An update on Holborough Lakes fire.

We wanted to give you a brief update on the situation at Holborough Lakes after the fire.

Berkeley Homes are still accommodating several families at a local hotel and have been liaising with residents about their longer term rehoming options. This is not a straightforward process as there were a mixture of tenures with some families being owner-occupiers and other being tenants of private landlords.

Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council are working together closely with Berkeley and have allocated Housing Officers to the families that need it. TMBC may need to give short term financial assistance to some households, depending on their circumstances. TMBC are also monitoring the cases of all those who have been displaced from their home.

Those families who were temporarily displaced from the adjacent block due to the electrical power outage have all been given the all clear to return. Some flats required a "deep clean" before residents could return.

The rebuild timescale is dependent upon the findings of a forthcoming engineering assessment to be carried out by Berkeley Homes. Berkeley Homes are carrying out air quality monitoring in the adjacent block whilst temporary works take place to remove debris and put up scaffolding.

We haven't heard any further news on the cause of the fire, other than that it started on a third floor balcony.

Cllr David Lettington

The fire at Holborough Lakes

I just wanted to write a quick post to say how proud I am of the way that the residents of Snodland have responded to the fire at Holborough Lakes.

It is clearly absolutely devastating for the families affected; many have lost their homes and treasured possessions. The shock of seeing flames engulf your home cannot be understated. The feelings of sadness for those families are also mixed with an immense relief that no lives were lost and that there were no serious injuries.

The emergency services responded swiftly, which undoubtedly saved lives, and have acted with total professionalism and compassion for the residents. Likewise, I wanted to thank staff from TMBC Building Control who worked with Kent & Fire and Rescue Service to establish the extent of the structural damage, and to the Housing Officers who gave advice to residents about their rehoming options.

People who have been following the ongoing parking saga at Holborough will know that I don't always agree with the actions of Berkeley Homes, but I have to say that both Berkeley and their managing agent RMG have responded brilliantly and, where those affected could not stay with friends or family then Berkeley have paid for them to stay in a local hotel.

The community have also been incredibly generous, there were more donations than could be handled and there has also been a JustGiving page set up ( www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/holboroughlakesfire ) that has raised over £3000 at the time of writing.

It is apparent that the whole block will need to be rebuilt - the damage from fire and water is too significant to permit repairs, even on the lower levels.

I'm sure there will be further information coming forward in the next few weeks, but for now I just wanted to say a big thank you to the community for all of the support that has been given to everyone that has been affected.

Cllr David Lettington

An update after the Holborough Lakes parking public meeting

This morning we sent this email to residents who attended the Holborough Lakes parking public meeting:

Many thanks for your feedback.

There were nearly 70 residents at the recent Holborough Lakes parking meeting, with 24 people completing the questionnaire.

The response to the first question was as follows:

Which of the following statements most accurately reflects your view:
- I am completely happy with the road markings at Holborough Lakes and would like them to be enforced according to the markings.	3
- I am generally happy with the road markings but think improvements could be made.	4
- I am generally unhappy with the road markings but would like to see some adjustments.	8
- I am very unhappy with the road markings and would like to see significant changes.	9

I am seeing Berkeley on Tuesday and will give them feedback from the meeting.

KCC also need to decide whether they will instruct Berkeley to remove the lines in areas without TROs (or just remove the lines themselves).

There was a wide range of responses to the other questions in the questionnaire, and here is a selection of comments:

"This is not a family friendly estate. More disabled spaces required"

"Parking problems in Holborough Lakes cause problems in Holborough Road too"

"Cars must be kept off pavements"

"Staggered lines on main routes [would help]"

"More parking bays where possible. Compromise is needed"

"I would like double yellow lines to be enforced"

"Roadside parking should be allowed"

"More provision of visitor parking [is needed], especially in phase 1 & 2"

"We are fed up with Berkeley Homes not considering the views of residents"

"The yellow lines will not work. People need to be able to have family and friends visit"

"Yellow lines need to be added where there are cobbled areas"

"it is very important that there is parking control over the whole of the development"

"Enforce parking restrictions at the nursery"

"Staggered parking needs to be in place on the main roads to create more spaces"

"Please consider that we would like to have family round without a parking nightmare"

"We do not need this strict, unnecessary enforcement"

"A blanket of yellow lines is not the answer".

I will keep you updated when I have further information from KCC and Berkeley.

Cllr David Lettington, on behalf of Snodland Conservatives

www.snodland-conservatives.blogspot.co.uk

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Twitter: @SnodlandTories

Making Council Tax fairer....and saving you (a little) money

The Council Tax that we all have to pay has taken an increasingly large proportion of people's wage packets over the last twenty years. From 1997-98 through to 2010-11 it increased by 47% in "real terms", i.e. by 47% over and above what you would expect if it had risen by the rate of inflation (RPI) alone.

To address this, from 2013 to 2016 the Government offered money to local authorities to help them freeze their Council Tax and also introduced a "threshold" of 2.0%. Any authority wishing to increase their Council Tax above the 2.0% threshold would have to have a referendum in their local area, to see if residents supported any proposed increase. The effect of these measures is that nationally, over the last four years, Council Tax has fallen by 11% in "real terms".

