Kent will become home to the first enforced yellow box junctions outside of London in a bid to reduce congestion.

Dartford will become the first place outside of the capital to handout fines for anyone blocking the box.

The yellow box junctions will be on the A282 Junction 1b at the Princes Road Interchange, known as the Blue Star roundabout.

Highways England began works on the road to paint and install the cameras on Monday.

Lorries and cars entering the boxes and blocking the junction now face a fine issued by ANPR cameras.

Dartford MP Gareth Johnson said: “This is good news. Getting these junctions enforced by cameras has proved to be surprisingly complex in legal terms and has taken a lot of planning with lots of different agencies involved. It seems now the effort has paid off.

“There are no claims that this will end all the traffic problems in Dartford but it’s something that local people have been calling for and it should make a noticeable difference to traffic congestion.”

“We all get stuck at this junction when there is a problem at the Dartford Crossing and I know that many people feel strongly that these box junctions should be properly enforced so I have been working closely with police, Kent County Council, Highways England and Dartford council to find a solution.

“This will be the first time, to my knowledge, that box junctions will be enforced by cameras anywhere outside of London where the law is different.

"It has taken a lot of work to ensure the box junctions could be enforced in a lawful way.

"Nobody wants to see motorists unfairly targeted but people are sick and tired of being held up at the Blue Star roundabout by selfish motorists who sit in the box junctions blocking people from getting across Dartford and causing traffic chaos. It’s this minority of motorists who need to be targeted.”

Traffic surveys were taken in the run up to the decision and showed that thousands of vehicles infringe the yellow boxes every week, causing longer waits for motorists.

Dartford council leader Jeremy Kite added: "One of the biggest frustrations is seeing the way congestion on the M25 impacts on local residents trying to make completely unrelated journeys across town.

"A big part of that is lorries stopping on the box junctions rather than letting local traffic flow more freely.

"Hopefully, imposing fines will concentrate the minds of lorry drivers in particular and allow the roundabout to operate as it was designed to do.”

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