A notoriously busy road is to be revamped, thanks to a grant from the Department for Transport (DfT).

Kent County Council is to receive £3.2 million from the National Productivity Investment Fund to improve the A2500 Lower Road in Minster, between Cowstead Corner and Barton Hill Drive.

The project will include widening the road and installing a new path for people riding bicycles and on foot.

The announcement was made in a letter to MP Gordon Henderson from the Roads Minister Jesse Norman.

Mr Norman said the DfT would fund £3.195m of the estimated £4.85m needed for the project, which is set to coincide with a scheme to replace the traffic-light-controlled junction at Barton Hill Drive with a roundabout.

The National Productivity Investment Fund aims to ease congestion and provide upgrades on important national, regional and local routes to help unlock job opportunities.

Mr Henderson said: "I very much welcome this announcement, which followed a bid from Kent County Council to the National Productivity Investment Fund.

"It was a bid I fully supported and for which I lobbied ministers personally.

"I am delighted that my lobbying succeeded.

"With construction of the roundabout at the bottom of Barton Hill Drive, delivery of these improvements will go a long way to resolving the congestion on the Lower Road that has been frustrating for so many motorists and cyclists."