A new link route using a re-aligned Rathmore Road could change how drivers get around Gravesend town centre.

New plans going before Kent County Council for Gravesend’s ‘transport quarter’ reveal a changed two-way road linking Wrotham Road and Darnley Road.

Plans for a new multi-storey car park at the railway station have been ditched.

It forms part of major changes to the layout of the town centre which could include a taxi rank outside the station and a two-way Clive Road closed off to traffic, except for buses and those using the car parks. Barrack Row would become a ‘transport interchange’.

The 225-space Rathmore Road car park would close, with developers saying it has been assumed displaced parking would be accommodated in the Lord Street/Parrock Street area.

Also to be demolished will be the house on the corner of Rathmore Road, number 13, and an empty Indian restaurant.

Clive Road will remain open to traffic wanting to park at the railway station car park and the Thamesgate car park. Traffic coming along Stone Street will no longer turn out onto Clive Road but onto Railway Place.

Traffic lights will be placed in Clive Road and Stone Street to control traffic movement through the Clive Road/Stone Street/Railway Place junction.

The plans are expected to go before KCC within the next few months.

The planned five-storey car park, constructed of steel, glass and coloured lights – and dubbed an eyesore by some – was given the go-ahead by councillors in 2011.

But a KCC letter said Network Rail would be “unlikely to commence construction of the interchange building for some time”.

The letter added: “Kent County Council Highways and Transportation believe the new Rathmore Road proposal should not be unduly delayed as a result.”

Gravesend Civic Society Urban Gravesham is against the “crazy” plans.

A spokesman said: “The truth is that this crazy scheme is a tragic waste of public money that will only serve to ensure that Railway Place and the newly traffic-calmed Community Square are ridden with traffic, noise and fumes.

“We are relying on our county councillors as the last bastion of common sense.

“We hope that they will throw out the proposals once and for all so that the money can be spent instead on projects that will be of genuine benefit to the town.

“We urge all people who agree with us to write to planning representations@kcc.gov.uk”