A long-awaited slip-road off the A2 into Wincheap has been given the green light despite councillors branding the layout a “nasty snarl of traffic lights”.

The £8.8 million project will create a new junction for coastbound traffic leaving the dual-carriageway in a bid to ease congestion on Canterbury’s ring-road.

Planning permission was first secured in 2018 but lapsed three years later before any work had started.

Housebuilder Barratt David Wilson (BDW) submitted a fresh application, with the developer obligated to fund the construction of the off-slip.

And on Tuesday night, councillors on the planning committee approved the proposals – despite one vowing to avoid it out of “fear of death or mutilation”.

The new slip-road will take motorists off the A2 at Wincheap and onto a new traffic-light-controlled junction at Ten Perch Road, where vehicles will head either left towards the retail park or right onto the A28.

Its main purpose is to reduce the amount of traffic coming off the A2 at Harbledown and into Canterbury, clogging up the city’s ring-road.

The slip-road would cut across a section of the Wincheap Park and Ride site, resulting in the loss of spaces – although nobody at Tuesday’s meeting could state how many when asked by councillors.

In 2019, CCC gave itself permission to expand the bus facility onto the neighbouring Wincheap Water Meadows, but the following year it binned the proposal in the face of a huge backlash from environmental campaigners.

Planning agent Stantec’s representative James Finn said: “As demonstrated within the application and accepted by KCC Highways, the proposal will facilitate the rerouting of traffic in a way which will materially reduce the volume entering Canterbury from Harbledown and decrease flows on the ring-road.

“In this way, the proposal will help alleviate traffic congestion and associated air quality impacts in Wincheap.”

However, there were several objections to the scheme.

Resident David Smith said: “The proposal increases the complexity of the Ten Perch Road junction by adding additional traffic light sequencing.

“The current system has 11 traffic light sets all within a 100-metre radius of the junction.

“At peak times now it struggles to cope with the current traffic flow. Additional traffic complexity will add to this issue.”

Oliver Waldron, a member of the cycling campaign group Spokes, says the plans will cause more congestion and “the best way to avoid gridlock is to choose the bike”.

“These plans take an extremely car-centric approach and can be fixed far better with investment in public transport and cycling infrastructure,” he said.

“These plans are not fit for the 21st century.

“The good people of Wincheap will see no additional cycling infrastructure, fewer park and ride places, and more air and noise pollution.”

Cllr Ian Stockley (Con) echoed Mr Waldron’s concerns about cycling.

“I am concerned that an ugly design doesn’t usually work very well – and this is an ugly design,” he said.

“Oliver’s point about the lack of pushbike facilities is extremely worrying.

“Looking at that design, I’m a fairly keen cyclist and I would personally not like to go anywhere near it out of fear of death or mutilation.”

Cllr Naomi Smith (Lab) said she understood the need for a slip-road but branded the proposal a “cheap and nasty” solution to the city’s traffic woes.

“It is a really horrible, nasty snarl of traffic lights and people will panic,” the Seasalter councillor said.

“It is quite a short slip-road. From the Thanet Way to the traffic lights at Prospect Park [in Whitstable], which is quite a distance, we regularly get traffic backing up because of the sequencing of traffic lights.”

It was a condition of planning approval for BDW’s 750-home Saxon Fields development in Thanington that the junction must be delivered before its 450th home is occupied.

Another caveat states the slip-road must be paid for – or a contractor put in place – before 300 homes are being lived in, but BDW has applied to push this back to 332.

As of this week, 247 of the properties on the estate were occupied.

The housebuilder argues its bid for a “modest increase” will allow further development to take place on parts of the Saxon Fields site that have yet to receive full planning approval.

It says it hopes to have the development fully complete within five years.

Several objections were made against the slip-road application, with a major concern that it would divert more traffic into an already congested Wincheap.

Plans for a Wincheap gyratory system, which would see a stretch of the A28 out-of-bounds for traffic heading into Canterbury, was due to start in 2022 but has been postponed twice since.

Bosses behind the scheme, which would transform the industrial estate in Simmonds Road into a one-way road with two lanes, said in September they could not offer a timeline for the delivery of the project as Kent County Council continues to deliberate over amended plans.

Despite eight city councillors backing the new slip-road at Tuesday’s planning committee, highways authority KCC will still have to consider the scheme by looking at more detailed design proposals and will make the final call on it.

Cllr Dan Smith (Lib Dem), Cllr Dane Buckman (Lab) and Cllr Naomi Smith voted against the scheme, while Cllr Peter Old (Lib Dem) abstained.