Consultation: majority in favour! Town Council listens, JTB creates false data & ignores residents

The consultation on the 20 mph scheme for central Sevenoaks concluded in December, and the results were released earlier this month. 

The results were compiled by Lake Market Research, an independent organisation engaged to analyse the consultation results, and were as follows:

• All respondents: 53% in favour of the scheme;
• Sevenoaks town residents: 61% in favour of the scheme;
• Individual street results (overall yes vote reduced on some streets by those voting yes but asking for a specific street to be removed): all streets had a majority greater than 51%

As a result of this clear majority support, on Monday (18 March) Sevenoaks Town Council recommended to Kent County Council that the scheme be adopted in full. 

However, on Wednesday (20 March) the Sevenoaks Joint Transportation Board (JTB - made up of by a majority of councillors who do not represent Sevenoaks Town):

• presented incorrect data saying that only 49% of respondents backed the scheme. This is not data put forward by the independent consultants and is simply wrong
• Ignored the independently verified overall majority – and wider majority from Sevenoaks town residents – for the scheme to go ahead, and support for all streets to be included in the scheme. 

The JTB then recommended to Kent County Council that five streets be removed from the 20 mph scheme. Five busy streets where a great many of the crash injuries occur. 

Quite simply, this is outrageous. After three years of the community following the correct procedure to raise a concern about excessive speeds – by launching a petition, taking it to the JTB, designing a scheme with KCC officers, consulting with the public on it and receiving majority support – the JTB has with one stroke simply ignored what local people want. 

As such, the decision now currently sits with Neil Baker, the KCC transport portfolio holder – who has two different recommendations in front of him. It would very much help if those who signed this petition please email him with the suggested text below or something similar – please copy/paste/send if you can. This will encourage the only legitimate decision – for full implementation. 

Thank you for your support. 

To: Neil.Baker@Kent.gov.uk

Dear Mr Baker

The local people of Sevenoaks were consulted last October to December on implementing a fully designed 20 mph scheme for the central area of the town. We have clearly voted by majority for this - by 53% to 47% by all respondents and by 61% to 39% by residents of Sevenoaks Town. 

As such, please take the only legitimate decision and implement it in full, following the recommendation of the Sevenoaks Town Council. Anything else would be to deny democracy, and deny us our voice. 

If you follow the recommendation of the Sevenoaks Joint Transportation Board – made following their presentation of incorrect data and ignoring the result of the consultation – this is not supportable and would lead to a high level of scrutiny which will reflect badly on all concerned. 

But fundamentally worse, failure to implement the scheme in full would lead to many more people being pointlessly injured on our streets – in your name. As such, I urge you to do the right thing and recommend full implementation of the scheme as designed

With kind regards