Disappointment over Kent County Council response to road Safety Fears on Sandgate High Street

Local Lib Dem Gary Fuller has reacted with disappointment that Kent County Council are unwilling to act on road safety fears along a narrow stretch of Sandgate High Street. Gary reported the issue to UKIP County Councillor Hod Birkby, who forwarded a Kent County Council Highways, Transportation & Waste officer's response.

The response read:

"As you know Kent County Council receives a very large number of requests every year for new highway works. Unfortunately, due to substantial budget reductions, Kent County Council is having to carefully prioritise what works we can deliver in order to ensure we get the best value for the public of Kent out of the limited resources we have available.

Therefore, we are currently only funding those new works that are deemed safety critical. Our definition of safety critical is where there has been at least one personal injury crash in the last three years of the type we would be affecting by implementing the works requested. I have checked our crash database for Sandgate High Street between Wilberforce Road (east entrance) and The Crescent. This shows we have no record of any personal injury crashes in this part of Sandgate High Street over the last three years and therefore at this moment in time will not be able to fund any works. Unfortunately damage-only incidents such as those described by Mr Fuller are not considered."

Commenting on the response, Gary said:

"I fully understand that budgets are tight at the moment. This is why I feel Kent Highways should be proactive and not reactive in dealing with safety issues. If somebody is hurt on this stretch of road due to Kent Highways negligence, leaving aside the human cost, it will cost KCC a great deal more than dealing with the issue now.

I'm also disappointed that they are relying on a database populated only with data from accidents reported to the Police. I'm sure there are numerous accidents involving minor injuries that never get reported to the Police every year. This would mean their data is at best flawed, if not woefully inaccurate."

Kent Highways Crash and Casualty data can be found at http://www.kent.gov.uk/roads-and-travel/road-safety/crash-and-casualty-data.