Work has started on a busy junction near a leisure complex which has been causing traffic hell for years.

The action from Kent County Council (KCC) should come as a relief to people who live and work near Lockmeadow in Maidstone but one business owner says the work is too little too late.

Ali El-Hajj opened the McDonald's drive-thru almost eight years ago.

He said: "As part of my planning permission, I had to pay £50,000 in Section 106 money, towards improving the junction, but KCC spent it all on the gyratory improvements and not a penny on our junction.

"In almost eight years, nothing has been done at all.”

Now, the roads will become a one-way system and will mean no right-turn for McDonald's customers entering Barker Road from The Broadway who instead will go along to a mini-roundabout at the junction with Hart Street and then come back behind B&Q to the drive-thru.

But Mr El-Hajj thinks the scheme is backwards saying: "That will not solve the problem of customers being unable to exit Hart Street on to Barker Road because of traffic queuing on Barker Road.

"If people in Barker Road don't give way, no cars can get out.

"When the highways officer, Jenny Watson, saw the problems we had, she was very accommodating. She said: 'Yes, you can't carry on like that, we'll need to do a temporary measure at least.'

"She sent us some proposals and we all agreed on a scheme that would see traffic turning into Hart Street and McDonald's as it does now, but having to exit by going along Hart Street at the back of B&Q to rejoin Barker Road further down. We were all happy.

"But the next thing I learn is that the council has decided to do the the exact opposite of what we agreed."

This week, when our reporter visited during the evening rush hour, not only was there a long queue to get out of McDonald's, but the queue in Barker Road extended down the road as far as the eye could see, with traffic jammed in Hart Street and motorists trying to get out of the Lockmeadow car park also stuck.

And earlier this month, motorists were stuck at the junction for up to an hour and 45 minutes trying to exit Lockmeadow from Barker Road in Maidstone and there were knock-on effects throughout the town centre.

Mr El-Hajj’s business lost £10,000 in takings on that recent Saturday of traffic chaos.

He said: "I really don't care about the money so much as the inconvenience it is causing to my customers, especially customers with kids, who are stuck."

The situation is currently worse than usual due to road works in Tonbridge Road, just above Maidstone West Station while South East Water connects a new block of flats to the water main.

That has reduced the two lanes in Tonbridge Road to one, and the consequent tailback down towards McDonald's has resulted in fewer cars being able to leave Barker Road on each change of lights.

Mr El-Hajj said: "At peak times only four or five cars can get out.

"The thing is we (McDonald's) get blamed, but since we moved in, Maidstone council has allowed lots more flats to be built down Barker Road and now they have new development at the Lockmeadow complex – did they not think this would create a problem?

"At this moment the quickest a car can leave our store and get to the traffic light is at least an hour."

Nacer Lahrache is the area manager for McDonald's. He confirmed: "The Maidstone drive-thru is the worst store in my area for traffic.

"The problem now is the abuse the staff gets from frustrated drivers.

"I've just taken a call from the manager there, he said he's had enough, he can't carry on with all the verbal abuse he gets."

Mr El-Hajj said: "We used to have a very simple solution, we would go to the station and ask them politely to open the rear gate to their car park, then our customers could exit through the station."

But for whatever reason, Southeastern is now declining to help out.

Mr El-Hajj said: "It's a shame, just 10 minutes would suffice to clear the jam."

Gina Michaelas is the owner of Marino's fish and chip shop in Hart Street.

She said: "We've just lost so much trade. I've had people who have placed orders for delivery come into my shop saying 'Where's my food?' and I've had to say sorry, it was dispatched an hour ago, but the driver's just stuck in the traffic.

"It's the residents I feel for. They tell me they just don't attempt to go out during the rush hour because they know they will get stuck.

"One pregnant lady moved out and sofa-surfed at her mother's house because she was afraid that if her waters broke she wouldn't be able to get through the traffic to get to hospital.

"People shouldn't have to live in fear like that."

She said: "The scheme the council is putting in is completely wrong, it will only make things worse. But they don't listen.We live this daily. It is hell."

Cllr Dave Naghi is trying to assist. He said: "Years ago, KCC drew up a plan to reformat the junction (of Barker Road and Tonbridge Road) with two lanes in and two lanes out.

"It just never got done. When Maidstone council wanted to open the food hall at Lockmeadow, I warned them about the traffic and reminded them of the plan.

"It actually owns the kiosk on the corner and much of the road and pavement along by the courts. They could give their land to make the road wider."

Mr El-Hajj said McDonald's had made a similar offer to give up the corner of its own site to create a slip road from Barker Road, but, he said: "KCC rejected the idea because there are apparently a lot of utility services buried in that corner and it would be too expensive to move them."

The restaurant owner was angry at the approach taken by the council.

'People shouldn't have to live in fear like that...'

He said: "None of them live here or see what is happening here. Instead of talking to us, they just go and sit in their room, take decisions and we have to live with the consequences."

There is not thought to be any difference in cost between the proposed improvement scheme and that advocated by McDonald's and Marino's, essentially, the work is the same with the traffic signs facing the other way.

Mr El-Hajj said: "The difference is that one scheme will crucify us, and the other will solve the problem.

Cllr Naghi said: "It's not just McDonald's that is affected – there are 1,000 flats down Barker Road."

"The problem at the moment is the water-works, but the same thing happens any weekend when Lockmeadow has some big event on. It's a nightmare."

"If I am going to Lockmeadow now, I always park at All Saints and walk across the bridge, because I know I won't be able to get out. Something has to be done."

Mr El-Hajj said: "I've written to Maidstone council, got no reply. I've written to KCC, got no reply.

"Gina has written, got no reply. So I don't know who these people work for, if they don't work for us."

The McDonald's drive-thru opened on May 13, 2015.

Around 55% of business comes from drive-thru customers, 20% is for home delivery and only about 25% from walk-in customers.

McDonald's is the second largest employer in Maidstone, with 275 staff across the three branches.