The Chair welcomed Francis Cluett, Head of M25, Operations South East and Rob Knight, General Manager for Sheppey Route Limited to deliver their presentation, as shared on the screen.

Members were invited to ask questions and make comments and these included:

·         Very disappointed with the lack of communication;

·         there had been a lot of different messages given out to the public;

·         considered more should have been put on the company’s Facebook page;

·         the messaging had not been consistent;

·         many drivers had been stuck in their vehicles for four or five hours;

·         lessons should have been learnt already from previous incidents;

·         what was going to be done to reassure the public that this would not happen again?;

·         Members needed to know the maintenance processes and schedules that were in place going forward and suggested these be reported to the next JTB meeting in October 2026;

·         other countries with hotter climates seemed to cope without these issues;

·         it was not good enough that people suffered so many delays;

·         better ways were needed to divert traffic;

·         considered the company was ill-prepared for this type of incident;

·         increased development could make incidents like this more common;

·         needed to be reassured that this would not happen again;

·         it seemed that the company was ill-prepared for routine maintenance and incidents; and

·         sought assurance that the Kingsferry Bridge was maintained sufficiently well to take additional traffic.

Members received the following responses:

·         Lessons had been learnt to not schedule the works during a Bank Holiday weekend;

·         a de-brief with multi-agencies was due to take place;

·         communications would be looked at and improved going forward, including co-ordinating with other partners;

·         we were as confident as reasonably possible that such an incident would not occur again; and

·         there would be more spare parts going forward.

Following commentary from a Member attending remotely, Kent County Councillor Richard Palmer proposed the following:  That the Chair of the Swale JTB writes to the Department for Transport to set out the Board’s anger and concerns that the Department for Transport had really underestimated the road infrastructure on and off the Isle of Sheppey considering it had three prisons and a port, a resident and tourism population and businesses.  It had become wholly unreliable, on the A249 and the bridge and what had been shown over the last couple of years was a complete pattern of failure and this impacted on businesses on the mainland as well as on the Isle of Sheppey and that the Department of Transport be asked that these issues be responded to and acted upon, and the letter to be signed by the Chair and Vice-Chair of the Swale JTB and that the Leaders of Swale Borough Council and Kent County Council be copied into the letter as well.

Further comments included:

·         Clarification sought on the maintenance schedule and why the expansion joint was repaired with a sub-optimal part when the company was aware that the joints were coming to the end of their working life;

·         not happy with the maintenance inspections – the bumps in the road should have been picked up;

·         parts had a shelf life so it would have been known that they would have needed to be replaced at some point;

·         this incident affected the community;

·         traffic management had gone astray;

·         communications needed to be improved;

·         SGN were closing the Iwade route during the whole of August 2026 which would have an impact if there was another incident;

·         the National Highways website needed to be updated, not just have communications via Facebook;

·         modern vehicles were heavier than older ones, that might have an impact on the bridge; and

·         clarification on the Iwade works were needed sooner rather than later.

Members received the following responses:

·         The temporary repairs had historically worked and had been expected to last, these had now been replaced;

·         every two years there was a general inspection and a principal inspection every six years on the bridge (including bridge joints), there was also an annual maintenance;

·         comparison work with similar bridges was being undertaken to see when their bridge joints were checked;

·         there was a maintenance regime and would report back with that in October 2026; and

·         would investigate the SGN works and provide further information in due course.

The Chair thanked Mr Cluett and Mr Knight for attending the meeting.

Resolved:

(1)      That the update be noted.

(2)      That the guests return to the next meeting on 5 October 2026 to update the Board on their maintenance schedules and updates following their de-brief with multi-agencies.

(3)      That the Chair of the Swale JTB writes to the Department for Transport to set out the Board’s anger and concerns that the Department for Transport had really underestimated the road infrastructure on and off the Isle of Sheppey considering it had three prisons and a port, a resident and tourism population and businesses.  It had become wholly unreliable, on the A249 and the bridge and what had been shown over the last couple of years was a complete pattern of failure and this impacted on businesses on the mainland as well as on the Isle of Sheppey and that the Department of Transport be asked that these issues be responded to and acted upon, and the letter to be signed by the Chair and Vice-Chair and that the Leaders of Swale Borough Council and Kent County Council be copied into the letter as well.