Environment

Kent traffic congestion now at a serious level

by Beaulieu | October 9, 2009 at 11:29 am

164 views | 23 Recommendations | 5 comments

Kent is becoming an extremely horrible place to live in, as lorries thunder through our villages, country lanes and streets with impunity. They have done so for years.

People living near busy village roads cannot get to sleep or lorries drive into their houses. Famillies face cancers because of the fumes. The quality of life with the noise and pollution is awful.

Famillies move from London for a quieter life but some even want to go back to London where lorries are banned and there are 20mph zones.

In Kent, many people have petitioned for 20mph roads but the police say this is unenforceable, even though London has several of them. People have to battle to lower the speed limits but they frequently do not get anywhere with an old fashioned Council.

"As the ever increasing volume of traffic constantly pounds through the high streets of towns and villages across Kent day after day, creating hold-ups, severe congestion, speeding, pollution, accidents, and severe damage to the road surface, Kent County Council, and the Kent Highway Service officials are in serious debate of how to resolve this continual problem, and the serious increase of traffic in the county.

The county of Kent is basically in the “firing line” for all the European traffic passing through the ferry port of Dover, especially the massive HGV's lorries that are trading and delivering all across the country.

This in itself is a necessity of business, but the chaos that it brings when these massive lorries pass through small towns and villages to their destination, has seen the residents over many years past and present protesting adamantly and angrily, about the terrible blighting of their own communities by these huge monsters.

Not only is the exhaust pollution that they bring an added health risk, but many residents and children have narrowly missed serious injury and death, as these huge lorries plough through the narrow streets, some unavoidably mounting the pavements to avoid a collision with other vehicles.

What with these situations growing daily, local residents in towns and villages throughout the county, who are confronted by this daily onslaught of traffic, are desperate for those in authority to find a solution.

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Jack Green,Dublin (not verified)

at 13:00 on October 9th, 2009

We have the same problem in Towns and Villages in Ireland with Heavy Traffic Speeding through,a lot of it HGV's and massive complaints from Residents. Some times they are able to get By Passes sanctioned around Villages also Road Ramps or Humps to slow the Traffic Down. We have had Lorries crashing through the Wall of Peoples Houses as well in Villages.Two recent Incidents in Villages down the Country,A Truck comes down a narrow winding Road down a Hill and before entering a Village he seems to lose his Brakes and Crashes into and Demolishes a Bridge Parapet across a River,second one a Truck Crashes into a Village House and takes the Whole Wall out of one side with a Couple upstairs in Bed and they narrowly miss getting Killed.In these Villages on main Roads you are supposed to slow down to 30mph when going through but I think most people do not even realize they are going through a Village as some of them might only contain a few Houses and not even a Post Office possibly a Pub,you will always find a Pub often a School as well. The only thing you can do is keep complaining until something is done or a few Children are Killed unfortunately.

Amy Judd

at 13:44 on October 9th, 2009

There's nothing worse than trying to sleep and a huge lorry thunders past outside your window

Beaulieu1 (not verified)

at 14:59 on October 9th, 2009

It's like it is 'normal' for lorries to thunder past because it's business, but often they are using it for shortcuts, even though there is a by-pass. Frequently the by-passes are blocked with jams due to bottlenecks and traffic accidents. There are no signs in Sevenoaks, for example, banning them such as "Except for Access". Hardly anything is said about noise pollution. Day and Night there is a racket with these lorries going past. The Highways are as useless as a chocolate teapot.

Beaulieu1 (not verified)

at 15:05 on October 9th, 2009

What doesn't help is that we have too much choice. If there was less choice we would have less lorries thundering post. In one supermarket near me, I counted about 20 different butters. We don't need so many. It is up to us also to complain to the supermarkets.