Residents have hit out over “appalling” repairs made to sunken town centre paving, branding the work a “joke”.

Tarmac appears to have been used to partially fill a small hole that appeared in Biggin Street, Dover, rather than the paving stones being repaired themselves.

Pictures were taken of the “unacceptable” fix and shared on social media.

Kent County Council says this was only meant to be a temporary repair and a permanent one will be done.

Martin Turner posted on the Facebook page Dover for Disgruntled Dovorians, with his comment attracting more than 150 reactions and 66 replies.

Mr Turner told KentOnline: “I walked past it and I thought ‘it doesn’t even fit properly. And who is filling it with tarmac?’

“It is appalling.

“The whole of Biggin Street’s paving needs to be ripped up and restarted anyway.

“It is in a hell of a state. The paving is uneven and so a trip hazard.

“It also creates a bad image for people coming off the cruise ships and visiting the town.”

Mr Turner is not alone in worrying about the possible trip hazard.

One commenter on Mr Turner’s post said: “There's going to be a few people tripping on that.”

Another said: “That's not acceptable. Why tarmac and not replaced with bricks upon leveling the sink hole? How cheap is that?”

A third said: “Could probably pick that out with a toothpick.”

Another commentator wrote: “Typical Dover, everything done on the cheap. No wonder Dover is looking so downtrodden.”

A fifth posted: “That is why we pay out Council Tax. What a joke.”

A KCC spokesperson said: “When we are made aware of safety critical faults on our roads, we, as we did in this case, attend to inspect and complete a temporary repair.

“Officers have arranged for the blocks to be reset as soon as possible.”