The chairman of Stockbury Parish Council says communication will be key as improvements to the Stockbury roundabout begin.

Newly-elected leader Phil Woods praised the revised design, which includes a flyover on the A249 between Sittingbourne and Maidstone.

While Mr Woods is cautiously optimistic, he says public consultations should shed more light on what is to come for residents and how safety will be managed.

He said: “We haven’t seen the detail of the plan yet so we haven’t seen the traffic flow numbers.

“There remains a lot to be sorted out including the functioning of the roundabout and the speed of the traffic on the A249.

“It may become much more dangerous. We need to work with Highways England on enforcement particularly.

“It’s much better than the first time around. It’s being expected to take more and more traffic.

“It’ll be a case of communication and what mitigation they’re putting in place, because we all need to use the road so it’s about how sensitively they’re going to manage it.”

There are also concerns about potential delays to villagers, once development work begins.

“We have a lot of people who have to commute out of the area to go to work and schoolchildren who go to Sittingbourne so it’s seeing how things can be kept reasonable for those people,” Mr Woods added.

“We do need to emphasise whatever happens at the end of this, the speed needs to be managed on that road.”

Sittingbourne and Sheppey MP Gordon Henderson met with Highways England about the development and the traffic lights.

Mr Henderson said he has raised the issue of delays before and during the construction of the new junction.

He said: “I’ve been banging on about the traffic lights being turned off for a while.

“I’ve been trying to convince them for literally years but they say it would be dangerous to have them off.”

He also raised concerns about the number of potholes on the A249.