Maidstone residents have been finding out how changes to the A274 Sutton Road junction with Willington Street will affect them.

Responding to concerns voiced during the public consultation on the £3 million project, highways project officer assured people Kent County Council had listened to the feedback.

He said: “The points raised were that the proposed alterations wouldn’t achieve the reduction in traffic congestion aimed for, that there would be a loss of vegetation, that there would be an increase in noise levels and a worsening of air quality, and that the value of properties would be devalued.”

At a meeting at St Martin’s Church Hall in Northumberland Road this month, Mr Boorman proceeded to tackle issue each in turn.

He showed the audience a computer-generated model of a car progressing along Sutton Road in two scenarios. The car in the do-nothing scenario was seriously delayed while under the new road scheme it shot through like a Scalextric racing car.

Mr Boorman said noise impact studies had showed the amended road scheme would result in a “negligible” increase on the northern side of Sutton Road of three decibels. A whisper measures 20 decibels.

The increase would be greater on the southern side, but that would be mitigated by a one-metre high acoustic fence, he said.

Existing air quality monitors showed there was already too much nitrogen dioxide on the carriageway, but this had dissipated to acceptable levels by the time it reached the nearest housing, 25m away.

The new scheme, which includes widening the carriageway, would bring the road to within 16m of the nearest house. But Mr Boorman said studies showed that “moving the carriageway closer to properties doesn’t actually increase the air pollution.”

He said more trees would be planted than cut down, while residents worried about their homes losing value were invited to make a claim under the Land Compensation Act.

Mr Boorman did not promise they would be successful, however.