A year of road closures and predicted traffic chaos started today.

The planned 50-week works by Southern Gas Networks are taking place in Maidstone, and the start was deliberately chosen to coincide with the school holidays.

The £350,000 project to replace 1.6km of old gas pipes begun at the junction with Lower Stone Street and Knightrider Street, which will be closed for around nine weeks.

And they will then go to Lower Stone Street, Romney Place and Hayle Road, before moving to Upper Stone Street by October.

Disruption will also cause problems for public transport users.

Despite the predicted chaos, today's start to the work did not cause too much disruption for commuters arriving at work in Maidstone between 8am and 9am, but delays near Mill Street built up later in the morning.

But that could be a different story, when children return to school after the Easter break.

Arriva's regional publicity manager, Richard Lewis, said: "Although only a small number of our buses use Knightrider Street under normal circumstances, Hayle Road is often subject to delays at certain times of day and we would envisage that those delays will be increased and will cause late-running of our services coming into Maidstone from Park Wood, Coxheath, Hawkhurst and Tenterden."

Town centre managers fear the works will turn the town into a no-go area and have met with gas company officials.

On the agenda will be pleas for flexibility to get the work done more quickly, by employing more crews and working later in the evenings.

Town centre manager, Bill Moss, said: "We have got to say 'let's get this done quickly'.

"The biggest fear for us is that people will stop coming to the town."

How have you been affected by the gas works and road closures? Leave us a comment below, or contact our newsdesk on 01622 695666 or messengernews@thekmgroup.co.uk