For many months, local residents have endured the turgid progress of the Grovehurst project. We have had a non signalised roundabout with a single lane of traffic for a few months now and on the whole, traffic has flowed well.
Since the 23rd March 2026, new traffic signals on the gyratory have been activated. This has led to severe delays on Swale Way, with drivers taking more than 40 minutes to get from Eurolink to Grovehurst. We have also seen delays on the A249 resulting in stationary vehicles sitting in live lanes on a dual carriageway with multiple near misses as a result.
I have personally spoken to the Public Liaison Officer at Jackson's Civil Engineering, the contractor for the works, who has told me that he has been in contact with KCC to raise concerns regarding the project stating, "we know that the gyratory would work better without the lights".
We petition the council to remove the lights. They are serving
no purpose. The gyratory worked perfectly well with just one lane
and no lights, adding extra lanes will make it even better and the
lights are completely unnecessary. The council have also had an
experienced civil engineer tell them the same, so it would be very
prudent to listen to the experts as well as local residents on
this. Our local councillors have also had enough and feel the
same.
This ePetition ran from 02/04/2026 to 02/07/2026 and has now finished.
Nobody signed this ePetition.
The Grovehurst Road junction, as per the original consultation
documents, is now a
partially signalised junction. The signals allow for safer walking
and cycling provision
across the junction, with the introduction of Toucan Crossings,
making the junction
much safer for non-motorised users. The signals also manage traffic
flows, particularly
at peak times, with traffic detection and intelligence system that
monitors and adjusts
the signals to suit the traffic flows.
I understand that following the initial switching on of the traffic
signals, some delays
were experienced whilst traffic management remained in place, and
the junction was
not running at full capacity. This was to allow the contractor to
complete the remaining
works. Now the traffic management has been removed, and all running
lanes are open,
the traffic signals are working more efficiently, and the junction
is generally operating
well, with minimal delays. As with any new traffic signals, this
junction will be monitored
and signal timings adjusted as required.
I trust you find this to be helpful.
Yours sincerely
Peter Osborne