Emergency water works are causing long delays in a town centre.

The Loose Road, A229, in Maidstone, has been reduced to a single lane outside Sainsbury’s supermarket, with temporary four-phase traffic lights replacing the three-phase lights at The Swan crossroad junction with Cripple Street and Boughton Lane.

Because it is taking longer to get through the lights, there are substantial queues in all four directions.

For traffic heading out of Maidstone towards Staplehurst, congestion has been stretching back from the point of the lane closure down to the Wheatsheaf junction, where traffic is also being delayed.

The repair work by South East Water, which began on Friday afternoon is expected to be completed by 5pm tomorrow (Tuesday).