As a former born and bred ‘Man of Kent’ I despair at what has happened to the County of my childhood. Now ‘The Corridor of SE England’, dissected variously by the A2/M2, M20, M25, and Channel Railway, and fast succumbing to urban sprawl in every corner one looks. To be sure, one can still find small pockets of what once was, but be quick, before it goes altogether.
Agreed. You need to move away for a while (in my case up to rural Northern England nearly 20 years ago) and come back to visit to really appreciate how Kent has been ruined. Gorgeous villages once in the countryside are now joined up with towns so as to now resemble boring suburbs, housing development over fields and orchards and the traffic!!? The roads are full of cars no matter what time of day you drive. I know it’s modern life and our increased population and I may have the rose-tinted spectacles of childhood when I remember the “garden” part of Kent (scrumping and hop fields) but I think the real change to the feel of the county has happened in the last 20 years.
Paul Booth
3 years ago
All excellent points for someone like myself, left-leaning on a lot of things but culturally conservative.
Mark Corby
3 years ago
Hasn’t Kent retained most of its Grammar Schools? That should be enough to single it out for exemplary punishment.
Incidentally ‘we’ all know why Slough is in tier 3 and not 2 like the rest of Bucks, but no one dare speak it.
Perhaps the late Sir John Betjeman was correct about those “happy bombs”?
And the results of its grammar schools are often no better, and often worse, than many comps in other counties. The difference between Kent and Essex is that the very small number of grammar schools left in Essex are academically outstanding, and academically knock the socks off Kent’s far larger number.
Jeremy Rolls
3 years ago
Kent is in tier-3 so it can be turned into a giant lorry park after Brexit.
Katy Randle
3 years ago
Interesting idea – I would love to see it taken further. Just so long as they don’t try imposing new names again – I’m in the East Riding of Yorkshire and still know people who burn any letter that arrives addressed to North Humberside!!
Not uncommon-my home town was Wigan which was redesignated from Lancashire to Greater Manchester as part of the 1974 reorganisation-ask anyone over 50 which county Wigan is in!
As they rightly should. Post Office does this on purpose to wind us up.
Mark Corby
3 years ago
Frederick Forsyth CBE, a native of Ashford, has written poignantly about its near destruction over the past forty years. “steady the Buffs”.
Joff Brown
3 years ago
What a thoroughly excellent article.
Bill Eaton
3 years ago
We have the same situation here in Devon, a mainly rural county with very low incidences of COVID in most parts but higher (though by no means very high) incidences in the three more heavily populated urban areas. So the whole county is in tier 2, including remote towns like Ilfracombe, Barnstaple and Bideford that are 40 or more miles away from the nearest urban area, Exeter.
Adrian Smith
3 years ago
“In particular, county councils suck” you should have finished that sentence there. The big problem preventing de-centralisation of power is there isn’t anything particularly competent and efficient to devolve it to.
Graham Evans
3 years ago
There’s no point in moaning about how Kent has changed over the decades. We should recognise the new realities and change local government structures accordingly. Unitary authorities are a a step in the right direction in some cases, but that still leaves a void at a more regional level.
Eleanor Barlow
3 years ago
Maybe the government has put all of Kent under Tier 3 because it thinks Kent is going to turn into one big car park if there is no trade deal with EU. So its citizens can get used to not going anywhere and seeing anybody.
As a former born and bred ‘Man of Kent’ I despair at what has happened to the County of my childhood. Now ‘The Corridor of SE England’, dissected variously by the A2/M2, M20, M25, and Channel Railway, and fast succumbing to urban sprawl in every corner one looks. To be sure, one can still find small pockets of what once was, but be quick, before it goes altogether.
Agreed. You need to move away for a while (in my case up to rural Northern England nearly 20 years ago) and come back to visit to really appreciate how Kent has been ruined. Gorgeous villages once in the countryside are now joined up with towns so as to now resemble boring suburbs, housing development over fields and orchards and the traffic!!? The roads are full of cars no matter what time of day you drive. I know it’s modern life and our increased population and I may have the rose-tinted spectacles of childhood when I remember the “garden” part of Kent (scrumping and hop fields) but I think the real change to the feel of the county has happened in the last 20 years.
All excellent points for someone like myself, left-leaning on a lot of things but culturally conservative.
Hasn’t Kent retained most of its Grammar Schools? That should be enough to single it out for exemplary punishment.
Incidentally ‘we’ all know why Slough is in tier 3 and not 2 like the rest of Bucks, but no one dare speak it.
Perhaps the late Sir John Betjeman was correct about those “happy bombs”?
And the results of its grammar schools are often no better, and often worse, than many comps in other counties. The difference between Kent and Essex is that the very small number of grammar schools left in Essex are academically outstanding, and academically knock the socks off Kent’s far larger number.
Kent is in tier-3 so it can be turned into a giant lorry park after Brexit.
Interesting idea – I would love to see it taken further. Just so long as they don’t try imposing new names again – I’m in the East Riding of Yorkshire and still know people who burn any letter that arrives addressed to North Humberside!!
Not uncommon-my home town was Wigan which was redesignated from Lancashire to Greater Manchester as part of the 1974 reorganisation-ask anyone over 50 which county Wigan is in!
As they rightly should. Post Office does this on purpose to wind us up.
Frederick Forsyth CBE, a native of Ashford, has written poignantly about its near destruction over the past forty years.
“steady the Buffs”.
What a thoroughly excellent article.
We have the same situation here in Devon, a mainly rural county with very low incidences of COVID in most parts but higher (though by no means very high) incidences in the three more heavily populated urban areas. So the whole county is in tier 2, including remote towns like Ilfracombe, Barnstaple and Bideford that are 40 or more miles away from the nearest urban area, Exeter.
“In particular, county councils suck” you should have finished that sentence there. The big problem preventing de-centralisation of power is there isn’t anything particularly competent and efficient to devolve it to.
There’s no point in moaning about how Kent has changed over the decades. We should recognise the new realities and change local government structures accordingly. Unitary authorities are a a step in the right direction in some cases, but that still leaves a void at a more regional level.
Maybe the government has put all of Kent under Tier 3 because it thinks Kent is going to turn into one big car park if there is no trade deal with EU. So its citizens can get used to not going anywhere and seeing anybody.