£4m to ease traffic woes and create campus jobs

Maidstone is to receive a £4 million boost to reduce congestion and bring more businesses and jobs to Kent Medical Campus.

The government money will fund the enlargement of two roundabouts along Bearsted Road, at the A249 and New Cut Road junctions, signals, and the use of smart technology to improve the flow of traffic.

It comes after a bid to the National Productivity Invest- ment Fund, submitted by Kent County Council (KCC) and Maidstone Borough Council (MBC), with £1.5m from Kent Medical Campus, was approved by the Department for Transport.

The campus, a 30-acre site with planning permission for commercial space, was granted Enterprise Zone status earlier in the year, meaning it is able to offer financial incentives to persuade companies to invest there.

It is hoped the healthcare hub will create around 3,000 highly skilled jobs.

Gary Watson of JLL, the property advisers for the campus, said: “The campus is already attracting significant interest from companies and institutions eager to find a viable and attractive alternative to London, and elsewhere in the South East.

“The road improvements will increase the potential to create an academic, health and sciencefocused campus here in Kent.”

Leader of MBC, Cllr Fran Wilson said: “This is a vote of confidence in our combined efforts to improve the area’s infrastructure and create new jobs at Kent Medical Campus, which is why we put £500,000 towards the project to unlock £4m from government.”

In addition, MBC is working with Highways England on a plan to introduce traffic lights at Junction 7 of the M20, which they say would complement the Bearsted Road traffic scheme.

It would mean signals would control vehicles using the roundabout from the coastbound M20 slip road and the A249 in both directions, but would be reliant on money secured from housing developers.

KCC is now working on the outline design for the Bearsted Road upgrades, with work on the £6.4m scheme expected to start in spring 2019.