Tempers flared in a council chamber when residents were unable to get answers to their concerns on a controversial road closure.

Members of the public had registered to ask questions connected to Kent County Council’s (KCC) continued closure of Cranborne Avenue at the Wheatsheaf junction in Maidstone.

It has been permanently closed to traffic following an 18-month “experimental” closure to see if it reduced congestion, which the council asserts it has.

But drivers have been demanding it be reopened, saying it had made it more dangerous for drivers to join the A229.

During a meeting of Maidstone’s Joint Transportation Board (JTB) held at the Town Hall on Tuesday there were no highways officers from KCC in attendance to address these concerns which further angered residents.

Cllr Claudine Russell (Con) who was chairing the meeting, was unable to assist those attending other than promising to forward their questions onto to KCC.

At one stage, she had to threaten to close the meeting, as tensions rose.

KCC had supplied written “answers” to questions submitted in advance, but residents felt in several cases the answer failed to address the specific point raised, with one exclaiming: “That is not an answer!”

Residents wanted to know whether a yellow box could be painted on Loose Road to assist traffic to get in and out of North View, adjacent to the Kwik Fit garage.

They also asked whether the Cranborne Avenue closure was permanent since the KCC website still indicated it was only temporary.

Another question was predicated on whether there had been any investigation to determine whether the road surface in West Park and South Park Roads could accommodate the extra traffic, which they were now bearing since the closure.

They also wanted to know when traffic lights would be installed at the junction of Plains Avenue with Loose Road to assist traffic joining the main road with one distressed resident, Anthony Mason, proclaiming: “Something needs to be done. I’m putting my life at risk every time.”

They also wanted to know the details of the brief given to the consultancy firm engaged by KCC who had determined that it was safe to close Cranborne Road and what studies had been done to assess the hold-ups at other junctions caused by traffic displaced from Cranborne Avenue.

Also being asked was how many residents had been consulted before the closure was made permanent.

Finally, one resident wanted to know whether any monitoring had been carried out on the increased difficulty that Loose Road residents were now having in accessing their drives thanks to extra traffic flows.

Apart from confirmation that KCC regarded the Cranborne Avenue closure to be permanent as from September 20 last year, residents mostly heard that things were “under review”.

The lack of response caused Marion Crescent resident Andrew Hammersly to call out.

He said: “There is no democracy here. The public is not getting a chance to speak up.

“Where are the KCC officers? This is a sham!”

KCC had earlier claimed that closing Cranborne Avenue had cut peak-hour traffic queues at the Wheatsheaf junction by a half.

It is not the first time that a failure of KCC to provide any highways officers to the meeting has caused controversy.

Cllr Russell herself was obliged to write to the KCC director of highways on the issue after no KCC officers were present at the meeting last August.

The Joint Transportation Board is made up of both borough and county councillors from KCC who represent the same area.

However, it is KCC as the highways authority which has any power to make decisions.

The chairmanship of the board alternates between the two authorities each year.

When asked for comment, KCC said: “A KCC officer attended the Maidstone Joint Transportation Board meeting on February 13.

“Any questions that were not able to be answered by the representative on the night have been relayed to the appropriate service leads.”

In fact, no KCC officer was physically present at the meeting. Highways manager Susan Laporte attended by remote link.

Board members were told she was only there to speak on one specific item on the agenda – the highways works programme – and could not answer questions on the other items.

In fact, she did not say a word. She disconnected from the meeting after her item was considered.

During the course of the evening, councillors took the unusual step of refusing to even “note” a written report submitted by KCC on the Maidstone Integrated Transport Plan, because they were frustrated at the lack of any officers attending to answer their questions.