Enraged residents stormed out of a local council meeting last night after being told to prepare for more travel misery at the junctions of one of Europe's most congested motorways.

Dartford Council chaired a meeting of the joint transportation board to discuss the ongoing improvement works at junctions 1A and 1B of the M25 leading to the Dartford Crossing.

The M25 road manager from Highways England, Thomas Whittington was in attendance and provided an update on four schemes being rolled out to ease congestion.

This included £10m worth of improvement works on the Thurrock side to improve the flow of traffic through the Dartford Tunnel as well as improving road signs and markings.

He explained this was subject to a 'detailed design phase' before the full roll out of measures such as enforcement cameras at yellow box junctions.

Mr Whittington stopped short of giving an exact date for completion but said these proposals were scheduled for 'the next financial year'.

Residents from Pilgrims Way and other streets close to the congested junctions criticised the lack of clarity and said they were virtually 'trapped in their own homes'.

They also voiced concerns regarding the lack of enforcement over yellow box junctions with many HGV and lorries floating the rules.

Mr Whittington confirmed cameras were in place at yellow box junctions but said they were simply monitoring the effectiveness of traffic flow as opposed to serving as enforcement measures.

But he added there were currently no figures available on monitoring traffic levels.

The meeting was briefly interrupted when the clerk came over to inform residents believed to be filming on their phones without permission.

Many were incensed and felt they were not being given the opportunity to air their views or put forward solutions.

Councillor Rosanna Currans, who represents the Brent ward, stepped in to the defence of residents to bemoan the current speed of the changes taking place.

"My residents on the Fleet Estate are blocked in and can't get off the estate most of the time. By now it should have been sorted," she said.

Leader of the Council, Jeremy Kite hastened to add if it was no longer a 'legislative hurdle' to overcome with Kent County Council, whether or not they could contract out some of the work to get it done quicker.

He said: "We are seeing a transport system already on a hair trigger, let alone with Brexit. If it's not a financial issue it's irrelevant to talk in terms of 'financial years'.

"Can we package this up so we can solve this for our residents quicker."

Councillor Brian Garden, chairing the meeting, added that the terminology of 'financial years' was unhelpful and rather it ought to be considered as a 'project management constraint'.

He added: "We are entitled to have a detailed project plan so that we can look and see if there is a way we can help speed up the process."

Councillor Garden concluded by requesting that Highways England attend meetings with the council more regularly and provide status updates on the improvement works.

Jack Tappin, media relations manager for Highways England, said: "We’re working together with our partners to improve journeys around Dartford, and have identified a package of measures that we are progressing.

"Work is still progressing on the enforcement cameras at A282 junction 1b, and we have a clearer idea of delivering the project. It will take slightly longer than originally anticipated, and we expect it to be fully designed by the end of March.

"Following this, we then plan to install the cameras in early summer for testing before they’re put into use. We are also in discussions with Kent Police about the new cameras (they would take over the enforcement of them once they’re up and running).

"The long term solution to adding capacity across the Thames is our proposed Lower Thames Crossing which, when it opens in 2027, will reduce the number of vehicles using Dartford by almost a quarter, while doubling capacity for vehicles crossing the river. As this is a long-term solution, we will of course continue working with our partners to deliver improvements at Dartford too."

The next joint transportation board meeting is scheduled to take place on Tuesday 3 December 2019 at 7pm.

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