environment and Transport Cabinet Committee, members heard that 52% of the 710,000 tonnes of waste disposed of by Kent residents is converted to energy at the Waste to Energy plant in…
Stress is the theme of this year’s Mental Health Awareness Week and Live Well Kent, a network of charities and community groups commissioned by Kent County Council and the NHS, is aiming to show people just how much support is available near them. Events are being held throughout the county for the national awareness campaign…
There’s a whole lot of holes being filled on the county’s roads as Kent County Council continues its £7.5 million pothole blitz. Since the start of 2018, over 20,000 potholes have been filled. Since March 1, KCC has filled in 19,956 potholes and carried out 31,251sqm of resurfacing where multiple potholes were found. The issue…
Three in four crashes involving children on Kent’s roads are because of youngsters not looking properly before they cross. Child pedestrians are consistently shown to be at their most vulnerable between the ages of 11 and 16 as this is often when, with increasing independence, they begin their first solo pedestrian journeys on potentially unfamiliar routes.…
A KCC scheme to help businesses invest in technology to help battle climate change has been recognised at an awards ceremony. The Low Carbon Across the South East (LoCASE) Project was selected as runner-up by the President of the Association of Directors of Environment, Economy, Planning and Transport (ADEPT) Awards. The three-year LoCASE project has,…
For almost 20 years KCC foster carers Mary and Bob Howse have opened their home to disabled children with complex needs. So, when asked to appear on Channel 5’s ‘Do the Right Thing’ with Eamonn Holmes and Ruth Langsford, they leapt at the chance to raise awareness about the vital lifeline short break fostering placements…
As Coronation Street highlights the story of a male suicide in its programmes this week, Kent residents are being reminded of a 24/7 freephone helpline as part of its ‘Release the Pressure’ campaign. The tragic plot has followed Aidan Connor’s changing behaviour over the past few months which includes financial and relationship issues before culminating…
To help alleviate an increase in usage, Tovil Household Waste and Recycling Centre (HWRC) will be open for longer two days a week. Over the past few weeks the site on Burial Ground Lane has seen an excess of 2,000 cars a day. Unfortunately, the increase in use is having a knock-on effect to the…
Kent County Council has received reassurance from Highways England that traffic modelling data expected last year will be available soon. Uncertainty over how Kent’s roads will cope with the new Lower Thames Crossing prompted KCC’s Cabinet Member for Transport Mike Whiting to write to government expressing his concerns. Mr Whiting said: “We believe the crossing…
