The Portfolio Holder and Chairman of the Committee advised that he had taken part in an e-Safety day for local schools organised by the Community Safety Manager and IT Support Team Leader.  He had been linked remotely from the Council Chamber to school classrooms.  The children had been able to see each other but not him.  Cllr Firth had also linked in with a sleep better at night campaign about switching electronic gadgets off at night.  The feedback from the schools was that they would like more interaction with the council.

The Community Safety Manager had visited New Ash Green and Hextable schools to give out certificates, and pictures had been taken for InShape.  There was an intention to set up future projects.  He had enjoyed the interaction and Cllr Firth had some interesting ideas, and he encouraged to pass any ideas they may have to the Community Safety Manager.

The Portfolio Holder and Chairman of the Committee also reported that he had met with County Councillor Balfour, Cabinet Member for Environment and Transport, where a variety of issues such as pot holes, 20 mph zones had been discussed.  He had gained a fuller understanding of the financial constraints on KCC.  There had been some discussion with regards to issues around school parking.  A Member referred to a previous experience where even though parents were warned of a safety awareness event, the police caught many drivers on mobile phones, without seatbelts and parking badly and suggested a similar thing could be carried out in the District. The Community Safety Manager agreed to consider this.

He had also attended a Business Leaders Meeting at Hever Castle arranged by Visit Kent, where there had been representatives of Channel Tunnel, P&O Ferries, and Leeds castle amongst others all within the travel/tourism industry.  He had been made aware of the economic damage Operation Stack was doing to east Kent, and the expectation was that it would be worse this year. 

The Vice Chairman reported that KALC was having a meeting with Highways England and KCC about illegal parking of heavy goods vehicles.

Sevenoaks District Council Voluntary & Community ‘Making it Happen’ Awards was taking place on Wednesday 15 June.  Nominations were to be returned by Thursday 28 April 2016.

There was an intention to take an inward investment magazine to Cabinet for approval, to highlight the advantages of investing in the District.  The Regeneration Advisor explained that he had produced a similar one for Medway; the idea was to produce a prospectus, once a year.  He advised that it was about 56 pages long, produced by a company who did this only for the public sector and provided the journalists, took the photos etc. and members would get to agree the final content.  It was part funded by advertising.  Medway was on its tenth edition, and he passed around a copy for Members to look at.  It was an opportunity to attract inward investment and change the perception of the District, at a time when the Council was going to be increasingly relying on business rates and council tax.  Such a prospectus would have a London launch where investment firms would be invited, the Secretary of State has given the address attracting national press coverage at similar events. The Council would place its own advertisement and all it would cost the Council was £9,975 for the first edition and around £4,500 for subsequent years.  It would then be mailed out to potential investors, which could be selected from a database of 40,000.  If Cabinet were to agree to this it was hoped that the first edition would be available at the end of October/ early November 2016.