Better Streets for St John's and St James' – initial findings

The Better Streets for St John's and St James' Community Engagement ended on Monday 9 December when the survey asking people for their feedback on the proposals closed.

Initial findings are clear that the concept designs (the proposals that would change the way some roads could be accessed by vehicles) are not ideas that people want to see progressed.

Some of the suggested enhancements, for example the introduction of new 20mph speed limits, new lighting, and new pedestrian crossings, were welcomed.

Throughout the engagement programme the Council has said that the concept designs and enhancements are early proposals and nothing would be taken further without the support of residents. As the concept designs are not what people want we will go no further with these.

The Council will look in more detail at the feedback on the enhancement measures that people supported. For any of these to be implemented we will need to work with Kent County Council as the Highways Authority and secure funding should it become available.

Councillor Rob Wormington, Cabinet Member for Environment & Sustainability said: ‘We are pleased with the high level of responses to the engagement. People were very clear in their feedback and we are not going to progress anything that did not have public support – which for this project means the concept designs that would have altered the way roads could be accessed by vehicles. We are excited to continue to progress the ideas that were supported, like additional pedestrian crossings and lower speed limits on residential roads.’

A report on the engagement feedback will be presented to the Joint Transport Board (Kent County Council and Tunbridge Wells Borough Council) on 13 January 2025. We will also share this with everyone who responded to the survey.