Swale? Where's that?

Many moons ago back when I lived in the homeland county I worked for Swale. We used to often get asked the above question as even people in Kent didn't know where it was. FYI it's on the North Kent Coast sandwiched between the Medway Towns/ Maidstone and Whistable. Soon after I left they added 'North Kent Coast' to the letterhead (obviously everyone was annoyed with the question!).

Back in the Engineering Services we had a map of the district and underneath was a selection of clippings & cartoons (which on a office move was revealed once more). On this board someone had taken a NCE (New Civil Engineeer, our professional journal) with the iconic IKB photo with the Chains, top hat and pipe. To this someone had adulterated the headline and added "Second Swale Crossing?". It seems this had been an issue since IKB's time (it hadn't ... but the whole issue it seemed had been going for years). Now 4.5 years after my departure from the North Kent Coast they are finally constructing the Second Swale Crossing. Gone will be the hassle of the concrete lift bridge (as seen in silver lame on the GG Sheppey Division Standard, along with silver lame sheep), Kingsferry Bridge, rising and causing traffic delays, gone will be the county's accident blackspot (the roundabout at the end of a dual carriageway, which reguarly a car ploughed through despite all the signage).

The Isle of Sheppey (where many of the Little Britain characters wouldn't seem out of place) will now be permanently connected to 'The Mainland'. This after all is home to 2 catagory A prisons & an open Prison (home to Jonathon Aitken for a while) arranged around a Cul de Sac! The Cat A's are there as they can lift the bridge and stop escapees (hence Pompey had a Cat A in the middle of the island too, only 4 routes off, 3 road & 1 rail). HM Prisons are the biggest employer I guess on the island. The populus aren't known for their intelligence and love to reproduce (one RE had never seen so many buggies on a High Street before!), and claim the dole (hence we had to maintain buggy access to the job centre on a project).