Plans for a new £8.8 million slip-road off the A2 have been branded “absolutely daft” by critics who fear it will only make traffic issues worse.

Fresh proposals for the long-awaited junction in Canterbury have recently been unveiled in the hope it will ease congestion in the area and on the city’s ring-road.

But residents and businesses fear it will actually have the opposite effect and will snarl up the roads in and around Wincheap.

The slip-road would bring Dover-bound motorists off the A2 near the Wincheap Retail Park and neighbouring park and ride.

Allyson Nicholson-Taylor, who lives in Wincheap, predicts “chaos” if the junction is built.

“There are already jams all day long and the new slip-road will increase the amount of traffic,” she said.

“You only have to see what happened when there were gas leaks when the back-roads were absolutely jammed. It will be chaos and a traffic nightmare.”

Housebuilder Barratt David Wilson Homes (BDW) has to build the slip-road before the 450th property at its 750-home Saxon Fields development in Thanington is occupied.

In papers submitted to Canterbury City Council (CCC), it says the junction will “contribute to the overall better management of the roads in the vicinity of the city centre”.

It points to fewer cars - particularly those heading towards Thanington along the A28 - having to enter the city from the A2 off-slip at Harbledown.

The slip-road will connect the A2 to Ten Perch Road and the A28 by serving as an additional arm at the existing set of traffic signals.

As part of the reconfiguration, the roundabout serving Morrisons and Wincheap Retail Park would be removed, while another further up the road would be made bigger.

This would allow traffic using the superstore to turn back on itself – with cars being unable to make a right turn into the car park from Ten Perch Road.

Former Wincheap councillor Nick Eden Green says he is not against the principle of a slip-road, but says the plan proposed is “absolutely daft”.

“It is dangerous, it cuts multiple spaces in the park and ride site, which will be difficult to replace, and it does not connect with the rest of Wincheap in the way it should,” he said.

“It is going to considerably increase the amount of traffic in Wincheap going into the city just as the other third slip-road did going the other way.

“It will have a huge effect on residents and those living off Wincheap.”

Alongside the slip-road, a new one-way gyratory system in Wincheap has already been given the green light, but work has yet to start on the controversial project.

It will see city-bound traffic diverted through the industrial estate along Simmonds Road, while the main A28 would be restricted to vehicles heading out of Canterbury, as well as buses and bicycles travelling both ways.

Work was planned to start in January this year and be completed by autumn, but the project has yet to get underway.

It is being funded by Redrow, which must have the new system active before the 35th property on its 400-home development at nearby Cockering Farm is occupied.

Mr Eden-Green says there is little local support for the gyratory scheme and a new slip-road will also contribute to more jams in the area.

“The traffic at the moment comes off at Harbledown so a percentage of that will come off here,” he added.

“They will go down Wincheap, under the railway bridge and clog up the traffic there as they will be turning right.

“All the traffic coming down Pin Hill will be blocked so it will be in an even worse jam than it is now.”

Wincheap councillor Roben Franklin says the impact of increased traffic is going to be a “major issue”, highlighting how the area became a “ghost town” during emergency gasworks in late October.

“Already we have the gyratory scheme being discussed,” the Liberal Democrat said.

“To have this fourth slip-road would encourage people using cars far more to go through Wincheap.

“It is already a dense neighbourhood.

“Just as we saw with the recent road closure, Wincheap and Ashford Road get really bogged down.”

City council spokesman Rob Davies says it would not be appropriate for the authority to comment further given its role in determining the application.

"Our role in this matter is two-fold,” he said. “Firstly, we are the planning authority and must determine the planning application in line with planning law, as we do with any application.

"But secondly, we also own land within the area covered by the application, including the current park and ride site.

"Our land ownership is an entirely separate matter to the planning application and we will need to decide on whether we make the land available for the project in due course."

Previous proposals for the slip-road were approved in 2018 but the planning permission lapsed before any work began.

BDW was contacted for comment.