Off the record

So, who is going to oversee the implementation of Kent’s emergency Brexit plan?

There has been some criticism of Kent County Council over its report on preparations needed to deal with a no deal Brexit scenario. Some have suggested that the report was an element of a wider conspiracy to whip up unfounded fears about the consequences of a cliff edge departure from the EU - a kind of ‘Project Fear 2’.

To be fair, KCC would have been damned either way: if it had not set out contingency plans and identified the issues, plenty would have complained about it if key frontline services had been affected. And inevitably, the report’s fairly neutral tone was converted by the media to give the impression of the Garden of England risked becoming some of apocalyptic dystopian environment.

Headlines about bodies not being buried and festering rubbish bags piling up on pavements was probably not exactly what council chiefs wanted. A number of Kent’s councils may have seen the report and wondered if they had made the right call when they decided not to have an action plan in the event of a no deal scenario. Several have been decidedly relaxed but KCC’s report highlights some challenges that are not its responsibility.

Rubbish collection services, for example, fall to district and borough councils and if - as KCC speculates - traffic gridlock could grip the county then it is those councils that just might face the wrath of residents whose rubbish does end up in clogging pavements and roads.

Optimistic soundbite of the week from Brexit secretary Stephen Barclay in an interview with Kent Online on the disruption: “There is no reason our roads would be any different on day one than they are today”.