One year on from a landslide which closed a major road, residents and businesses have been left counting the financial, emotional and physical costs.

The A226 Galley Hill Road collapsed between Swanscombe High Street and Ebbsfleet United’s Kuflink Stadium on April 10 last year and people living nearby are desperately demanding action.

Annette Livie has resorted to taking sleeping tablets at night due to the constant noise of lorries rerouting past her house in Stanhope Road.

She told KentOnline: “I try to go out during the day. I can’t stand being at home and all the horns beeping and the drivers shouting and swearing at each other.”

The 67-year-old says she has almost been hit walking off her front path on numerous occasions by cars mounting the pavement to squeeze past another car.

“Cars try to come in both directions at once, driving on the pavement to get past each other,” she added.”

“Everybody thinks they have got right of way.”

The atmosphere has even put her eight-year-old grandson off visiting, after he witnessed a road rage incident involving a driver hitting a car with a weapon.

“He says he doesn’t want to go to nanny’s because there are bad people there,” she added.

Annette, who moved to the area 10 years ago, says HGVs driving down the road send vibrations through her house - despite the fact they are not meant to use the route.

She added: “I am lucky to get a decent night's sleep due to all this disruption, and how long is the situation going to last?”

She says others have tried to sell their house but have been unable to due to the disruption.

And Annette is not the only one to see her health impacted by the increased road traffic through Swanscombe.

Joanne Hales, who suffers with asthma, moved to Swanscombe from Greenwich in 2018 because of the poor air quality in south London.

But now the 50-year-old feels she need not have bothered.

“It was dreadful,” she said. “When we moved here I felt so much better but now I feel out of breath a lot of the time like I did when we lived in London and that’s happened more recently and it’s definitely noticeable since the road closed.”

She added: “The traffic is horrendous. It is constant at the weekends – the noise, the angry exchanges and just not being able to get in and out of where we live very easily.

“This is not the place we moved to.”

Susy Balmanno, who lives in Broomfield Road is also furious the issue is no closer to being resolved one year on.

She is particularly frustrated at the loss of the vital bus service from Swanscombe to Darent Valley Hospital in Dartford.

Last year the 69-year-old said she was forced to miss hydrotherapy appointments when she damaged her knee and was unable to walk to the relocated bus stop.

“I couldn’t get to the hospital,” she said. “There was no direct bus and the bus stop for the one I could get to and then change was too far to walk.

“So I either had to miss the appointment or my husband had to take time off work.”

After her partner used up all his holiday and compassionate leave Suzy said she ended up missing four of her appointments.

But the landslip has not just had implications for the health of residents with some being hit in the pocket too.

Jo Butcher has seen her earnings slashed in half since the start of the road closure near her home in Phoenix Park.

The 59-old-year used to work two jobs as a cleaner and a second shift in the evening as a cleaning supervisor at Ebbsfleet Academy.

But she says she was forced to give up one of her jobs at the school after the new diversion meant she had to take an alternative 20-minute walk home down a “pitch black and isolated” alley.

Jo said: “I was panicking every day. I was so scared. The alleyway is pitch black, but you don’t want to get your phone out to give you light in case someone runs past and grabs it.

“There are parts when you get halfway along where someone could be waiting around a bend and there is nowhere to escape or they could come up behind you.”

She added: “Kids would rush past on scooters scaring the life out of me. I did buy a torch and a rape alarm and if my husband got home in time he would meet me halfway but most of the time he wasn’t back in time.

“I was getting ill from the worry of it every night, so I had to give it up in the end.”

Her husband has also seen his journey times to work increase because of the diversion.

Martin, who works at a crane hire firm in Thames Road, Crayford, said: “If I use the quickest route via the A2/M25, this is a 38% increase in mileage and relative impact on fuel consumption, let alone time spent sitting in stationary traffic due to the standard Dartford crossing congestion.

He added: “These things combined are obviously having a very negative impact on our day-to-day and overall lives.”

Tanya Banks, who also lives in Phoenix Park, has also suffered the financial cost of repairs to her garden wall which has been knocked down three times where lorries have had to stop at the closure and manoeuvre around.

She said: “I’ve had to claim on the house insurance so as you can imagine it has put it up.”

Nearby businesses have also suffered a severe drop in trade.

The Hot Rod Diner in Northfleet High Street was forced to lay off staff because of a fall in passing customers and Michael Cheel, who owns MBC Dispatch Racing, a motorcycle shop in London Road, Greenhithe, says he has also suffered huge financial losses.

At the time of the cliff collapse police and firefighters were called to respond amid reports of a burst water main.

However, to date no exact cause has been determined.

A Thames Water spokesperson said itself and Kent County council are “actively engaged in associated investigations”.

A protest was held on Saturday (April 6) to mark one year since the collapse.

Dubbed an “unhappy birthday” more than 50 residents turned up waving placards to highlight the lack of action amid delays to council contractors getting access to the site.

In response to concerns, KCC said it understood it had been a difficult year for residents but wanted to assure them they are seeking to finalise access arrangements to get on site “as soon as possible”.

A spokesperson for the local authority said: “We have been engaged in discussions with geotechnical engineers to determine what further investigations are required into the stability of the supporting cliff and temporary stabilisation works.

“We have now instructed a firm of specialist geotechnical engineers and structural contractors to carry out the first phase of necessary investigations and stabilisation works.

“Alongside the technical challenges posed by the collapse, the complexity of the site (including legal ownership and utility services) continues to require careful consideration.”