Geoff Cornes with the Church Lane/Road sign in Kenardington

It may be a tiny village but an almighty row has broken out in Kenardington, near Hamstreet, over the change of a road sign from Church Road to Church Lane.

The majority of people in the village have signed a petition calling for the name to be changed back to Church Road.

The clerk checked on the electoral register and confirmed it was Church Road, which was minuted.

The following month Mrs Cocking sent an email to Ashford Borough Council saying Church Road was known locally as Church Lane and requested a name change. She signed it Mrs Cocking, Kenardington Parish Councillor.

Mrs Cocking lives in one of 12 houses in Church Road. Parish council chairman Brenda Hedley, who is supportive of Mrs Cocking, lives in another. A third resident we spoke to said she was not informed of the road name change, no consultation had taken place and Ashford Borough Council did not check the request with the clerk.

The first residents of the village knew was when the new signs appeared in November 2006 and Church Road became Church Lane.

"My mother noticed it when she took the dog for a walk," said Kenardington resident and parish councillor, Geoff Cornes.

He researched the history and although the first street sign did not appear on Church Road until 1998, it is documented as Church Road and he found no reference to Church Lane.

Mr Cornes organised a petition calling for the name to be changed back. He went to almost every house in the village, collecting 127 names, which represents 60 per cent of villagers, based on the 2001 census figures which recorded that 213 people were living in the 78 houses in Kenardington.

Mr Cornes has handed the petition to the leader of Ashford Borough Council, Cllr Paul Clokie.

A spokesman for Ashford Borough Council said it was led to believe the request was simply to replace an existing sign.

Since the Kenardington case, Ashford Borough Council has created a new policy on naming or renaming a street.

The policy, created in April 2007, states that all requests to name or rename a street have to come from the relevant town or parish council, which needs to show that there has been a consultation with residents and that at least two thirds of them support the name change.

For more on this story, see the Kentish Express, out now