Residents living near Mereworth say they're risking their lives every time they leave their hamlet to drive onto the A228.
Gabriel Morris reports.
Gabriel Morris reports.
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00:00Imagine trying to get out of Fish Junction every morning.
00:04It's what residents living in Kent Streets have to do.
00:07They say they face cars flying by on either side and limited visibility due to these fences and bushes.
00:14Local councillors have been campaigning for years in a bid to bring improvements.
00:19Residents live on both sides and trying to get out from their side road onto the A228,
00:25they take their life in their hands every single time.
00:28A young girl was knocked over three years ago now, literally just after I was elected,
00:33and she was trying to cross the road to get home.
00:35Fortunately her injuries weren't severe, but that's not to say that someone else, it could have been a fatal accident.
00:42So, you know, we need to prevent any fatalities and to ensure that this gets actioned as quickly as possible.
00:48The A228 is one of the busiest roads in the county.
00:51It links many towns in the north to Tunbridge and Tunbridge Wells in the south.
00:55But the A road becomes a single track at Kent Street.
00:58There's nothing residents can do about the traffic,
01:00but they'd like to see traffic lights installed and widening for two corners of the road.
01:05That decision now lies with the county council.
01:08Well, it's a project that has obviously come from the local interest rather than being a top-down Kent project.
01:14So, of course, it is important.
01:16We've had the discussions with the divisional member, the section 106 money exists.
01:20So, yes, we want to do it. Absolutely.
01:23There are many schemes going on. We have to prioritise schemes.
01:26This is on our list.
01:27And as I said, if the discussions with the landowner are positive, as we hope they're going to be,
01:31we'll get this work started next year.
01:35A pot of money from local developments is set aside, which will contribute to improvement works.
01:40But this was from a few years back.
01:42With recent inflation, there are fears it'll come short.
01:46Gabriel Morris, near Merriworth.