Oh dear! Just six months after Maidstone council celebrated the completion of it £3.7m High Street regeneration project, highways contractors arrived in town today stripping off the top surface of the carriageway near the junction with Pudding Lane, and resurfacing it again.

With the borough council elections just four days away, it was bad timing for the Conservative administration who have been pointing to the regeneration project as one of their successes in their candidates’ election literature.