Repairs to five huge potholes have closed a busy rat-run dubbed "accident alley".

Kent County Council's highways team has issued an order to shut Thornden Wood Road near Herne Bay while carriageway work takes place today.

A notice online says the potholes measure are as large as 0.5 sq m, and that a large patch of the route's surface will be repaired.

The route - used by motorists travelling between the town and Canterbury - has been the scene of numerous crashes, including one in 2015 that saw a driver escape serious injury after flipping his car.

A KCC notice states: "The day-long closure is to enable carriageway repairs to be carried out by us.

"The alternative route is via Thornden Wood Road, Greenhill Road, Thanet Way, Chestfield Road, Radfall Hill, Radfall Road, Hackington Road and vice versa.

The rat-run will be sealed off between the junctions with Hackington Road and Frogs Island Farm until 6pm today.

Meanwhile, plans to shut parts of the main route between Herne Bay and Whitstable have been shelved amid fears the project would spark traffic chaos.

Highways chiefs had wanted to shut the coast-bound carriageway of the A299 Thanet Way for four weeks, before closing the opposite side for the same length of time to reconstruct the road.

Gridlock caused by the closure of the route last month prompted campaigners to say residents had been given a taste of things to come ahead of the scheduled work next month.

And in the wake of their warnings, KCC has announced the reconstruction project has been postponed.