Commuters and business leaders fed up with sitting in traffic are calling for urgent action to end the daily nightmare of getting to and from work.

Queuing vehicles have been a constant problem on Medway City Estate for years but the problem has become worse.

With 6,000 people working on the estate, jams are common from 4pm until after 6pm.

Accidents and roadworks add to the nightmare.

Business owners and staff say they are now reaching breaking point and are worried staff are showing signs of stress and ill health as a result, while there are also fears serious accidents could happen as drivers lose patience.

Improvements brought in to ease congestion included three exit lane extensions at Anthony’s Way onto the A289, and traffic signals on the eastbound entrance of the Medway Tunnel, but these have been out of action since late last year.

Among those calling on the council to take action is Roland Beaumont, who is director of Information Technology System Support Ltd based in Anthony’s Way.

He said he was finding it difficult to recruit staff "due to few candidates wanting to sit in traffic all day".

He wrote to Richard Hicks, Medway Council's director of regeneration, culture, environment and transformation, to express his fears, and warn some business were considering moving due to the traffic.

“It contributes to stress and ill-health of those unfortunate enough to work on the estate and, of course, the Medway City Estate provides a sizeable income to the council in terms of rates and this must now be at risk as we all make decisions to relocate our businesses out of Medway.

“The council has approved the development of a retail park on the upper part of Medway City Estate, which is going to do nothing more than make a bad situation much worse, and the best suggestions the council has is to make us use bicycles.”

He warned that campaigns and demonstrations were “on the cards”, adding: “It’s only a matter of time before you get serious accidents being caused by frustrated motorists trying to get out of the estate.”

Amanda Hurrell, sales co-ordinator of 25 years with Cambridge Research Systems in Sir Thomas Longley Road, also wrote to Mr Hicks after a week of traffic misery which included one night being stuck on the estate while traffic was gridlocked for two hours.

She said she was reaching “breaking point”.

“Nothing was done to help people stuck, why do we just get ignored?” she said.

“Where is the contingency plan to get the Medway City Estate moving?

“I've now been told by Medway Council the traffic signals on Maritime Way are not in operation because there isn’t a permanent member of staff to do this.

"It's only a matter of time before you get serious accidents being caused by frustrated motorists trying to get out of the estate" - Richard Hicks

“What are the plans to get the Medway City Estate moving and when?

“This is taking far too long and isn’t acceptable.”

Paul Holland, owner of Energy Solutions in Sir Thomas Longley Road, said fixing the traffic lights at the tunnel, and fixing the live camera feed between the lights control room and the Medway City Estate, should be the simple solution to the problem.

“We should be ashamed by the lack of our local government’s actions,” he added.

Meanwhile, roadworks around Medway and the rest of the county are having an impact on journey times throughout the area.

Michael Edwards, Medway Council’s head of integrated transport, said: “We understand it is very frustrating to get caught in traffic during rush hour.

“However, we are taking steps to alleviate congestion on the Medway City Estate.

“We recently asked commuters to complete an online survey to tell us what improvements they think should be made and we received more than 400 responses.

“We are exploring the automation of the new traffic signals at the westbound entrance to the Medway Tunnel at peak times to create gaps in the flow of traffic on the A289 and enable traffic to leave the estate quicker.

“Employees can also currently check traffic flow on Anthony’s Way using CCTV images which are available on our website.”