27th Jan Kent on Sunday “Highways chiefs considering intelligently placed small lorry parks to combat illegal parking across Kent”. 30th Jan Hawkinge Gazette “KCC plans to holt illegal lorry parking on Kent roads”. 2nd Feb Dover Mercury “Action to tackle illegal lorry parking”. An invitation was sent to 4,295 members of the KCC consultation database. Copies of the draft action plan were sent to 39 libraries and all gateways/district council offices. The consultation was promoted via a banner on the kent.gov.uk homepage, linking through to the Freight Action Plan for Kent consultation page www.kent.gov.uk/freightactionplan. KCC’s social media channel via twitter was used. 8 tweets were published, shown below. Date Content Likes Retweets Clicks Mentions 16th Jan Have your say on our Freight Action Plan. Public consultation opens today, tell us your views. 4 10 33 1 29th Jan Tell us your views by 12th March on our plan to reduce the impact of road freight in Kent. 3 10 42 8 6th Feb Have your say on our Freight Action Plan. Complete our questionnaire here. #freightactionplan 0 2 16 1 18th Feb Tell us what you think of our plans to improve the management of freight traffic in Kent. 1 8 53 2 24th Feb We want to hear the opinions of Kent residents and businesses on our Freight Action Plan. #freightactionplan 0 3 12 0 5th Mar There’s one more week to give us your comments on our plans to lessen the negative impacts of road freight in Kent. 0 6 40 0 12th Mar Deadline for comments on KCC’s Freight Action Plan is 5pm today. Have your say by completing our questionnaire. 0 3 22 0 12th Mar Tell us what you think. Deadline for comments on Kent’s Freight Action Plan is 5pm today. 0 2 5 0 Direct email was sent to the identified stakeholders at the launch of the consultation. Direct email was sent to the Kent Association of Local Councils and also separately to all parish councils in Kent. A presentation was given at the Freight Transport Association’s South East Freight Council which is attended by their members in the south-east region. Promotion to KCC staff through the intranet homepage, articles in staff newsletters and on building information screens. Accessibility
Dunkirk Parish Council Edenbridge Town Council Eythorne Parish Council Goudhurst Parish Council Guston Parish Harbledown and Rough Common Parish Council Horsmonden Parish Council Horton Kirby and South Darenth Parish Council Hothfield Parish Council Hythe Town Council Ightam Parish Council Iwade Parish Council Kent Association of Local Councils Kings Hill Parish Council Leybourne Parish Council Loose Parish Council Lympne Parish Council Lynsted and Norton Parish Council Marden Parish Council Meopham Parish Council Minster Parish Council Monks Horton Parish Council Monkton Parish Council New Romney Town Council Nonnington Parish Council Ospringe Parish Council Paddock Wood Town Council Platt Parish Council Plaxtol Parish Council Postling Parish Council Preston Parish Council Queenborough Town Council Sandwich Town Council Sellindge Parish Council Shipbourne Parish Council Shorne Parish Council Smarden Parish Council Southborough Town Council St Margaret’s at Cliffe Parish Council Stanford Parish Council Sturry Parish Council Sutton-at-Hone and Hawley Parish Council Teston Parish Council Tilmanstone Parish Council Ulcombe Parish Council Westerham Town Council West Malling Parish Council Westwell Parish Council Whitfield Parish Council Wilmington Parish Council Wingham Parish Council Wouldham Parish Council Wrotham Parish Council Wye and Hinxhill Parish Council Businesses, Organisations and Community/Voluntary Sector Groups Air Quality Management Area Groups in Swale (AQMA) Alliance of British Drivers Bean Residents Association British Horse Society Charted Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT) Confederation of Passenger Transport UK CPRE Kent CPRE Kent - Dartford and Gravesham Branch
Dover Innovation Centre Environment Agency Faversham Society Freight Transport Association Henry Boot Developments Ltd Highways England High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB) Historic England Kent Downs AONB Kent Police Kent Wildlife Trust Mantis Motorcycling Natural England No Night Flights North Willesborough Community Forum Port of Dover Port of London Authority Protem HGV Rail Freight Plus Railfuture Railfuture (Freight Group) Road Haulage Association Salvatori Group Sellindge and District Residents Association Shepway Environment and Community Group Shepway District Council – UKIP Group South Cheriton Action Group Smarter Solutions to Alternatives to Operation Stack (SOS) Southborough Residents Group South Maidstone Action for Roads and Transport (SMART) St Peters and St Paul’s Pre School, Ditton Stewart Fraser Ltd Swale Borough Council Air Quality Management Steering Group Swale Borough Council/Mid Kent Environmental Health Tarmac Trading Ltd Tonbridge and Malling Green Party Tunbridge Wells Bicycle Users Group Consultation Responses – Questionnaire Analysis This section will analyse the results of each question from the consultation questionnaire. To note this analysis will only take into account questionnaire response submissions not written responses to the questionnaire. Question 3: Does road freight traffic have a negative impact on you/your local community? The overwhelming majority of respondents said that road freight has a negative impact on them/their local community. 90% of the respondents answered ‘yes’ to this question.
37 respondents made comments in favour of the Freight Journey Planner. Comments included: “The Freight Journey Planner sounds an excellent scheme.” “The Freight Journey Planners seem an excellent idea and should be compulsory.” Question 8: To what extent do you agree or disagree with KCC’s steps to address the problems caused by freight traffic to communities? The majority of respondents to this question agreed with KCC’s steps to address the problems caused by freight traffic to communities with 70% either agreeing or strongly agreeing to the steps. There were 445 responses to this question and of these 219 provided written comments to the question. There were two common themes of comments both regarding enforcement of restrictions on HGVs. 69 respondents called for increased enforcement of HGVs flouting restrictions. Comments included: “Agree but robust enforcement of breaches is required. It is unrealistic to expect the police to be involved in such initiatives” “You need to have legally enforceable powers to deal with the issue; people only follow the rules if they were going to break them by feeling the pain in their bank balance.” 30 respondents called for enforcement action to be taken against foreign registered vehicles. Comments included: “We must be able to take more action against foreign lorries by use of impounding lorries or on the spot fines.” “Lyminge Parish Council cannot understand why enforcement action cannot be taken against foreign registered HGVs. Such an action would be effective in the long run.” Question 8b: Were you aware of the Lorry Watch scheme available to residents/parishes in Kent before taking part in this consultation? There were 448 responses to this question of which 34% were aware of the scheme, however 66% were not aware of the scheme.