Just £136,000 is left from a £14 million fund to improve key junctions around Maidstone – and the only large project to have been completed is outside the borough.

The figure was discovered by borough Cllr Brian Clark (Lib Dem) after he trawled through Kent County Council’s (KCC’s) budget report for the last year.

It showed KCC had initially had £14.079m to spend on Maidstone’s Integrated Transport Scheme – a series of key improvements intended to mitigate the extra housing planned for the area, which was first proposed in 2016.

Of that sum, KCC has spent £13.943m leaving just £136,000 that it intended to spend in the next year, with nothing left for the two following years.

Cllr Clark said: “It begs the question, where has the money gone?”

Cllr Clark has made repeated requests for a full breakdown of expenditure on the project.

At a Joint Transportation Board (JTB) meeting last Tuesday, there were no officers from KCC to provide the answer – a common occurrence.

The board chairman, Cllr Paul Cooper (Con) said: “I am disappointed KCC has not sent an officer to answer our questions. They do not take this forum seriously. KCC is taking us for mugs.”

Cllr Clark described KCC’s absence as an “absolute travesty.” He added “We now know that KCC has no money left to do any more than a little bit of road-lining.

“What a dreadful waste of time for the councillors in this room, and for the members of the public, who have been comimg here year after year [trying to get improvements].”

Sean Carter, a highways spokesman for Loose Parish Council, who had turned up to plead for action over the Wheatsheaf junction, said he was “very disappointed,” adding: “It’s been seven years!

Why does it take so long to do nothing?”

Cllr Cooper said: “It’s beyond frustrating. The system is broken.”

It is believed that KCC spent around £7m on the now completed Coldharbour roundabout, which is not even in the Maidstone borough.

But other schemes, such as improvements at the Fountain Lane junction with Tonbridge Road, the Wheatsheaf junction, Willington Street and elsewhere have failed to get past the drawing board.

After the meeting, Cllr Clark said: “The budget figures may not include the full position of Section 106 funding collected for highways improvements, which is yet to be disclosed, but it paints a clear picture that the budgeted funding is all but exhausted and there is little in the way of ongoing planned spend.

“Precious little has been delivered. How this can tally up to £14m is beyond belief.”

He said: “The Coldharbour Roundabout is in Tonbridge and Malling and will be used to mitigate the thousands of extra homes that borough has permitted near Hermitage Lane.

“It should have been funded by Tonbridge and Malling, not taken from Maidstone’s allocated budget.”

The junction improvements that were supposed to have been funded by the £14m (£8.9m of which came from the government) were the A229 at the Wheatsheaf, A229 Armstrong Road, A229 Swan crossroads, A229 Sheals Crescent, A274 Sutton Road at Willington Street, A26 Fountain Lane junction and Hermitage Lane/St Andrew’s, and Ashford Road at Willington Street.

KCC’s latest decision on the Wheatsheaf junction was to take a “do minimum” approach, just adding some extra white lines and adjusting the traffic light sequence.

It hasn’t decided what to do with the pub there that it now owns, but no longer needs to demolish.

Cllr Clark said: “Chronic levels of congestion are experienced daily on the A229 and the A274 and in other parts of the borough.

“If KCC has spent almost £14m, it has been a calamitous waste of money.”

Loose Road resident Michelle James said: “How they can have given away £7m of our Maidstone money to Tonbridge and Malling? It’s just disgusting. The only response you ever get from KCC is: ‘Oh, we’re monitoring the situation’.”

“It just makes you think it is time to leave Maidstone and move somewhere else entirely.”

A spokesman from KCC claimed the figures taken from the council’s budget were not accurate. Despite several requests, KentOnline has not received the actual figures.

KCC claimed: “KCC Lib Dem members Ian Chittenden and Chris Passmore have been briefed on the financial position and Cllr Clark has been advised that there will be an officer meeting between KCC/MBC and KCC/TMBC before sharing the figures with the JTB.”

But Cllr Ian Chittenden (Lib Dem) said that was not true.

He said: “We had an update from officers on the progress of various road schemes, but neither I nor Cllr Passmore was given any information on the finance whatsoever. We’ve been asking for months and we still haven’t got a single figure.

“I’m not blaming the officers - they have been over-stretched for several years and in any case have to follow the will of their political masters.

“But it is clear that the cabinet member, Cll Neil Baker (Con), is not prepared to release these figures before the election in May.”

Kent Online asked KCC to explain why there was no officer present to speak to the Maidstone Integrated Transport Strategy. The authority has not responded.