Neighbours have blasted the county council for closing a road for four months without carrying out repairs.

A route that runs alongside the main carriageway of the A2990 Thanet Way - joining residential Clover Rise with Reeves Way and the Chestfield roundabout - was blocked off by the authority in October after serious faults were found in the road and pavement.

It has long been a popular route for drivers accessing the Thanet Way from Clover Rise - providing an alternative to turning right straight onto the busy A-road at what is widely regarded as a dangerous junction.

But now, residents say the road’s closure has made the junction more dangerous and increased traffic outside their homes - with no suggestion of when it will reopen.

Last week, an encampment of travellers in several caravans moved onto the closed-off area, by driving over the grassy verge.

Robert Robery, who has lived in Clover Rise for almost eight years, said: “Before they closed it, I’d go down that road to avoid the right-hand turn.

“I’d drive along to the roundabout and join the Thanet Way there. Because even when that road’s open I hate turning right there. So do my wife and son - it is very, very, very dangerous.

“But now, you are forced to take that right-hand turn. Or people avoid it by turning left, then straight into Foxgrove Road and doing a quick U-turn.”

Almost directly opposite Clover Rise is the Thanet Way’s junction with Foxgrove Road, where an elderly man had to be cut free from his car after colliding with a lorry earlier last month.

Mr Robery, 55, says the council has given him no indication about why the road is closed, or for how long.

“People have been saying it’s closed for two years,” said the father-of-two.

“Then others say no, they’re trying to repair the road. But I haven’t seen any activity. If they’re trying to repair it, why have they put heavy, long-term blocks there to stop vehicles from driving in?

“There’s no information - no boards to say ‘this road is shut for a year, this is the reason’. They don’t even drop a letter around to say sorry about the inconvenience.

“We all understand roadworks need to be done, but because of the danger of this road, if they can’t do it quickly they should put temporary traffic lights in or something to ease the flow of traffic, because there is so much more traffic now.”

Mr Robery has suggested the council uses this opportunity to make it a ‘no right hand turn’ junction.

He said: “If they were to stop the right-hand turn - make it one-way, so you have to go up to the Tesco roundabout, turn around and come back - it would be a lot more safe.

He added: “I know an accident hasn’t happened, but they shouldn’t wait for that to happen.

"It might be a young person, it might be an elderly person - it might be a family in a car being wiped out by one of these lorries.You don’t want someone to get killed before someone actually does something.”

Kent County Council has not been able to provide a time frame for the roadworks.

A spokesman said: “Several serious carriageway and footway defects were identified along the stretch of road.

"For public safety reasons, KCC took the decision to close this stretch of road to traffic.

"Groundwork investigations and surveys have taken place to understand the cause of the damage.”