Plans for bypass controversial as far back as 1937
Maidstone is bracing itself for major roadworks in the centre of town which are due to start next month.
The changes to the gyratory system around the town’s bridges are going to take six months and cost £5.7m.
But highways schemes have always proved contentious.
A page from the Kent Messenger’s sister publication, the Gazette, published on November 2, 1937, reports how an inquiry at Sessions House into proposals to create a “Maidstone Bypass” had attracted “strong opposition from prominent landowners opposed to the route”,
The protestors included Sir Dennys Hampson of Thurnham Court, Mrs Lushington of Aldington Court and Mrs Best Dalison of the Park House Estate at Boxley. They argued for an alternative route, further to the south, that would bypass their properties and have the advantage of being 150 yards shorter. The cost of the bypass was estimated at £600,000.
Major Aldington, for the Ministry of Transport, said the necessity for the bypass arose out of “the heavy volume of traffic on the LondonFolkestone-Dover trunk road through Maidstone and the consequent severe congestion.”
The inquiry heard that a survey had shown that 14,200 vehicles on average passed over Maidstone Bridge every day – and 5,500 pedal cyclists!
But one statement in the report sounds like a dire warning for KCC, which is now planning to add another lane to Fairmeadow.
It says: “It was unthinkable that any proposal for carrying out widenings to roads in the town of Maidstone would be a practical proposition, not only on grounds of expense and amenities, but also on the grounds of public safety.”
The bypass eventually opened in 1961 and was later to become part of the M20. This old postcard shows Maidstone High Street in 1910. No traffic, apart from the trolley bus and everyone is wearing a hat, but the buildings are exactly the same.