One-way traffic plans will be a nightmare

Lockmeadow traffic is exactly as it sounds – locked.

Trapped, dawdling along the road as cars fume harmful gases into the air as they sit idle, while McDonald’s glaring Golden Arches illuminate the sky and show hundreds of stranded cars.

That’s one prediction for Kent County Council’s attempt at easing traffic problems near Lockmeadow Leisure Centre.

The traffic – which is surrounded by B&Q, the cinema, and many takeaways – has always been a nightmare to navigate if you’re out at a certain time. Even as we type this, car horns blare through the office window, which we’re pretty sure are coming from across the river and at the troubled site.

If you’re heading that way midday you’ll be fine, but you may as well hop on a bike or walk if you’re planning a trip to the cinema or bowling at night, or if you fancy a Maccies. More than once has a hungry reporter been left regretting life choices as he chows down on a Big Mac in the car, to avoid it getting cold, as he’s stuck getting out of the complex for 30 minutes.

Council plans to create a oneway slipstream around B&Q and alongside McDonald’s and Marino’s Fish Bar seem to show a lack of knowledge on the area.

Any Maidstone resident who has been in the town a couple of years will instinctively use that cut-through if traffic is looking a bit busy. So forcing even more cars down the road, which is often turned into a single lane due to lazily parked cars, will be hell for drivers and businesses.

It will be car-mageddon in Hart Street, turning customers away from takeaways, and it will make the area look like a car park.