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More on KentOnline
A key worker says local restrictions where he lives on the Kent and Bexley border are a confusing "mishmash".
The national lockdown ended last week and a return to the tier system saw residents in Maiden Lane, Dartford, split into two different groups.
On one side of the street those with black Dartford bins were placed into Tier 3, while neighbours with green collections in Tier 2 Bexley found themselves adhering to a different set of rules.
It meant residents in Tier 2 could once again go out to enjoy a meal or go to the cinema but across the street it was strictly takeway and Netflix only with businesses also torn between its customers.
Key worker Lirim Bicaku lives on the Dartford side, but regularly travels to work at the Viridor recycling centre at Crayford Creek in Bexley.
"For me it is a real mishmash but what can you do," said Lirim. "I have not stopped working throughout the pandemic and my kids go to Wentworth school."
Because of where the border falls, Lirim has to cross the street into "Bexley" before darting back into Princes Road, Dartford, to pick up his children from the primary school in Wentworth Drive.
Government guidance allows for cross border journeys into or out of a Tier 3 area for both work and education and so the dad-of-three is assured he is not breaking any rules.
However, the lines become a little blurrier when it comes to shopping and the prospect of socialising outside.
Lirim's family have regularly done their shop just a mile away at Sainsbury's in Crayford but under the new restrictions the nearest supermarket is double the distance in Dartford town centre.
The 37-year-old also manages property in Bexley and has friends and family living on the other side of the Kent border.
"We have all our family in Lewisham and in Bromley but we have to stick to our situation," said Lirim, who believes the county boundary would be better served along a river than a road.
"It is difficult, we are affected by them really," he said pointing to other places in north Kent with higher infection rates such as Gravesham and Medway, before adding he felt "rates in Dartford were not as significant, really".
"You just have to follow the rules and guidelines, wash your hands and wear a mask."
Elsewhere on Dartford's tier-split street other residents say they too are doing their best to stick to the latest restrictions.
Those living on the Kent side said it had not made too much of a difference and dismissed the rules as "silly" – although professed envy at some of the new-found freedoms their neighbours across the street now enjoyed.
"It is difficult because we have friends living in London where shops and restaurants are opening," said Charlotte Terry, 37.
But the Dartford mum added she didn't feel they were missing out too much and would be sitting tight for Christmas.
Across the street on the Bexley side, Jennifer Emerson, 59, said residents on both sides of the street were used to different rules after many years of council tussles over parking and bin collections.
She quipped: "I did consider putting a table on my front garden and eating a pizza," before adding all neighbours on both sides "were very nice people" who had been sticking to the rules and supporting one another regardless of tiers.
Further down the street, care agency worker Manisha Patel, who regularly gets tested for her job, said the tiers had made little to no difference to her day-to-day routine.
"I've never been in Dartford. If you asked me now where the Post Office is I wouldn't know," the 50-year-old said.
