One broken down vehicle caused rush hour misery for employees on the Medway City Estate once again.

As I sat in the queue, with the minutes slowly ticking by, I, like many others, wondered why more has not been done to ease the daily delays.

Last week we reported that the traffic lights on the Gillingham side of the Medway Tunnel, designed to help people get off the estate, will not be in use until October – 10 months after they were promised by the council.

We were accused of writing self-serving articles because the Medway Messenger is based on the estate. But what about the other 4,999 businesses?

We were also accused of being too lazy to car share, get a bus or bike to work. But some colleagues do car share and for most, getting a bus or bike to work is almost impossible. You cannot walk or bike through the tunnel and buses are few and far between. I, like many others, have to drop a child at nursery on the way to work. The car is the only way.

In October 2014 the Messenger launched a campaign to get Medway City Estate moving. At the time we felt it had achieved some success – the council put in short term measures and announced long term solutions. But 18 months on, the traffic lights remain unused, yellow lines are not enforced and the river taxi is yet to be approved.

On Tuesday, I left the office at 4.40pm. I left the estate at 5.57pm – an hour and 17 minutes later. Our office is just one mile from the exit. And all because of a broken down lorry. Last week, a broken down van caused similar delays.

When there are incidents, traffic lights would help, They would create a gap in the traffic to allow cars to get off the estate more easily. When Medway Council sent HGVs to hold up traffic coming through the tunnel, up to 100 cars could leave the estate in one minute – instead of the measly one or two when the traffic is at its worst.

I’m lucky enough to have family who can pick my son up from nursery and take care of him if I’m delayed at work. But what about those who don’t? I often hear about people who face hefty nursery fines or frantic calls to friends when they are delayed.

Some may argue that queues on the roads are inevitable during rush hour. But taking an hour to travel one mile is unacceptable.

Until action is taken, the Messenger will continue to highlight this. We might be accused of being self-righteous but there are thousands of workers who might disagree. On Tuesday night, some of them took to social media to express their anger after they were left queuing for more than an hour.

Matthew Clark Leach tweeted: “If you like sitting in traffic for an hour every night of the week then get a job on medway city estate!” while Neal Caselton wrote: “6pm and a massive self made two lane queue getting off the estate. Same yesterday.”

It feels as if our complaints are falling on deaf ears.