News

High pressure burglar alarm sales

Kent County Council (KCC) have received reports of a company using high pressure techniques to sell burglar alarms with a 5 year maintenance contract.

One salesman demanded the 80 year old resident pay the full amount upfront.

Please look out for neighbours and report any suspicious doorstep callers to KCC.

For advice on what to do if you or someone you know has been pressured into buying a product visit Citizens Advice or telephone them on 03454 04 05 06.

If you require work done to your home get a number of quotes. Use a reputable company who has been recommended by family or friends or use a Kent County Council approved trader via Checkatrade www.checkatrade.com/kent/.

Report it

www.citizensadvice.org.uk/consumer/get-more-help/report-to-trading-standards/

Kent County Council  24 November 2017
http://mailchi.mp/kent/kent-residents-targeted-with-high-pressure-burglar-alarm-sales

Stopping distances

Speed and stopping distances don’t increase at the same rate. Small increases in speed result in bigger increases in stopping distances.

Stopping distances include the distance travelled while the driver notices a hazard and applies the brakes (thinking distance), and while the vehicle comes to a full stop from its initial speed (braking distance).

The stopping distances shown here are based on a reaction time of 0.67 seconds, which assumes the driver is alert, concentrating and not impaired. Driving when tired, distracted or impaired significantly increases reaction times, so the thinking distances should be regarded as minimums.2

The braking distance depends on how fast the vehicle was travelling before the brakes were applied, and is proportional to the square of the initial speed. That means even small increases in speed lead to significantly longer braking distances. Braking distances are much longer for larger and heavier vehicles, and in wet or icy conditions.3

Technology such as anti-lock brakes and stability control are designed to enable greater control over the vehicle, not shorten stopping distances. There may be a very small reduction in braking distance with modern technology, but not enough to significantly affect your overall stopping distance.Whatever technology a vehicle has, the basic fact remains that the faster you drive, the longer your stopping distance, and therefore the less chance you have of stopping in time in an emergency.

Brake the Road Safety Charity

#SpeedDown

Speed is a critical factor in all road crashes

Speed Down saves livesSpeed is a critical factor in all road crashes and casualties.

Driving is unpredictable and if something unexpected happens on the road ahead – such as a child stepping out from between parked cars – it is a driver’s speed that will determine whether they can stop in time and, if they can’t stop, how hard they will hit.

Reducing and managing traffic speeds is crucial to road safety.

Breaking the speed limit or travelling too fast for conditions is recorded (by police at crash scenes) as a contributory factor in almost one in four (23%) fatal crashes in the UK.1 This is arguably a gross underestimate, because whether or not a vehicle is judged to have been speeding or going too fast for conditions, the fact it was involved in a collision means it was going too fast to have stopped in time. In this way, speed is always a contributory factor, albeit often in combination with other causes: no one was ever killed by a stationary vehicle

Brake – the road safety charity

#SpeedDown

What’s your excuse?

People speed for a number of reasons:

  • because they are in a rush to get somewhere,
  • because they are unaware of the speed limit,
  • because they enjoy driving fast,

and for many more reasons besides. But there’s no excuse for speeding – it’s a major factor in many road crashes, and the faster a vehicle is travelling, the greater the amount of energy transferred in a crash, and the higher the likelihood of serious injury or death.

View the no need to speed explanimation video showing the risks of speeding, with TRL academy director Richard Cuerden.

Clear snow from a road, path or cycleway

KCC cannot clear pavements so please take extra care when walking.

A common rumour at this time of year is that people are not allowed to salt the pavements – this is untrue.

The government advice is:

You can clear snow and ice from pavements yourself. It’s unlikely that you’ll be sued or held responsible if someone is injured on a path or pavement if you’ve cleared it carefully.

