Kent’s transport chief has branded the implementation of a new traffic scheme in Herne Bay a “dog’s breakfast” and pledged to explore how it can be reversed.

Cllr Neil Baker (Con) made the remarks at a public meeting held to address concerns over the £250,000 project, which has blocked off a section of seafront to create a Spanish-style plaza.

It prevents cars from driving along the promenade, with the by-product a one-way system on five surrounding roads, which locals say has split up the town and ruined accessibility to Central Parade.

“There’s clearly no love for the plaza and the one-way system is a dog’s breakfast,” admitted Cllr Baker, who is Kent County Council's cabinet member for highways and transport.

“I will ask council officers to start looking into how it could be reversed - that’s not a commitment [to reverse it], but I will start those conversations.”

There was not an empty seat in sight at the public meeting held at the Kings Hall on Tuesday night.

Hundreds of residents and businesspeople attended to express frustration at the scheme and the effect it will have on local tourism.

“The new plaza is splitting up the town and ruining accessibility,” said former councillor and lifelong resident Geoff Wimble.

“The council are tinkering with people’s lives.”

Vanessa Field, who has lived in the area since 1984, added: “We’ve already got one plaza and we don’t need another one, certainly not in the middle of the road.”

Canterbury City Council plans to use the space on Central Parade, between Pier Avenue and Station Road, to host community and charitable events, as well as commercial activities.

But, battling a heckling crowd, one representative for both the city and county authorities admitted shortfalls in how the subsequent new one-way system has been implemented.

“I understand your frustration,” said Cllr Dan Watkins – a Conservative member for Herne Bay East on KCC, and Greenhill on the city council.

“Some of the signage and painting has not been up to scratch and I also get that change is unsettling.”

Cllr Watkins went on to defend the ‘active travel’ project, which also includes new cycle lanes and 20mph limits on several roads in the town, arguing that, overall, it would make residents safer, healthier and benefit local businesses.

But Canterbury city councillor Chris Cornell (Lab) says the scheme does not achieve these goals.

“We’ve got a public square by the swim baths and a public square by the clock tower, both of which are essentially not used,” said the cabinet member for coastal towns.

“The piece of land along the seafront, which they’re trying to make into some kind of market - which is a great idea - but a piece of public space doesn’t revive your economy.

“I think that most of us agree that we should find a way to encourage people to cycle. Most of us don’t mind slower speed limits if they keep people safe, but you could have done all that without a cycle route going all the way to the seafront.”

A petition urging KCC to scarp the plaza scheme and return traffic patterns to their previous arrangements has been signed by almost 1,500 people.

In light of the public backlash, Cllr Baker explained there are three options as to how to proceed with the plaza scheme - “scrap the whole thing”, “do nothing”, or “form a working group to work out what is salvageable and what’s not”.

His first proposal was met with loud applause, but followed by the caveat that reneging on the project would mean returning money to the government programme that financed it.

“If I had it in my hand, I would say let’s get rid of it. But I can’t because I don’t have hundreds of thousands of pounds to pay Active Travel England,” he continued.

Cllr Baker said he will ask KCC for a working group to be set up, including local residents and businesses and chaired by Cllr Watkins to make sure all concerns are addressed.

But Cllr Cornell objects to this idea describing the working group as “unworkable”.

“When KCC acknowledge that the scheme is a dogs dinner most people will ask why they aren’t just reopening the road,” the Labour councillor told KentOnline after the meeting.

“If public money has been badly spent then KCC need to do the right thing and accept responsibility rather than passing it the decision off to an unknown group of technocrats chaired by the councillor who describes the idea as his ‘baby’.

As part of the traffic scheme, vehicles are no longer able to turn off the high street into Pier Avenue, which has been made one-way in the opposite direction.

Motorists are also only able to travel eastbound along St George’s Terrace, with Dolphin Street restricted to southbound traffic.

Telford Street and Richmond Street - between the high street and Central Parade - have also been made one-way.

Speaking ahead of the meeting, its organiser David Cain – of Cain’s Amusements – asked “not if, but when” the whole project will be scrapped.

“Herne Bay has been my family’s home and workplace since 1977 – it’s a special town for residents and visitors,” he said.

“I applaud great ideas and schemes to get more visitors into our town, but this new ‘plaza’ appears to exist solely to fulfil the whimsy of others, having been crowbarred into a cycle scheme that comes with so many unintended consequences, and it’s been embarrassing to watch it happening.

“The cheap-looking plaza area, an overabundance of signage, the awful one-way system, bottlenecks throughout the town, Central Parade cut in two, lorries struggling to turn, I could go on.

“I’m not saying the 20mph scheme or improving cycle routes within the town is a bad thing, just the ill-judged and ill-thought-out way the scheme has been thrust upon the town, leaving us with an unwanted roadblock in the middle of the road.”