The trial closure of a key junction is set to be made permanent.

Kent County Council shut off the entrance to Cranborne Avenue at the Wheatsheaf junction in Maidstone 18 months ago.

The closure was under a temporary traffic order to see if it relieved congestion.

Residents have been demanding it be reopened, saying it had made it more dangerous for drivers to join the A229.

But today (September 20), KCC said ]it had resulted in improvements to journey times on two key strategic routes into the south of Maidstone – the A229 (Loose Road) and the A274 (Sutton Road).

It said the closure introduced on March 22, 2022, would now become permanent.

KCC’s cabinet member for highways and transport, Neil Baker, said: “Making the closure of Cranborne Avenue at the junction of the A229 permanent will mean the benefits realised during the trial continue, allowing us to unlock additional capacity on our network.

“This has reduced traffic queues and improved journey times for the travelling public that make around 35,000 trips every day, through the Wheatsheaf junction.”

The "experiment" was a forerunner of plans for a major redesign of the junction that include demolishing the Wheatsheaf pub to create a larger junction layout.

KCC said it would now work on “the next phase” of improvement “to achieve the optimum design for the junction in order to consolidate the benefits derived from the closure.”

The council has not provided any evidence of the extent of any journey-time savings achieved by the closure.

Cllr Maureen Cleator (Lab) previously said the closure had caused an increase in traffic through the Shepway estate.

She said it had created a rat-run through the back roads.

South Ward’s Cllr Brian Clark (Lib Dem) said: “This temporary closure plan has been flawed from day one.

“Not only has there been a clear indication from Kent Highways throughout that there was no intention to re-open Cranborne Avenue, but also at August’s Joint Transport Board meeting neither the highways cabinet member nor any highways officers even attended to answer pre-registered questions from concerned residents.

“Councillors then were promised that officers would attend to answer these questions at the meeting in October. What is the good of that since today we learn today the closure is now permanent ahead of that meeting?

“This announcement is short shrift for local residents who were told that they could re-register their questions to be answered in October’s meeting!”

“Residents who use the A229 corridor continue to see the effect of both MBC and KCC’s administrations’ complete failure to deliver desperately needed transport improvements, all the while house building skyrockets.”

Marion Crescent resident Andrew Hammersley said: “i am outraged. Despite public opposition and the lack of valid data, someone sitting somewhere in an office has made this unsound decision.

“Of greater disappointment is that these decision-makers failed to justify their decision-making to the elected representatives of both MBC and KCC.

“I now understand why local politics achieves very little public engagement when policymakers are not held to account and when they make uninformed decisions in complete disregard of what is best for the community.”