Furious residents say they feel like prisoners in their own homes as roadworks causing gridlock on the only route into their estate are to drag on until February.

Major upgrades to Ashford's A2070 Bad Munstereifel Road to replace the Orbital Park roundabout with a traffic light-controlled junction started in May and were meant to finish in October.

But hold-ups blamed on Operation Brock and issues at the Port of Dover mean the completion has been delayed several times.

Now highways bosses have confirmed the new layout will not be finished until mid-February, pushing back the estimated completion date by a further four weeks.

Fed-up residents living on the adjacent Finberry estate say the issue is causing "continuing stress".

One mum says she was terrified she would go into labour and not be able to get out of the development - while a neighbour says the roadworks have massively increased commuting times.

Another resident, Trayc Randall (sic), moved into her home just six weeks before work on the ‘Bellamy Gurner’ scheme started.

She says traffic has made her life “a living hell” and has taken a huge toll on her mental health.

“I feel like I’m a prisoner in my own home - I’m trapped,” the 46-year-old said.

“You can’t go out, nothing is convenient and it has completely changed my lifestyle because I can’t do the things I usually do.

“I’ve had sleepless nights with traffic coming through, and it has been a continuous stress.

“I have even asked my boss if she will change my hours at work so I can leave earlier so I don’t hit the traffic at peak time.

“Ever since the winter months kicked in with the darker nights it has been awful.

“It can take 40 minutes to an hour to get from the top of Junction 10a into Finberry.

“Then when you are in, you don’t want to go back out in the evenings because it takes too long to get anywhere.

“I don’t believe it will be finished in February - they will still be doing it in March.

“It is sad because you’ve almost come to live with it.”

While the impact of the works has been relentless, Mrs Randall feels the new road layout will be worth the wait in the end.

As part of the project, the Avocet Way junction which leads to the Finberry estate will be upgraded, allowing residents to turn right onto the A2070.

But for resident Sarah Inge, the road closures caused her anxiety during the final weeks of her pregnancy.

The 33-year-old said: “When I was about to have my baby, I was terrified because I was thinking, if I go into labour, am I going to be able to get out?

“I even emailed Conway [the contractor] and said what if I go into labour in the night and the road is closed? They said I could ask someone to let me through, but I know some people have had to wait 45 minutes to be let out.

“Now if I have appointments or want to go out with my son, I have to work out when I can leave because you never know what the situation is going to be like.

"We have been using our residents' Facebook page to ask people what the queues are like before we leave home."

Sam Thomas moved to Finberry a year ago and says getting from Junction 10a to the estate can often take longer than the rest of his commute to Folkestone.

He said: "It is really difficult in the night. When you go somewhere and come back it is blocked everywhere and we have to wait for them to let us through.

"In the daytime, traffic is still really bad.

"I work in Folkestone at the Royal Victoria Hospital. I finish work at 4pm and I reach Junction 10a about 4.30pm.

"It takes me about 30 to 40 minutes just to get from Junction 10a to here because of the traffic.

"They said there are going to be traffic signals there but I don't know if the changes will really make a difference."

Trayc Randall’s mother, Trish Abbott, who also lives on the estate, feels opening a road connecting Finberry to Bridgefield at the back of the development would have avoided a lot of the chaos.

“There is a route out, but it is only for pedestrians because there are bollards blocking it off,” she said.

“If the bollards had been taken down, even for just the duration of the roadworks, we would have been able to get out that way and there wouldn’t have been any fuss. I don’t know why they said they just couldn’t do it.”

Mrs Abbott says she has found the constant changes to the road layout very confusing.

“It has been quite a nightmare because I go there one day and it has changed the next,” she said.

“Quite recently I found that I couldn’t see properly because of the cones and signs in the way.

“I really hope it will get better because it can’t be any worse than it is now.”

"We thank local residents for their patience..."

A spokesperson for housebuilder Crest Nicholson – which is funding the works – confirmed the project has been delayed.

“The completion date for the Bellamy Gurner scheme has been revised following the additional implementation of Operation Brock, which has had a further knock-on delay to the remaining works,” they said.

“We are now expected to complete the project in February. We thank local residents for their patience.”

When asked for a response about the further delay, National Highways said it does not have a contractual relationship with the contractor.

It said that “any delay costs money so it’s in the developer’s interest to be working at maximum but a safe speed”.

Katarina Saradinova, the authority’s head of scheme delivery, added: “Our role in the planning process is to help planning authorities ensure that any new development can be safely served from the strategic road network, and that any extra traffic the development creates is understood and planned for.”

KentOnline asked Crest Nicholson and National Highways whether Finberry residents could claim any compensation over the delays, but did not receive a response.

National Highways said any calls for compensation should be directed to the developers, but Crest Nicholson did not reply.

The latest hold-up comes as motorists suffered three days of disruption last week as emergency manhole repairs shut a half-mile stretch of the dual carriageway.

National Highways had to close the eastbound side of the A2070 on Wednesday between the Cloverleaf and Orbital Park roundabouts.