When you clear snow and ice:

  • do it early in the day – it’s easier to move fresh, loose snow
  • don’t use water – it might refreeze and turn to black ice
  • use salt if possible – it will melt the ice or snow and stop it from refreezing overnight
  • you can use ash and sand if you don’t have enough salt – it will provide grip underfoot
  • pay extra attention when clearing steps and steep pathways – using more salt may help

For more information about Kent’s Winter Service, including a map of gritting routes, visit:
www.kent.gov.uk/roads-and-travel/what-we-look-after/winter-service

Use the available salt bins to scatter grit over pavements and roads near your house.

Find out where the salt bins are by using the KCC map.
http://webapps.kent.gov.uk/KCC.MyNearestGIS.Web.Sites.Public/Default.aspx?lyrs=36&xmin=594032&xmax=605208&ymin=136304&ymax=143035&bg=_osColour

New ambulance standards will save more lives

A new set of ambulance response standards, aimed at delivering the quickest response possible for the most critically-ill or injured patients, will be introduced in South East Coast Ambulance Service from tomorrow (22 November).

The new nationally-determined standards have been introduced across the country in recent months.

Changing the performance standards, which were introduced in 1974, will improve efficiencies and free up ambulance crews to respond to emergencies. Vehicles are often dispatched to respond to patients in less than eight minutes but most patients do not need this level of response. The new standards will enable the Trust to send the most appropriate response to each patient, first time, while continuing prioritise those in the greatest need.

For example, stroke patients will receive an ambulance response at the first allocation, to ensure they can be conveyed to hospital as quickly as possible to receive the clinical intervention they require.

The availability of a transporting resource will also be improved, reducing the length of time single responders wait for back up. (more…)

New ambulance standards

Following the largest clinical ambulance trials in the world, South East Coast Ambulance Service is to implement new ambulance standards.

The changes focus on making sure the best, high quality, most appropriate response is provided for each patient first time.

Historically ambulance services are allowed up to 60 seconds from receiving a call to sending a vehicle. They told us this isn’t long enough.

So from now on call handlers will be given more time to assess 999 calls that are not immediately life-threatening, which will enable them to identify patients’ needs better and send the most appropriate response.

Ambulance services are measured on the time it takes from receiving a 999 call to a vehicle arriving at the patient’s location.

Life-threatening and emergency calls, under the current standards, should be responded to in eight minutes. We know that most patients do not need this level of response.

So, in future there will be four categories of call.

Category 1 – Calls from people with life-threatening illnesses or injuries

This short animation explains more about these calls:

Category 2 – Emergency calls

Hear more about these types of calls:

Category 3 – Urgent calls

Watch this short animation on what an urgent call is:

Category 4 – Less urgent calls

Learn more about what this means:

Consultation on pharmacy needs in Kent

pharmacy logo

2018 Pharmaceutical needs assessment consultation

Kent County Council

Opens: 25 November 2017
Closes: 22 January 2018

How often do you use your local pharmacy? Does your town need more? These are some of the questions being put to Kent residents in a new consultation.

Pharmaceutical Needs Assessments (PNAs) are used by commissioners such as Kent County Council and local NHS Clinical Commissioning Groups to identify local health needs that could be addressed by these services, and by NHS England to decide whether to approve applications for new pharmacies in an area.

Residents and health professionals are being urged for their views in a brief questionnaire. KCC Deputy Director of Public Health, Allison Duggal said: “We have a statutory responsibility to look at the need for pharmaceutical services in Kent and the essential services they currently provide, including dispensing, providing support and advice on health and medicines, collection of medicine waste and supporting public health campaigns. We’d like to encourage as many people as possible to take part in this consultation so we can shape the future of pharmaceutical services in the county.”

The important role that pharmacists can play is highlighted in the NHS England ‘Stay Well This Winter’ campaign which KCC supports, urging people feeling under the weather this winter to avoid A&E, and to instead consider visiting their local pharmacy for quick, early advice. This is especially important over the winter months – when people are more likely to become ill or feel poorly.

Going to the pharmacy early will give you access to medication and advice on common ailments, but they can also:

  • provide expert advice to manage long term conditions and let you know if you need to see your GP or make a hospital appointment;
  • Give you advice on how to care for an elderly relative or friend who has a bad cough, trouble breathing, cold or sore throat.

(more…)