Hundreds of motorists have been trapped in their cars "for hours" after lane closures created a massive traffic jam.

The temporary closure on the A20 Tonbridge Road has seen huge tailbacks form along Hart Street and the area surrounding the Lockmeadow car park in Maidstone.

Hundreds of drivers became stuck in a “chaotic” build-up of vehicles around the shopping centre earlier today.

“It’s absolute chaos, I’ve been stuck here for hours and I can’t move,” said one mum who was travelling with her five-year-old daughter.

“My little girl is going to end up kicking off any second now, she’s hungry and getting antsy.

“There’s a lot of people abandoning their cars and walking off, I guess to get food or use the bathroom.

“And I’m worried I’m going to get a parking ticket because I only paid to be here a short time, but now I can’t leave and there is a parking warden walking around.”

The lane closure is due to utility repair and maintenance works being carried out by South East Water and is set last until April 9.

But the motorist says with better traffic management and prior warning the traffic chaos could have been easily been avoided.

“This has ruined my day,” she added.“If they have just given us notice or put some traffic system in place, or even just have the police come out to direct traffic, this situation could have been sorted.

“But they’ve done zero traffic management, I’ll probably be stuck here for at least another hour.

“Why they decided to do this on the first day of the end of term, I can’t understand."

South East Water’s head of service management, Steve Andrews, said: “We are sorry for any inconvenience caused by these urgent works, which were coordinated with the highways authority.

“We will work to get the traffic flowing as quickly and safely as possible.”

A Kent County Council spokesman said: “We co-ordinated the planned roadworks with South East Water to take place during the school holidays.

"This reduces disruption that would occur during a normal school & working week when traffic volumes are substantially higher. This was to enable new connections to be installed to a development and works that we cannot prevent.

“We also asked that the works be subject to extended working hours, from 7am to 7pm, to allow them to be completed as soon as possible.

“SEW expected the works to take between April 1st and April 9th, however we are pleased that they were completed ahead of schedule on April 4th minimising any further inconvenience.”

Kent Police was contacted for comment.