‘There’s no fracking in the pipeline’

WITH ongoing protests against fracking continuing, an effort has been made to calm fevered speculation about whether any similar activity is planned for Kent.

Over to the chairman of Kent County Council’s planning committee Cllr John Davies, who issued a calming message to county councillors about the issue.

He wrote: “Before we start “hares running” let us be clear on the planning situation in Kent.

“There are no planning applications for my committee to consider on fracking nor are there any pending or in the pipeline if I may use that word.”

Yes, you may use that word. Given it is the summer, we will permit one “end-of-the-pier” bad pun.

Which brings us to the UKIP position on the subject. Party leader Nigel Farage is on record as saying that he is in favour of exploratory drilling.

Given events in Balcombe, and the party’s strong support in parts of the south east where we might expect to see a bit of drilling, this might prove to be one issue on which he is not quite as in touch with ordinary members of the public as he has previously proved on other subjects.

The 885 county council staff on zero hour contracts include a variety of different posts but what strikes Off The Record about most is that they are the kind of jobs at the lower end of the salary scale.

Given the stated desire by the authority’s administration to cut management costs, perhaps it is a policy that should be widened to embrace one or two at the higher end of the salary scale. Just an idea.

What’s this? Is Kent not quite as keen on road building as we all thought?

Its Bold Steps for Kent document makes no bones about seeing it as key to boosting jobs and investment.

But on its website, we find an intriguing statement: “Traffic jams, delays, pollution, longer journeys - our roads are not coping with growing traffic. It’s not possible to build enough roads to cope with growing car numbers or protect our environment against increasing traffic pollution.”

And where do we discover such heresy? On KCC’s website page for cycling, of course.