Proposals for a town-wide 20mph speed limit across Faversham go on display to the public for the first time at the weekend.

Campaigners from the 20s Plenty for Faversham group hope residents will get involved and give their views for the scheme at an event during the Faversham Transport Weekend, which kicks off on Saturday.

The plans will be on show in 12 Market Place in the town centre from 10am to 4pm with hourly presentations by lead designer, Phil Jones, and 20s Plenty members.

Co-ordinator Amanda Russell says they hope to bring the public in to "gauge support and get feedback on the overall scheme".

All streets within the boundaries of the A2, Western Link and Love Lane will become 20mph under the group's proposals.

A range of traffic calming measures are being proposed to enforce the scheme including introducing planters to slow cars down, removing centre lines in the road, cycle lanes, relocating parking bays, building out bus stops and creating 'gateways' with new signage at certain key points around the town.

"Evidence from existing schemes across the country demonstrates that most motorists comply without physical calming measures and 20mph zones should be mostly self-enforcing, relying on street design and environment to slow motorists down," Ms Russell said.

"Speed humps are not suitable measures for many streets because they hinder emergency services, can increase exhaust and road surface pollution and are very expensive.

"This is why Phil Jones has recommended inexpensive and alternative calming measures such as signage, planters, road narrowing, staggered parking bays, removing the centre line and advisory cycle lanes.

"There will be several stages of informal and formal consultation following this.

"The important thing is to get people to engage with the report and out to the event on Saturday so that we can share information and explain our rationale.

"We are proposing the whole town, excluding Love Lane, the Western Link and the A2 but this will very much come down to public will. Our task now is to make people understand why this is necessary and raise awareness of the benefits."

Campaigners have been discussing their ideas with highways officers at Kent County Council and Ms Russell says their response has been "very positive".

She added: "They need to see it as a whole report and have enough time to properly respond. Additionally, we want to bring the public in on the process before the formal consultation begins because we think it should be as organic a scheme as possible."

The group hopes to bring in the 20mph zone by 2020 but town and county councillor, Antony Hook, who sits on the group has previously called for it to be introduced by the end of this year.

'Evidence from existing schemes across the country demonstrates that most motorists comply without physical calming measures,' Amanda Russell, 20s Plenty for Faversham

Ms Russell added: "We are saying yes to that but we want to ensure there’s a good amount of pre and actual consultation, and this needs time to bed in and be carried out thoroughly, especially as we are relying solely on volunteers for that stage."

The designs will be presented to KCC after this first stage of gathering public reaction before a formal consultation run by the council.

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