Hopes of an early reduction in traffic speeds on a busy highway have been dashed, after a council transport meeting was cancelled due to an IT failure.

Members of the Maidstone Joint Transportation Board were due to meet last Wednesday but when the microphone system at the Town Hall failed the meeting was postponed until next month, February 12.

It meant that councillors could not discuss a request by Loose and Linton Ward councillor Brian Clark (Lib Dem) that the highways authority lower the speed limit on the A229 between Loose and Linton from 40mph to 30mph.

Cllr Clark had made the request at the board’s last meeting, in October last year, and gained the unanimous backing of board members in asking Kent County Council’s highways officers to bring forward a full feasibility report to last week’s meeting.

As it happens. however, it seems the postponement will have made little difference as instead of producing a report, the agenda papers revealed that officers had planned only to say that: “The most appropriate mechanism for this speed limit request is via the respective Linton Parish Council and Loose Parish Council Highway Improvement Plans” - effectively saying that after a three-month delay, the process had to start again from the beginning.

Cllr Clark said: “Their response was extremely disappointing.

“The board was clear that it wanted a comprehensive report on the proposal; it did not want it just thrown back at them.”

An informal consultation conducted before the October meeting by Cllr Clark and his fellow ward member Cllr Simon Wales (Lib Dem) had garnered 122 responses from residents living along the road, of whom 115 were in favour, six against and one neutral.

The proposed speed reduction also had the support of both Loose and Linton Parish Councils, Loose Primary School and the Loose Amenities Association.

Currently, the 30mph limit ends near the top of Linton Road above the Loose Viaduct. It is then 40mph until half-way down Linton Hill on the southern side of Linton Crossroads.

Loose Primary School is just outside the 40mph area, but the Cornwallis Academy is within it. The road is heavily used by pupils from both schools.

Cllr Clarke said: “Of course, the parishes will follow up through their highways plans as a priority, but there was no need for this added delay.

The parishes have Community Infrastructure Levy (CIL) funds available for this project, so it wouldn’t have been a budgeting issue for KCC.

The speed reduction measure was not the only item on the agenda for the postponed meeting.

Members were also due to get a report from KCC on the current state of funding for the Maidstone Integrated Transport Package, something they’ve been requesting for over a year.

The Integrated Transport Plan is a set of junction improvements planned across the borough which were supposed to mitigate the extra traffic from the town’s increased level of house-building.

Councillors are unclear how much money is left in the kitty and how feasible any of the junction plans now are.

Improvements to Sheals Crescent and the Swan Junction have already been abandoned, and the Wheatsheaf Junction improvement has been reduced to minor adjustments to the timing of traffic lights and pedestrian crossing times.

Loose Parish Council is still pressing for a more comprehensive solution and recently suggested KCC looks to Sheffield for inspiration.

Traffic congestion there, at a junction with similar problems to the Wheatsheaf, has been solved with a new-style roundabout.