6 December 2021

Back in June when I was still settling into my role at KCC and learning the (many) ropes involved, the pace of things in many ways felt very fast. One area in which I had to get used to a very different pace was the rate at which much of KCC's work gets done. Having never worked in the public sector before, this took some adjusting to. Where my previous roles have largely involved tasks being completed in a matter of hours or days, suddenly I was having to get used to the fact that some things - especially those involving Highways - take months, or even years.

In the first parish magazine piece I wrote in May, I mentioned that I was working with a number of Parish Councils who were interested in having 20mph zones installed in their areas. At that point I imagined (somewhat naively, as it turned out) that one or two of these might be in place by the end of the year. In reality most of them are still not even halfway towards completion. That's not to say that nothing has happened. Many parishes have had the necessary traffic surveys to see if a 20mph scheme would be viable in their community. If current traffic speeds are too fast then other measures, such as speed bumps or road narrowing, need to be considered. Some parishes have also undertaken informal consultations to get a better picture of the local support for a scheme. In short, things are ticking along, just not at a pace I was previously used to!

The reason I've struggled to adjust so much is that I've always been one to micro-manage projects. Which is fine, and even necessary, when you're a self-employed sole trader dealing directly with members of the public and you alone are responsible for delivering a service to them – but it's an unhelpful approach when things are very much out of your control.

One local case brought this change of pace into focus for me recently. I was contacted by a resident in the first week of June to request a safety barrier be installed by a dangerous bend near their house. I chased up the request with the Highways team and followed up with the resident a month later to see if the work had been completed. It hadn't. I chased up Highways again and followed up a month later. Again no barrier, but an inspection of the site had at least taken place now. Months passed, and then, seemingly out of the blue, I received a mail last week from the resident with a photo attached of the new safety barrier. It was great to know that I had played a small part in making it happen, but at the same time I wasn't the one that installed it; and even though it took months. I'm sure there were a lot of very necessary steps taking place behind the scenes to make it happen.

This role feels akin to being the only visible cog of an enormous machine. It can be frustrating to not have control over the pace at which things happen, and even moreso to have to say no to people making very reasonable requests (usually on the grounds that the budget simply doesn't allow it), but on those occasions where you play some small part in improving things for residents, it can feel incredibly satisfying.

Rich Lehmann – rich.lehmann@kent.gov.uk

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