Lenham Op Brock experiences

We are now as a matter of course blighted by the traffic directed to use the A20. There is damage to the roadside furniture , rubbish and the air quality when the vehicles are slowly moving forward on the road is poor . The A20 is not motorway quality road and we then have to endure repairs and temporary traffic lights during the week. All of his results in horrendous traffic jams where local people cannot go about their normal routines . Traffic from Op Brock means journey times are increased with local residents having to rely on the goodwill of motorists to let us out of side roads or to turn across or join the A20. The displaced local traffic or those motorists trying to get round the congestion has resulted in the side roads and smaller roads being damaged by the increased traffic. Sometimes to get home from Maidstone we resort to travelling via Headcorn which is ridiculous.

Emergency services are also caught up in these delays . Fuel supplies in local garages also become scarce during the high volumes of traffic diverted by Op Brock onto the A20.

The signage at Junction 8 gives those tourists exiting to use the service area no pre warning they cannot then rejoin the M20 to continue their journey, the result is they either travel down the A20 to rejoin the road at Junction 9 or loop back via junction 7 . More often they choose the A20 corridor adding to local traffic congestion.

On 26th July 2022 I emailed Toby Howe the tactical lead for the Kent Resilience Forum regarding comments made on television about the impact of Op Brock where he acknowledged disruption caused to freight drivers , local Folkestone / Dover residents and tourists and the need to resolve these issues. He made no mention of disruption to local residents along the A20 corridor. I made him aware of the issues for local A20 residents and damage to local lanes and the proposed Lenham Heathlands development adding to the A20 woes. He responded and stated Sat nav errors caused extra traffic and he was unaware of the Lenham Heathlands proposal which potentially will add 12000 vehicle movements daily on the A20. I still have the emails

MBC has already spent £700,000 of local peoples money on promoting the Lenham Heathlands development and the head of the KRF has no knowledge of it . This is unbelievable incompetence on the part of both organisations. Lenham has already agreed a local plan to accept 1500 houses and yet local peoples voices are not being listened to.

Op Brock has taken the levels of congestion on the A20 to the levels that we experienced before the completion of the M20. Our communities are suffering and something better needs to be done to prevent this situation becoming our new normal.