LONG-standing plans for a bypass are to be dropped by transport chiefs.

The £25 million Colts Hill bypass, seen as a crucial transport link between Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells, “will never happen” under the present government, according to a top Kent county councillor.

The news has come as a devastating blow to those who have spent years campaigning for the A228 scheme.

Cllr Keith Ferrin (Con), who is in charge of deciding which highways projects should be a priority, said the time had come for KCC to be “realistic” and focus on other schemes which stood a better chance of securing Government support.

“My view is that the Colts Hill bypass will never happen,” he said. “The Government will never allow it to, and my view is that we might as well move on and consider other projects. We just cannot get it approved. It is not that we don’t want it.”

He understood that the news would disappoint campaigners, but said it would be wrong to raise false hopes.

The bypass, first put forward for support by KCC in 2003, has been on the drawing board for several years, but has suffered a series of setbacks.

Last year, regional transport chiefs from the South East England Regional Assembly (SEERA), which has the job of deciding which transport projects to put forward for Government support, omitted it from its priority list up to 2011.

The busy stretch of road, used by about 18,500 motorists a day, is an accident blackspot and has been the scene of a number of fatalities over the years.

It is the main link between Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells and KCC’s decision will also leave a question-mark over the re-organisation of health services that will potentially involve many more patients being transported from Maidstone to Tunbridge Wells.

Cllr Ferrin said: “In my view, the health proposals are completely ridiculous because of the length of time it will take to transport patients between the sites.”