Towpath work to take four months
Photographer says warning signs have only just gone up
A £2.7m project to improve the six and a half mile River Medway towpath between Barming and Aylesford has begun.
The stretch between South Street, Barming, and Unicumes Lane, Fant, closed for more than four months on Monday for the works, which will see eroded banks repaired, trees planted and benches installed.
Parking will be improved at Lockmeadow and the Museum of Kent Life and the path will be resurfaced and widened to accommodate more cyclists.
From mid-January, the route will be closed from Lockmeadow, meaning the four- mile stretch to Barming won’t be accessible for two months. There are no plans to close the towpath running through Maidstone.
The stretch from the M20 overbridge to Forstal Road industrial estate closed last month and will not be open until March 10, while the rest of the path to Aylesford has been shut for a number of years but will reopen in April.
Elsewhere, Allington Castle to the Malta Inn will be shut for a month on Wednesday, November 23, and the adjoining stretch to the M20 overbridge will be out of action for six days from February 23. Meanwhile the Environment Agency is carrying out £3m of work on East Farleigh Lock for more than six months, which will cause intermittent closures of footpaths.
While the list of closures may be confusing enough, it is not helped, according to Tom Phillips, by a lack of information from KCC.
The freelance photographer, of Douglas Road, Fant, uses the path throughout the week.
On Tuesday he launched an exhibition of pictures taken on the stretch but says signs, dated July 16 and informing residents about the closures, were only put up at the end of last week.
He said: “The irony is on the day my exhibition started with the aim of encouraging people to go out and enjoy the river bank, people won’t be able to access it until March. I can understand why work needs to be done but why must it take so long?”
KCC insists the signs went up in July.
Mr Phillips’ exhibition Watching The River Flow runs until Tuesday, November 29, at the Below 65 Gallery, in Gilbert & Clark Frame and Print, High Street, Maidstone.