Landslip at Galley Hill Road causes traffic chaos

KentOnline / KMTV

Residents fear for road safety in Swanscombe as commuters and lorries are starting to cut through the town.  Many are calling for Kent County Council to speed up repairs to the busy A-road.  Local Democracy Reporter Ollie Leader has been finding out more.

Transcript

00:00It's dangerous and they should make it a one way, round here or round the other way.

00:03It'll be no problem, so get rid of it.

00:06Lorries, gridlock and frustrated motorists mounting the kerb.

00:11This is what life looks like along Stanhope Road, one of the busiest in Swanscombe.

00:17Ever since the A226 Galley Hill Road collapsed back in 2023.

00:23What we've got here at Bottlenecks, there's only room for one car at a time to pass.

00:27So we have two cars coming down, either side, there's no passing point.

00:31So this is creating a problem where cars are having to go up onto the pavements

00:35and sometimes people have nearly been hit or knocked over by cars mounting pavements.

00:40Before the landslip, Galley Hill Road was used by heavy goods vehicles, buses and commuters alike.

00:48But since then, traffic has cut through this stretch of residential housing

00:52and it's gotten so bad, in fact, that people living here have been taking to the street

00:59to keep an eye out for illegal behaviour such as ramping up onto the pavement.

01:05Now this road's not been...

01:07It was only built for awesome cars.

01:09Not cars, not roads.

01:11And as I said, it's dangerous.

01:13You've got elderly people living in Swanscombe, scooters and everything else.

01:17The paths are not wide enough

01:18and there's a lot of people going to get hurt along this road.

01:22Kent County Council has responsibility for highways.

01:25But so far, calls for a one-way system or traffic lights have been dismissed.

01:31But for residents, the main issue is fixing the landslip.

01:35They see that as the root cause to all of this

01:38and that's something that could take years.

01:41Galley Hill's got to get sorted out

01:43to make Stan Oak Road and other roads in Swanscombe

01:47more accessible again.

01:49This road was not built for the traffic that it's got to happen at the moment.

01:53You know, people haven't got the money to sort things out

01:55but where do you put the difference between money and lives

01:58or people getting hurt?

02:00KCC says it has considered different ways

02:04to ease the prevailing situation

02:06but the road remains part of a key bus route

02:10and a one-way system is unworkable as a result.

02:16But as the roads around the landslip continue to worsen

02:20the hopes of people living here are also being driven into the ground.

02:25Ollie Leader in Swanscombe.

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