00:00No party poppers or sing-alongs in Swanscombe for this anniversary, just dozens of residents
00:06commiserating the day Galley Hill Road partially collapsed three years ago, leaving the narrow
00:14streets of the town flooded with lorries and traffic, with no end in sight.
00:19The roads just do not take cars, vehicles, people with luggage.
00:27Yeah, and it's been horrendous for all of us, it really has.
00:31Just even walking down the street here, several times where the cars have mounted the pavements,
00:37I've nearly been run over, and it's been a really close course.
00:42Supposedly we're in the rich afferent south-east.
00:44This is one of the poorest communities in Kent, and they just feel totally neglected.
00:49Frustration isn't hard to find here in Swanscombe.
00:52It was just days before this protest that the best part of 100 people crammed into a public
00:59meeting, one with more questions than answers.
01:03Are there any way that we can look at health of our children?
01:06The thing is, it's still a major incident, the road is closed.
01:09Highways are the responsibility of Kent County Council.
01:12The cash-strapped authority has already spent more than a million pounds drawing up plans
01:18for a replacement bridge or reinforced embankment to get the road reopened.
01:25But these options are set to cost upwards of 50 million pounds, money the council does not have.
01:32There's no certainty, and so, like I say, guarantee is a very strong word.
01:38All I can guarantee is that we are doing our utmost to make sure we can get the funding.
01:43But I cannot guarantee that that funding will come, because that's the reality we live in.
01:50The government is set to make one billion pounds available to help local authorities with road repairs in the coming
01:58months.
01:59But KCC will have to bid for a slice of that money rather than simply just receiving it.
02:06Well, we were in a situation a year ago where there was no money on the table to fix Galley
02:11Hill Road.
02:11We now have a fund we can bid into.
02:14I'm very confident that when that fund is announced that Galley Hill Road and the need to repair it
02:23will be absolutely foursquare within the criteria.
02:25The confidence of the local MP was not shared by everyone at the meeting.
02:31After all, even if the money comes through, it may be 20, 30 or later before works are completed.
02:39They're not doing anything, they just come and talk.
02:42So I don't know when it's going to happen.
02:45It's really terrible, every single day.
02:48Every year we come to these meetings and every year there's promises made
02:53and people pushing the blame to each other.
02:56Nothing changes, nothing changes.
02:58The hope is that a solution could get planning approval later this year.
03:04But if KCC can't get the funding, Galley Hill could face yet another roadblock.
03:11Olly Leader in Swanscombe.
03:13Let's go.
03:13Bye.
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