The future of a key road junction outside a pub boarded up to let works take place remains uncertain two years on.

Kent County Council (KCC) has taken the decision to keep the Cranborne Avenue arm at the Wheatsheaf junction in Maidstone permanently closed to traffic following an 18-month “experimental” closure.

But in a report submitted for review by Maidstone council’s joint transportation board this Wednesday, the highways authority was unable to say what it will be doing next to improve the junction of the A228 Loose Road with the A274 Sutton Road.

At one stage, KCC had drawn up plans to create a larger junction at the site, which included demolishing the Wheatsheaf pub on the corner of the two roads.

But although the pub was purchased by the county council and now stands empty, the only thing that transport board members will hear about “phase two” of the junction improvement is it will now be finalised to achieve “the optimum design for the Wheatsheaf junction and consolidate the benefits derived from the Cranborne Avenue closure”.

“The final design and programme for phase two will be confirmed in due course,” the report adds.

The junction deals with 35,000 traffic movements every day.

Back in June 2021, KCC had costed plans drawn up for a "reconfigured signalised junction” at the Wheatsheaf.

It even had a date set for the demolition of the pub – which had already been closed since January 2019 – and was intended to be in July 2021.

Now, more than two years later, there has been no progress.

In the same report, KCC records “progress” on another junction in its Maidstone Integrated Transport Package, which is supposed to ease congestion at a number of junctions across the town in the face of ever-increasing housing numbers.

On the A229 Loose Road crossroads with Cripple Street and Boughton Lane – known locally as The Swan junction – KCC has conceded defeat.

It said: “The original scheme was paused as a result of the opposition received to losing the landscaped area in front of the Boughton Parade shops following the earlier consultation carried out on the scheme.

“Alternative options, including the provision of a half bus-layby at the junction, have been considered, but these do not deliver any noticeable capacity benefits to the junction and the A229 corridor and come with a significant cost.

“Consequently, KCC will not be proceeding with this scheme.”

South Ward’s Cllr Brian Clark (Lib Dem) described the situation as “desperately disappointing”.

He said: “It beggars belief that after all this time – 18 months Cranborne Avenue has been closed – KCC still doesn’t know what to do next at the Wheatsheaf.

“It’s completely unacceptable. This junction improvement was put forward as the transport mitigation for all the new housebuilding in our 2017 Local Plan.

“Now we are at the Local Plan Review stage – adding yet more housing – and still nothing had been achieved.”

Cllr Clark said that if he was reading the “mood music “ from KCC correctly, the Wheatsheaf pub would never be demolished and probably nothing much would change at the junction.

The councillor was also angry that KCC was “quietly dropping” any plans to improve the Swan Junction.

He said: “It seems that if KCC puts forward a scheme and people object to it, that gives them a reason not to try again.

“There’s a dreadful lack of ambition.

“The proposal they put forward would have helped traffic on the Loose Road turning left into Boughton Lane, but everybody knows that's not the problem.

“It is traffic coming out of Boughton Lane and out of Cripple Street that has the problem.”