Nevertheless, we all recognise that Council Tax is still high and that local authorities must set their Council Tax responsibly.

In Snodland, your local Conservative team has supported measures to keep down Council Tax as much as possible. This is why we supported Conservative-controlled Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council's "Fairer Charging" proposals.

In the past, Snodland residents (and all residents of "parished" areas of Tonbridge & Malling) have subsidised the Council Tax payments of residents in "non-parished" areas of the Borough. This is because in areas that do not have a parish, TMBC take responsibility for all of the services that a parish would normally provide. This meant that, in addition to paying some Council Tax to Snodland Town Council (our "parish"), Snodland residents were also paying money to TMBC to run the parish services in other areas that had no Parish or Town Council. Recognising that this was unfair, TMBC gave all parishes a grant to help them pay for some of their services. In Snodland, this amounted to about £64,000.

This year, TMBC took the difficult decision to change their system so that all residents will pay a reduced basic charge for "core services", i.e. services that everyone gets, such as waste collection, and then introducing a "Local Charge" for services that are specific to that Parish alone. In Snodland, this would just mean charging for TMBC's maintenance of some public open spaces. In return for this, TMBC's element of the Council Tax would be about £16 lower than it would have been otherwise, but the Town Council would also lose their grant money and have to replace it by having a small increase in their own Council Tax.

It's easier to show the effect of this by looking at a "Band D" Council Tax bill.

In 2016-17 your annual Council Tax went to pay for services at five public bodies:
Kent Police £152.15
Kent Fire & Rescue £72.00
Kent County Council £1133.55
TMBC £192.51
Snodland Town Council £75.07
TOTAL £1625.28

The amount charged by the Police Authority, Fire Authority and KCC are outside of the control of your five local Borough councillors. KCC's finances have been crippled by the need to pay for the spiralling costs of adult social care. This means that they have no flexibility and are highly likely to increase their Council Tax by the maximum 2.0%, plus a further 2.0% which the Government have allowed this year to help pay for adult social care (although this nowhere near covers the actual cost to KCC).

Therefore, the areas that we can affect are TMBC and Snodland Town Council, both of which are Conservative controlled.

TMBC charged £192.51 last year. If it had not been for the introduction of Fairer Charging, that would have increased to £197.51 this year (a maximum of £5 increase is allowed by the Government). Assuming that TMBC follows the recommendation in its report published this week, then their charge for 2017-18 will actually be £181.61.

Snodland Town Council had intended to freeze its charge this year, leaving it at £75.07. However, to make up for the loss of grant money, it needs to increase its charge by £5.89 to £80.96.

In addition, TMBC will now need to levy a Local Charge of £5.48 for the maintenance of public spaces.

In total, this means that the charge for 2017-18 instead of being £197.51 + £75.07 (£272.58) will be £181.61 + £80.96 + £5.48 (£268.05). This represents a REDUCTION of £4.53 for all of the services provided by TMBC and Snodland Town Council.

In the recent Snodland Town Council by-election we were criticised for removing the TMBC grant to Snodland Town Council because, according to Labour, it would "add around £5.50 Council Tax to Band D properties in Snodland". This have proven to be completely incorrect. The whole purpose of making the change was to save money for residents in parished areas.

We recognise that a saving of £4.53 in the context of increases from the Police Authority, Fire Authority and KCC only makes a small difference, but we wanted to do everything that we could to help you keep more money in your pocket.

We don't yet know the exact amount that KCC and the authorities are going to charge, but we do expect them to be higher, so the total amount for all Council Tax is likely to be more than the £1625.28 for this year.

This makes it even more important we do our bit to help out the residents of Snodland.

Cllr David Lettington

Thank you for your support!

We would like to thank everyone that supported our Town Council by-election campaign and voted for James Minter in the Snodland West & Holborough Lakes ward.

The result was as below:

James Minter 380 (49%)
Labour 273 (35%)
Liberal Democrats 123 (16%)

The turnout was 16.7%.

296 votes were cast in person. 480 votes were cast by post.

Although we are obviously pleased to win, we sincerely regret that an election was called at all. All political parties (except the Lib Dems) had agreed to co-opt a new councillor instead of having an election.

This option would have cost nothing and is common practice in these circumstances.

Instead, the Town Council has now been forced to spend between £8k and £10k. Clearly, this money cannot now be spent on services in Snodland.

We are all supportive of democracy; but not at any price. We consider that the approximate £10,000 (the Borough Council has not invoiced the Town Council yet, so we don't know the exact cost) is not good value for money to elect one Town Councillor out of fifteen. The Town Council has a budget for the four-yearly cost of its elections, but the by-election was an unexpected cost.

We feel it is particularly ironic that the party who called the election came last. The Lib Dems were fully aware of the cost of an election and also fully aware that they were extremely unlikely to win. Given these circumstances, it is difficult to see why they organised for the election to take place.

All political parties need to consider how they spend tax-payers' hard-earned money, and make sure that expenditure overs value for money. We hope that should any future vacancies occur, that we can all agree to co-opt someone with the right skills to fill the post.