Vehicle Rear Window Shattered - Upchurch

Hartlip, Newington & Upchurch Ward

Crime Number: 46/199056/19

Between 8:00pm and 10:00pm on Tuesday 15th of October, a walnut-sized stone was thrown through the rear window of a vehicle parked in Chaffes Lane, Upchurch.

If you have any information that could help investigators please contact Kent Police on telephone number 101 and quote the relevant crime number above.

For more information on crime prevention visit: www.kent.police.uk

Kent Community Messaging

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Urgent Road Closure - The Street, Hartlip

Urgent Road Closure - The Street, Hartlip - Tuesday 22nd October 2019 (Swale).

It will be necessary to close The Street, Hartlip from Tuesday 22nd October 2019 for up to 2 days between the hours of 09:00 and 16:00.

The road will be closed from outside Orchard Lea to outside the Hartlip Endowed C of E Primary School, to the extent indicated by signs and barriers on site.

The alternative route is via Munns Lane, Lower Hartlip Road, Hollow Lane and onto The Street.

This is to enable replacement works on overhead conductor and decayed poles to be carried out by UK Power Networks.

This Notice applies when the relevant signs and barriers are on site and is valid for a period of no more than 5 days.

The KCC Highways 24hr Contact Centre helpline is: 03000 418181

For details of roadworks, see: https://one.network

Kent County Council - Highways, Transportation & Waste
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Please Complete the Medway and Swale NHS CCG Survey to Help Them Improve Outpatient Services in Our Area

Have you or a close family member used outpatient services at Medway Hospital recently? Can you give them your feedback?

As part of a programme to transform outpatient services, NHS Medway and Swale Clinical Commissioning Groups and NHS Medway Foundation Trust have launched a survey for patients, family carers and staff - they want to transform outpatients at Medway Hospital.

Outpatient transformation

The current NHS outpatient model across England has been described as “obsolete”. In the past 10 years, the number of appointments has doubled, meaning the NHS needs to address their services to ensure they are meeting the needs of the patients.

The Medway Model is aimed at bringing more services out into community settings, improving how strands of the system work better together and making better use of resources.

The aim is to change the way hospital appointments are delivered in the future. This might involve moving some outpatients’ services into community locations, supporting patients to have more control over their care or making more use of new technology.

So far people have said they are sometimes waiting too long for appointments and that they want more access to clinical support between appointments so they can manage their own conditions better without reaching a crisis.

What are outpatient services?

Outpatients are hospital appointments which do not involve an overnight stay. As a patient, you are normally referred via your GP but you may be referred via another service. You have the right to choose which hospital to go to and which consultant-led team will be in charge of your treatment.

In 2017/2018 Medway Foundation Trust had 325,000 outpatient attendances.

Services which will be included in this programme include:

◼︎ Cardiology
◼︎ Ear Nose and Throat
◼︎ Gastroenterology services
◼︎ Gynaecology services
◼︎ Haematology
◼︎ Neurology
◼︎ Respiratory
◼︎ Rheumatology
◼︎ Urology

How can I get involved?

Please complete the survey.

The survey will be used to help the NHS find out what needs to be improved and what is working well. They plan to repeat the survey in 2020.

Please complete the patient and family carer survey at the link here >> http://bit.ly/2pursw5

If you work in outpatient services or refer patients to the service, please complete the staff survey at the link here >> http://bit.ly/2MjacDd

If you have experiences to share about outpatient services, or if you would like to get involved in future events or have some questions about the survey, or you require support and help to complete it, please Email: medway.communications@nhs.net or phone: 01634 335260.

Further information on the transformation of outpatient services can be found at the link here >> http://bit.ly/2MjqFHy

Upchurch Matters

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UPDATE: Wednesday 16th October - Notification of Major Gas Works: A2 - High Street, Newington

We are continuing to carry out network upgrades along the A2/ High Street, Newington. We will shortly be carrying out preparation work for when we move into Phase 2 of our project between Spade Lane to Mill Lane from Monday 21st October.

To ensure everyone’s safety, temporary traffic lights remain in place on the A2 / London Road around our work area. We manually control our lights Monday to Friday between 7:30am and 7:30pm, and between 8:00am and 5:00pm on Saturdays. These lights will still be in operation outside of these times.

Oak Lane and Canterbury Lane will be fully reopened once phase one is completed. Wallbridge Lane will also resume two-way traffic flow.

