People quizzed Highways bosses at the biggest Lower Thames Crossing meeting so far and were given a surprising revelation about traffic levels.

Around 400 people packed into St John’s Catholic Comprehensive School in Rochester Road, Gravesend.

The huge surprise of the night was the news Highways England had not taken into consideration the influx of traffic from Paramount park when it is built.

On the panel was Martin Potts, senior project manager, and Mike Brown of Highways England, and Hilary Newport from the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

After people in the audience twice demanded a clear answer, Mr Potts eventually conceded: "Yes, we haven't included that data in our consultation.

"The developers haven't released those numbers to us. But in general terms the times people would be going to the park shouldn't be around the same time as commuter traffic, but we don't know more than that."

Cries of fury echoed from the audience, as estimates on Paramount cite around 12-14,000 extra vehicles on the road each day, which are unaccounted for in Highway England's report.

After the meeting ended the exasperated Gravesham council leader Cllr John Cubitt said the whole thing was a total "waste of time" and Kent County Council councillor for Gravesham Bryan Sweetland said it was a complete farce.

There was a strong sense of community spirit and people pounded Highways England with questions.

But the polite taking turns to speak disintegrated as people saw their questioned side-stepped.

Most answers were brought back to the generic and rehearsed line from Highways England: "The government has asked us to come up with a road based solution to the problems at Dartford...".

At one point an infuriated Rev Nigel Bourne, vicar of St Mary the Virgin Church, Chalk, leapt up from his seat to say: "You still haven't answered my question. A simple yes or no will do!"