A campaigner's decades-long mission to reduce the speed limit of a road to 40mph has been met with reluctance from Kent County Council which says there isn't any evidence it's needed.

Mike Golding has lived along Delarue Close, off Shipbourne Road near Tonbridge, since 1997 and has known a fair number of serious incidents take place.

The close sits on a tight bend with limited vision from both directions. It's also on a gradient – meaning cars heading into Tonbridge will be going downhill.

The main road currently has a 50mph speed limit but the 79-year-old believes this is too fast.

He said: "It is a curvy bit of road that goes up and down and is too quick for people pulling onto the road."

Mike has been fighting the issue since 2000 when it was 60mph – it was reduced by 10mph in 2009.

He continued: "They (KCC at the time) felt the particular piece of road was too bendy and undulating with a lot of accesses, so they felt it was too fast to go at 60mph, plus there had been two fatalities."

Yet Mike feels further reduction is needed to make sure the road is safe.

The former geophysicist worked out what would happen if a car was pulling out onto the main road while another vehicle being driving at 50mph along it.

He says the latter would reach the junction before the former was able to drive off.

This a regular scenario with 22 accidents on that stretch since 2005 – five of which ended in a fatality – according to a Freedom of Information request made to police by Mike.

In 2016, a 24-year-old man died after crashing into a telegraph pole along the road and most recently, a car crashed and landed on its passenger side after hitting the embankment.

Despite this, the council says no action is needed at the moment.

A spokesman said: "The part of Shipbourne Road has been reviewed by various different officers and has been assessed based on the Department for Transport Setting Local Speed Limits document, and also reviewed against recorded crash data for the area.

"Every year KCC reviews crash cluster sites where there have been more than three crashes during a three-year period. This approach mirrors how crashes are analysed nationally.

"If evidence is present to highlight there is a safety issue, such as crash data or a change in environment locally due to local developments for example, then officers would review what highway changes and improvements are required.

"A speed-limit reduction is not always the best course of action and in some cases can actually lead to driver frustration and more crashes on the highway."

But Mike disagrees, revealing that Delarue Close is shared by charity Scott's Project which aims to support people with learning difficulties and provides shuttle services and taxis to and from the complex.

This means cars are constantly in and out of the road and, according to Mike, have frequently been the subject of near misses.

He added: "I know changing the speed limit may not change the character of some drivers but it cannot continue at 50mph.

"They say there hasn't been enough crashes in the last three years to indicate a change but in the last three years we have been in a bit of a pandemic.

"More years need to be considered during than during an unprecedented time."