Eighty lorries will weave their way through “death trap” country lanes each day during the two-year construction period of the UK’s biggest solar farm.

Project Fortress is due to begin being built either this summer or autumn, with 890 acres of countryside in Graveney, outside Faversham, becoming a sprawling sea of solar panels.

Developers leading the controversial scheme - which was rubber-stamped by the government in 2020 - have this month submitted their proposed traffic management plan.

The proposals will need to be ratified by Swale Borough Council before construction work can begin.

Scores of residents have already hit out at the plan, with proposed routes being labelled a “recipe for disaster”.

But the management plan - compiled on behalf of the site’s new owners, Quinbrook - stresses that the “impact on existing users of the public highway network, or those located close to it, is kept to a minimum”.

Construction traffic is poised to reach the site from the Thanet Way and go along Head Hill Road, before merging onto Seasalter Road and passing Graveney Primary School.

Documents reveal there will be up to 80 HGV movements each day, with 40 lorries making two-way trips.

Unimpressed cyclist Vicky Balfour is among those to object to the plan.

She said: “I am very concerned about the traffic management plan and specifically the volume of traffic and large vehicles occupying the already small and crowded country roads and the effect this will have on cyclists and other road users.

“Head Hill Road into Seasalter Road is already a dangerous route for pedestrians and cyclists, and will become even more so with this proposed development.”

Fellow objectors echo fears the heightened traffic will be “hugely detrimental”, while Faversham resident Glenn Hutchison says “putting an extra 80 movements of large HGV lorries on a cycle route is a recipe for disaster”.

Cyclist Michael Nott said: “It is dangerous at the best of times and with the extra traffic required for construction traffic it will become a death trap. People will die or be seriously injured.

“All construction material should be brought in by sea. A temporary construction dock should be constructed for this purpose. No extra road traffic, on narrow, already dangerous lanes, would be required.”

Since it was announced the scheme was planned for the area, the Graveney Rural Environment Action team has long campaigned against it.

However, at the peak of construction, up to 400 staff will be based at the site. Core working hours are set to be from 7am until 7pm Monday to Friday, but contractors are expected to arrive and leave an hour either side of the timings.

No work is scheduled for Sundays, but on Saturdays there will be activity until 1pm.

Workers will not be allowed to arrive on foot or by bicycle.

In an effort to avoid peak times with parents picking up children from the primary school, lorries are set to make deliveries between 9.30am and 3pm.

The management plan argues the existing road network is suitable for the increase in HGV traffic, despite admitting it is narrow in parts.

“Along Seasalter Road the road width varies, with space to allow a vehicle to give way to oncoming traffic as well as good forward visibility,” the report states.

“It is acknowledged that there are locations where two HGVs will not be able to pass each other along the construction traffic route, however, there are suitable places within the public highway for a vehicle to give way to oncoming vehicles and good forward visibility.”

The solar farm scheme still goes by the name of Cleve Hill Solar Park in public documents, but in time, its new title of Project Fortress is set to be introduced.

Once complete, it will be greater than the size of Faversham and power 100,000 homes.

Deemed as a Nationally Significant Infrastructure Project (NSIP), developers say the solar farm will reduce carbon emissions by 164,450 tonnes in its first year of operation.

It is set to be of a very different design to other solar developments – rather than south-facing panels, they will face east and west, meaning they can be installed much closer together.

Work was originally planned to begin last year, however, it has faced a number of delays.