One of the busiest routes into Canterbury is set to be transformed into a one-way road next year as part of a controversial plan to ease rush-hour gridlock.

Throughout the summer, work will take place to convert the main stretch of the A28 in Wincheap into a road used solely by cars heading out of the city, and buses coming the other way.

Motorists travelling into Canterbury will be diverted along a newly fashioned two-lane carriageway through the Wincheap Industrial Estate.

They would leave the A28 at Cow Lane and drive along one of two lanes in Simmonds Road, before rejoining the main route outside the Maiden’s Head pub.

Supporters of the relief road, which has already been approved, believe it will help alleviate traffic along the A28, which frequently snarls up at rush hour – but the project has attracted criticism from residents branding it ill-conceived and dangerous.

“It’s bloody ridiculous,” said William Newman, who lives near the city end of the A28, in Tudor Road.

“It’s going to kill businesses because they’ll lose half of their trade.

“The Simmonds Road junction is bad enough now, but if you get more cars and lorries coming out of there, it’ll be jammed up.”

When the new system comes into operation, Mr Newman, 81, will not be able to turn right out of Tudor Road to head into Canterbury.

He will instead have to turn left and away from the city, driving through Wincheap down to Cow Lane, where he would join the new route at Simmonds Road, before coming back the other way.

The pensioner says this would be enough to stop him wanting to travel into the city again, adding it would also inconvenience any visitors calling in at his home.

Neighbour Clare Whittaker also believes it would turn their street into a rat-run used by motorists looking to avoid the bypass.

“It’ll definitely happen,” the 46-year-old said.

“It’s going to be a nightmare to drive into the city. We’ll have to give the school run to St Thomas’ on the other side of Canterbury an hour.”

One motorist, who regularly uses the A28 on their morning commutes, claims the system will create “one-way hell” in the area.

The project, expected to cost about £2 million, is one of the conditions developer Redrow has to fulfil in order to build its 400-home estate at Cockering Farm.

The firm will also install a bus lane next to the one-way route along the A28, but taking services in the opposite direction towards Canterbury.

The pricey scheme had been included in the city council’s Local Plan, with transport chiefs noting it would “improve traffic flow, facilitate bus priority measures and remove westbound queues, which create blockages”.

But ward councillor Nick Eden-Green struggles to see “any benefits to it”.

“It is not a bypass for Wincheap or a relief road – it simply diverts traffic in one direction along Simmonds Road," the Liberal Democrat explained.

“Car parking, I can only presume, will be much reduced because the engineers will want traffic to be as fast flowing as they can make it.

“The shops along Wincheap and Simmonds Road will, therefore, be inconvenienced by having less car parking, and they need every bit of help they can get at the moment.

“I think it’s ill-considered, it doesn’t do what it claims to do, which is bypass Wincheap, and it doesn’t offer any benefits to any group, whether they’re residents, cyclists, pedestrians or shopkeepers.

“There has been no been no planning application. Planning consent was given for the 400 houses at Thanington, and that included a Wincheap bypass.

“What the committee concentrated on was the 400 houses and how they were going to sit. It’s been slipped through the back door.”

Cllr Eden-Green is urging the local authority to instead try to construct an alternative – and pricier – relief road, which would bypass the congested Wincheap roundabout.

The scheme, originally thought up by the Wincheap Society, would link Simmonds Road with a new roundabout in St Andrew’s Close, with vehicles using a tunnel beneath the railway tracks to reach the ring-road.

But city council spokesman Leo Whitlock says the alternative bypass was looked at by planners 13 years ago, before they decided it would be unviable.

“Road schemes such as this one are a matter for the highways authority which, in this instance, is Kent County Council (KCC), although our officers are taking a keen interest and offering their support when needed,” he said.

“Over the years we have looked at a number of road schemes for Wincheap, including a tunnel under the railway which, back in 2008, was estimated to cost at least £15 million.

“The cost of buying out leases 13 years ago was around £50m and those figures obviously affected the viability of redeveloping the Wincheap estate.”

Planning consent has already been given to Redrow’s housing scheme at Cockering Farm, along with the highway works, which need to be completed prior to the occupation of 35 homes on the estate.

"The Simmonds Road junction is bad enough now, but if you get more cars and lorries coming out of there, it’ll be jammed up..."

Bosses from the firm have confirmed that this week’s news of a judicial review being ordered into the estate has not delayed the relief road project.

They expect to begin rejigging the system this summer.

Redrow planning director David Banfield commented: “We are delivering the approved highway works in line with the planning application that was consented by Canterbury City Council.

“KCC were instrumental in that process.”

The gyratory is one of a series of changes planned for Wincheap.

The biggest is a new slip-road taking coastbound traffic off the A2 at Thanington.

Developer Pentland has an obligation to deliver the junction before 450 homes are snapped up at the nearby Saxon Fields estate.

The slip-road will connect to a new Western Link Road cutting through the Wincheap Industrial Estate - via a roundabout in Ten Perch Road - and onto the new two-lane route in Simmonds Road.

The design of the new off-slip is yet to be approved by National Highways, while Redrow must pay KCC £2.5m towards the Western Link Road before 100 homes at Cockering Farm are occupied.