District Council News Telephone: 01732 227000
www.sevenoaks.gov.uk
Cllr.Lowe@sevenoaks.gov.uk http://michellelowe.yourcllr.com
I hope you all had a wonderful and well-deserved Christmas break and I wish you a very happy and healthy New Year.
After reading the December edition of this magazine Andrew Hill, Chair of Mission
Links, prompted me to see what Kent County Council are doing about the Children’s Society's Runaways Charter and I am delighted to report that Kent is actually quite proactive on the issue.
Jenny Whittle, Cabinet Member for Specialist Children’s Services, said that she
wholeheartedly supports the Children’s Society Runaways Charter. Kent County Council (KCC) was one of the first councils to sign up and pledge support. The Council had previously identified adolescents as a vulnerable group and is investing over £1 million in piloting multi-agency integrated adolescence teams to provide early intervention support.
The pilot is running in four areas across the county and there are currently 24
adolescent support workers working in these four pilot areas. These support workers will provide a seamless service across both social services and youth offending not only to build and support effective and earlier intervention but also to provide a rapid response in meeting the needs of vulnerable young people.
The County Council has also commissioned a Crisis Intervention Service for 11 to 16
year olds to the value of £540,000 per annum. The objective of this service is to work with families intensively when relationships are breaking down with the aim of keeping the young person at home or returning them home, if it is safe to do so.
KCC are also investing an additional £250,000 to provide intensive work for 16/17 year
olds who are homeless - again to return them home, if it is safe to do so. The County Council, in conjunction with Dartford Borough Council and the YMCA, also
has access to a ‘crash pad’ – which can be used as safe emergency accommodation by vulnerable young people as and when needed. It is good to see that our own local authority is taking this issue very seriously.
I am also delighted to report that the November meeting of the Development Control
(Planning) Committee approved the new M&S application and I am hopeful we will have our new Sevenoaks store in time for Christmas. When you take into account the massive impact that Waitrose has had on the southern end of the town centre, I am sure M&S will have a similar impact on the northern end which should ensure the economic viability of Sevenoaks Town Centre for many years to come. We are very blessed to have M&S in Sevenoaks as originally the company was looking at expanding into 12 towns across the country and in the end they have settled on just Sevenoaks which is great news for us.
You still have time (until 28 January) to take part in the KCC public consultation about
the proposal to permanently expand Otford Primary School by visiting:
www.kent.gov.uk/ schoolconsultations or emailing:
school.consultations@
kent.gov.uk or writing to Simon Webb, Area Education Officer, Green Zone, Commercial Buildings, Gibson Drive, Kings Hill,
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