Urgent calls to widen one of Kent’s busiest roads in bid to prevent fatal accidents

Residents living near Mereworth say they're risking their lives every time they leave their hamlet to drive onto the A228.  Gabriel Morris reports.

Transcript

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.