More than £100,000 could be spent repairing or pedestrianising badly damaged sections of Ashford’s controversial shared space – just five years after it was created.

The expensive repairs are being suggested after a report found the materials used to construct the pioneering system were not strong enough for the amount of traffic that uses it.

Hundreds of paving stones are either broken or cracked in the Bank Street section.

The three options being examined are:

Option 1 – Pedestrianisation and repairing the Flume pavement artwork (£100,000)

Option 2 – Replacing the Flume with bitumen surfacing (£57,000)

Option 3 – Repairs and protect the Flume (£122,000)

Ashford Joint Transportation Board chairman Cllr Bernard Heyes (right) said: “The repairs that are carried out should be of the highest quality and should leave the shared space as good as it should have been in the first place.”

Full story in this week's Kentish Express.