Summer traffic on the M20 causes havoc in Leeds near Maidstone

KentOnline / KMTV

The small village has narrow roads that aren't suited for large amounts of congestion, causing collisions, delays and structural damage.  Finn Macdiarmid reports.

Transcript

00:00As the country's main route into Europe, Kent often sees plenty of summer holiday traffic.

00:05But as the motorways fill up, villages alongside them can see heavy congestion that their narrow

00:10roads simply aren't built for.

00:12Leeds, just off the M20, is one of these villages and has seen years of accidents, damage to

00:17buildings and vehicles getting stuck.

00:20Now Operation Brock is in effect and even if there aren't lorries coming through, there

00:24are certainly some larger vehicles.

00:26And this is quite commonplace, I've been speaking to members of the public here and even the

00:30landlord of the George Inn, who says that it's just a constant battle.

00:35It tends to get busier when Brock is on because everybody gets to the Junction 8 and they cut

00:42back through the village, it's the main road through really.

00:44This is the bypass, this little road.

00:46When if the road's shut or if there's traffic jams, people tend to stay away from the area

00:51a bit because they know how busy the road is, so it can affect business, yeah.

00:56And just before I interviewed Jason, there was a collision right outside the pub.

01:01Not very good, that's a regular occurrence, it's probably one every three months you get

01:06an accident.

01:08And officials say Operation Brock being in effect doesn't help.

01:12It does make it worse, but to be quite honest, it's bad anyway.

01:18So yeah, you will get people that don't want to use the A20 because it's bumper to bumper,

01:22they want to get to Headcorn or they can go to Smart and places that and they use this

01:27and use the Sutton Road.

01:28Then we have a knock on effect on the villages around and the local roads where they get gridlocked

01:35and badly destroyed.

01:37Simon Jones, the KMRF lead for border disruption, said the decision to put the Operation Brock

01:42barrier out is made to keep disruption for Kent residents to a minimum and always lead

01:46by on the number of passenger and freight crossings expected at the port of Dover and Eurotunnel.

01:51Our work with central government to identify a better traffic management solution will continue

01:56alongside our around-the-clock monitoring so that everyone can get to where they need to

02:00be safely this summer.

02:02Kent isn't the only area affected, with the villages of Lenham, Harrietsham and Hollingbourne

02:06also experiencing traffic that their roads simply can't handle.

02:10And whether it's the summer traffic, Operation Brock or Port infrastructure, these rural villages

02:15are crying out for some kind of solution for their streets.

02:18Finn McDermid for KMTV in Leeds.

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