More than 100 trees in Kent were brought down or badly damaged by snow this week in a surprise winter finale that has further strained the county’s maintenance budget.
Snowfalls began on Sunday evening, after rain, and affected parts of southwest Kent, including Tunbridge Wells, Pembury, Matfield, Sevenoaks and Swanley, bringing traffic to standstill on the A21 near Tunbridge Wells, and making many side roads impassable. In neighbouring East Sussex, the A22 was also affected in East Grinstead.
~Kent County Council~ highways teams were still clearing trees and branches on Tuesday, damaged by the sheer weight of snow, with flakes reportedly the size of golfballs in some places.
‘I’ve not experienced weather like that before,’ said network operations engineer, Peter Lott. ‘It was a very, very unusual event. But I hope that’s the end of it now for this winter.’
Gritters went out at 10pm and runs continued into the morning. But up to 12cm of snow took highways staff by surprise after the Met Office had forecast mainly rain with a risk of snow showers and ‘temporary accumulations’ of snow on higher ground. Road temperatures were not expected to fall below freezing, added Lott.
The county council’s response will have added around £80,000 to Kent’s winter maintenance bill, which was already £500,000 over its £2.25M budget (Surveyor, 16 March).
No further snow was forecast in the area for the next few days, said a Met Office spokesman.