Road widening plans could start in spring

Plans for the road include traffic lights, bus stops and widening corners

Work to widen one of the busiest roads in the county could start next spring, Kent’s highways chief said on Monday.

Planned changes to the A228 junction at Kent Street, near Mereworth, include new traffic lights, widening road corners and creating two bus stops.

It follows years of campaigning by local councillors to make the junction with the busy single-track road safer for motorists, residents and other road users.

Kent County Council cabinet member for highways, Neil Baker, said discussions with a landowner were ongoing but he could not put a definite timescale or a cost on the work.

Councillors Matt Boughton and Sarah Hudson have been calling for changes for a number of years

He added: "I wouldn’t like to put a timescale on these things because I don’t want to over-promise but, subject to positive discussions with the landowner who we need to get some land off to widen the road, we hope it will be happening in the spring of next year.

"I think it’s always difficult when you have third party landowners that you have to deal with."

He said the council was not using compulsory purchase tactics, adding that would "be a sledgehammer to crack a nut in this case", according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Kent Street resident Graham George, a 64-year-old lorry driver, said before the speed limit had been reduced to 40mph crashes happened "pretty regularly with people hurtling around the corner".

He added: "It’s a really busy road and really hard to get out of Kent Street, depending on what time of the day it is."

Tonbridge and Malling borough councillor Sarah Hudson said a teenage girl had been injured trying to cross the road after school about three years ago.

She added: "The A228 at this point is very narrow and local people find it difficult and dangerous to try and get onto it from Kent Street."

The work would be funded by developer contributions from housing at Kings Hill but delays in getting the scheme going may push the cost above the £800,000 set aside.