From approximately 12 noon on Monday 21st October, we'll need to temporarily close Mill Lane for approximately four weeks. Signed diversion routes will be in place for motorists via Spade Lane, Meresborough Lane, Dane Lane, The Street, Hollow Lane and Lower Hartlip Hill.

Following consultation with Kent County Council and Medway Council, advanced warning signs can only be positioned on Kent County Council's geographical area.

We would encourage all commuters to please plan ahead and allow extra time for your journey. Updates about our project can be found on our dedicated page here.

We appreciate your understanding and patience while we carry out essential gas mains replacement work.

If you would like any further information or advice, please let me know.

Kind regards

Paige Roberts

Stakeholder and Community Manager

SGN Gas

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Temporary Overnight Road Closure - A2 London Road, Sittingbourne

Temporary Road Closure - A2 London Road, Sittingbourne - Thursday 28th November 2019.

Kent County Council has made an order to temporarily prohibit through traffic on A2 London Road, Sittingbourne for up to 1 night between the hours of 20:00 and 05:00.

The road will be closed between the junctions with Wises Lane and Borden Lane, to the extent indicated by signs and barriers on site.

The alternative route is via A2, Crown Quay Lane, Eurolink Way, B2006 Mill Way, St Pauls Street, Staplehurst Road, Sheppey Way, Chalkwell Roundabout and back onto the A2.

Access for emergency service vehicles and pedestrians will be maintained at all times during the closure.

The closure is required for the safety of the public and workforce while carriageway resurfacing works are undertaken by Kent County Council.

This notice applies when the relevant signs and barriers are on site and is valid for a period of no more than 21 days.

The KCC Highways 24hr Contact Centre helpline is: 03000 418181

For details of roadworks, see: https://one.network

Kent County Council - Highways, Transportation & Waste
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Budget Consultation - KCC Invites Residents to Outline Their Budget Priorities

Kent County Council today launches a public consultation on its annual budget proposals.

The document outlines the council’s three key objectives for the next financial year, beginning in April 2020. These priorities for spending are:

• Helping children and young people in Kent get the best start in life.

• Helping Kent communities benefit from economic growth by being in-work, healthy and enjoying a good quality of life. 

• Helping keep older and vulnerable residents safe and supported with choices to live independently.

KCC has a responsibility to provide a wide range of services for its population of about 1.5million. To provide these services it spends over £1.5 billion each year.

The Government has announced a one-year settlement for 2020-21, which includes some additional government funding for social care services and assumes modest council tax increases. KCC is pleased that the amount of money it will have in the next financial year is increasing, and this was announced earlier than previous years to help our planning, but this one-year settlement means that the future remains uncertain.

Most importantly the funding the council receives is still unlikely not to keep pace with the additional costs and demand for our services. Taken together, this means there is forecast to be a budget gap in 2020-21 of between £18million and £22million. However, KCC has a proven track record of balancing the budget each year and has saved about £657million since 2010.

The Government sets a maximum limit for council tax increases (without holding a referendum) and we expect the limit for next year will be just under 2%.

This increase would add £23.04 per year (or 44 pence per week) to the KCC element of the bill for a typical band C property and take the total KCC element of council tax to £1,178.08 (or £22.60 per week). This increase would raise £14.3m towards the council’s rising costs.

In 2016, the Government introduced a Social Care Levy, which allows councils with adult social care responsibilities such as KCC to raise extra council tax in return for a guarantee to spend it only on those services. Since KCC already has a commitment to provide the best possible services for the most vulnerable people in society, it is proposing to levy a 2% social care increase in 2020-21.

This would raise a further additional £14.3m to be spent on adult social care services and increase the KCC element for a band C property by a further £23.04 (or 44 pence per week).

The purpose of the consultation is to ask for residents’ views on two key issues:

• Is a modest rise in council tax acceptable if it helps to sustain the services you most value?

• Is KCC focussing on the right priorities as it plans for the future of its many services?

Details of the consultation and on how to take part can be found at: www.kent.gov.uk/budget

Residents who do not have personal access to a computer can visit their local library and complete the questionnaire online there either through one of our free public access computers or if they have their own device by using the free public Wi-Fi.

For hard copies and alternative formats of the consultation material, please Email: alternativeformats@kent.gov.uk or call: 03000 421553 (voice). For Text Relay, please use 18001 03000 421553. This number goes to an answer machine which is monitored during office hours.

Murray Evans

Kent County Council

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