Half an hour of road sign madness

With reference to your article ‘Road widening work goes according to plan’ (KE, July 13), the work may be going to plan, but the traffic management and signage is appalling.

Chaos reigns in Willesborough Lees as hundreds of vehicles a day drive past the three ‘road ahead closed’ signs and find themselves confronted by a closed road.

During a 30 minute period on Saturday, I saw eight foreign-registered and 15 UK-registered cars do u-turns in the Silver Hill Road junction. Some 25 vehicles went all the way to the widening works before turning back, 10 turned into Blackwall Lane South trying to find a way out, and two turned into Wilson Close trying to get to Canterbury (missing cul de sac signs) before heading back to junction 10 of the M20.

Worst of all was seeing five cars drive into the one way section of Silver Hill Road trying to get out of this mess. During the week you can add to these observations a large number of HGVs trying to get to the factories. All this in just 30 minutes.

The signage is causing chaos and nothing is being done – although one resident has helpfully added a note to one of the signs saying ‘No access to A28 – Canterbury’.

One thing has struck all residents. The reduction in traffic on Kennington Road shows how the quality of residents’ lives has been eroded by high traffic volumes in the last 15 years. The road widening will only increase speeds on a road which the local SpeedWatch team have found to be the worst speed affected road in Willesborough.

This road widening scheme has been badly planned – and the residents have not been consulted or considered. John Bailey Chair of Willesborough Parking Action Group greedy people who charge such ridiculous prices – not cap salaries of working people.

The two biggest problems in this country is over-population and the differential between the salaries of the highest paid and lowest paid. Not much can be done to reduce the population, but it could be spread around the UK more. D Brown Ashford the constant traffic jams caused by the misguided dualling of the ring road and the ‘guaranteed to slow everything down’ upgrade to pedestrian crossings.

I was told by KCC Highways years ago that the whole ring road revamp depended on a park and ride system and junction 10A to function. Until these things happen Ashford can look forward to gridlock and failed businesses when people wake up to the nightmare of travelling here. L D Goddard Ashford