THERE has been a call for better management of accidents on the M20 motorway following the chaos caused by an overturned lorry last month.

East Malling and Larkfield Parish Council has written to the Highways Agency in frustration after traffic was brought to a standstill after an accident between junction 4 at Leybourne and junction 3, Wrotham, on January 19.

A lorry rolled onto its side, spilling oranges across the carriageways and causing the closure of all three London-bound lanes as well as the temporary closure of two coast-bound lanes.

The London-bound carriageway was closed for almost 12 hours, resulting in rush-hour bedlam and massive tailbacks on all alternative routes.

In its letter, the parish council suggests there should be a greater effort made to manage traffic on the road system surrounding an accident.

It says: "Being near junction 4 with the A228 this parish is particularly affected as drivers seek alternative routes when the A20 cannot cope with the extra diverted traffic. However, the effect of M20 closures is to create jams across the Medway Gap area and often affecting Maidstone town centre too.

"With the thousands of new houses planning for the Malling area with extra traffic on the local road system, the parish council can only see the position worsening in the future."

Parish council chairman Cllr David Thornewell hopes the letter will make some difference.

He said: "The frequency of accidents on the M20, with its closure often for many hours, seems to be increasing. This causes virtual gridlock on the surrounding roads. I feel there needs to be greater priority to getting of keeping traffic on the M20 flowing."

A Highways Agency spokeswoman said: "The reason the M20 accident took so long to clear was because of the impact the lorry had on the road.

"It had to be resurfaced, there was barrier damage and diesel all over the road. We couldn’t open the road to the traffic public until it was safe to do so. We alerted the public using radio and virtual messaging signs, any means of communication to ask them to avoid the accident."