A one-way system which aims to sort out a notoriously gridlocked part of a town centre is set to be trialled in November.

Congestion around the Lockmeadow entertainment complex in Maidstone has seen drivers waiting as long as two hours to get out of busy Barker Road.

It was expected to be in place by July but at the latest meeting of the Maidstone Joint Transportation Board, Kent County Council (KCC) highways officer Paul Leary told members it was due instead to be in place by November.

But there are fears the scheme won't fix the congestion.

The proposal will prohibit vehicles coming from The Broadway from turning right into Hart Street, the current route to the McDonalds drive-thru. Instead traffic will go down Barker Road, to a mini-roundabout, and then back along a one-way Hart Street.

But Mr Leary re-assured councillors that the scheme "could be amended or removed at short notice."

Cllr Peter Holmes (Con) called for a postponement, saying the run-up to Christmas was the wrong time to try a new road layout.

Mr Leary said a deferment could be considered but again said: "If necessary, we could pull it out straight away."

The franchisee at the McDonald's drive-thru, Ali El-Hajj, believes the scheme is ill-thought through and worries it will create an even bigger bottleneck at the Barker Road junction.

Councillors also heard an update on the Maidstone Integrated Transport Strategy - the plans to revamp various junctions around the borough.

KCC highways officer Alex Beech said there would be no further work on the Wheatsheaf roundabout junction, beyond the existing closure of Cranborne Avenue, until April next year.

There, historic boozer The Wheatsheaf is being demolished to make way for a signalised junction.

A stalled scheme to build a crossroads at the nearby junction of Boughton Lane/Loose Road remains on the backburner, with KCC yet to design any scheme that "had the appropriate cost/benefit ratio."

Cllr Brian Clark (Lib Dem) observed that the "update" seemed "very similar" to the one councillors had been given at the last meeting four months previously.

Councillors were concerned that the speed camera on the Loose Road, just above Sheals Crescent, which had been out of action for more than six months, had now disappeared all together.

They said there had since been a noticeable increase in speed as a result.

Mr Beech said there were no plans to replace the camera, because when KCC revamps the Loose Road junction with Armstrong Road, that stretch of the Loose Road towards Sheals Crescent would be reduced in width to one lane in any case, which "should hopefully help control the speed."

Cllr Stuart Jeffery, Maidstone's newly elected Green councillor, was critical of the whole programme of junction improvements.

He said: "There are nine report of road-widening schemes before us, and one has got a crossing for pedestrians and cyclists.

"Nine road-widening schemes for cars, and very little else. How is this an integrated transport strategy?"

He said that the council was spending seven times the money on road improvements for cars as it was for people.

He pleaded: "Please reverse your priorities."