Kentish Gazette Canterbury & District
‘I’LL PAY FOR RING ROAD LIGHTS’
Developer says he’ll replace jam-hit roundabout with £1.5m traffic signals
One of the city’s most notoriously congested junctions could be freed up by replacing a major ring road roundabout with traffic lights.
Developer Mark Quinn is offering the £1.5 million solution at Wincheap as part of his new plans for a 400-home development at Thanington.
He believes lights would ease congestion around the city and through Wincheap.
The prolific local housebuilder is proposing the major alterations in a bid to combat the extra traffic his latest housing scheme at Cockering Farm will bring.
“Everyone knows what a nightmare the Wincheap roundabout is because it just doesn’t work properly,” he said.
“It is always getting clogged up with traffic unable to move.
“We have had people look at it and there is no doubt a monitored traffic light system would let traffic flow through far more easily.
“Elsewhere, replacing roundabouts with traffic lights has worked superbly and I think it would be the same for Wincheap.
“Of course, Kent County Council Highways will have to approve it, but I think they will agree monitored traffic lights will work better than the roundabout.”
Mr Quinn, who runs Quinn Estates, says he also investigated the possibility of a vehicle tunnel from the Wincheap estate under the ring road, but it was far more technically challenging.
Part of the Cockering Farm scheme includes a new spine road through the development connecting the A28 via Cockering Road, with a new roundabout in Milton Manor Road, which he says will also ease congestion and reduce pollution.
He said: “We are talking with some highly-regarded housebuilders who have yet to build in the Canterbury area.
“It will be a very low-density development with lots of green space in a parkland setting and a buffer to the Larkey Valley Woods.
“We will be offering to build a GP surgery at the Thanington Neighbourhood Resource Centre, which is something local people have been asking for, and a new community building within the new development.”
Mr Quinn says he is discussing the proposals with
‘It will be a very low-density development with lots of green space’
the parish council and community groups and is holding a public consultation at Thanington Neighbourhood Resource Centre between 5pm and 7pm on Monday, November 21.
The city council’s draft plan was rejected by a planning inspector for not providing enough allocation of land for new housing.
But the 41- acre site at Cockering Farm has now been included in the amended draft allocation by the council.
Mr Quinn, who is involved in a separate 750- home development in Thanington, said: “The fact is that the district is way behind building the number of homes it needs to.
“I expect to get a planning application in by the end of the year and hope to have permission by May or June and start building straight away.”
He added that the construction phase would create 160 direct jobs and provide the city council with a £6.08 million new homes bonus.
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