Two of the county's MPs have signed a letter demanding new cycle lanes and green travel schemes installed across the country are scrapped amid claims they are "demonising" motorists.

The All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Fair Fuel for UK Motorists and Hauliers has written to Transport Secretary Grant Shapps calling for the brakes to be immediately applied to greener road schemes.

It is supported by campaign group FairFuelUK - led by Cranbrook's Howard Cox.

It demands "please stop the roll out, and withdraw the plethora of new road narrowing, blockades and dedicated cycle lanes eating into our town and city roads".

It comes after a flurry of activity on Kent's roads saw schemes rapidly introduced in a bid to secure central government funding - a number of which have already been ditched.

Among the 14 Conservative MPs to have signed the letter are Sittingbourne MP Gordon Henderson and South Thanet's Craig Mackinlay.

It also has the support of the Road Haulage Association, Alliance of British Drivers and the Motorcycle Action Group.

Mr Mackinlay, chair of the APPG, said: "The UK’s 37m motorists and delivery vehicles should not be demonised as they often are.

"The car is one of the most liberating inventions ever, and our transport network has shown itself to be resilient and fundamental to keeping the show on the road during this pandemic. Low taxes on fuel are a benefit to us all, unlike poorly thought through road schemes – of which there have been too many.

"We are calling on the government to stop the uncalled-for war on the motorist.”

Howard Cox, FairFuelUK’s founder, added: “Grant Shapps seems hypnotised by a small minority of ill-informed politically driven well financed greens, who pathologically hate the motorist.

"They are hell bent on making cars, taxis, vans, and trucks obsolescent.

"Shockingly a Tory minister is grounding road transport decisions on emotion, not common sense or pragmatic data.

"Businesses and local communities are being devastated, not by a Chinese bug, but by myopic local authorities, without any consultation and funded by the Department of Transport.

"Strangulation of our city roads by new vacant cycle lanes and road blockades is intensifying congestion, escalating pollution, and risking lives by delaying emergency services. All this, so that fit well off young cyclists can enjoy their fair weather pastime at the expense of economic common sense.”

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