Work to widen one of the county’s busiest roads will finally get underway next month at a cost of £1.3million.

In an effort to counter speeding and improve safety, work proper begins at the end of March, at Kent Street, Mereworth, where it meets the A228.

The announcement comes after years of campaigning by residents and local councillors.

Traffic lights are to be installed 100m from each side of the junction where a teenage girl was injured nearly four years ago.

It was this incident that prompted Conservative county councillor Sarah Hudson to find answers to the problems.

As well as lights, widening the entrance to Kent Street and putting in bus stops on each side are also planned in the scheme.

Cllr Hudson said: “It’s been a long haul to get to this point but I am pleased it has. The A228 is an important highway because it serves so much traffic using the M20.

“There’s no getting away from that but we can make it safer for the local people and the motorists themselves by introducing the measures we have.”

The estimated cost of the scheme is £1.3m, funded partly be developer contributions already banked from previous large residential projects at Kings Hill, and Kent County Council (KCC) cash amounting to £300,000.

Papers before the Environment and Transport Cabinet Committee (ETCC) on February 24 stated: “The detailed costings have been scrutinised and the budget available from the two sources is adequate to deliver the scheme.

“The costings include an element to cover risk and contingency, and use of the already procured contracts reduces any cost uncertainty to ensure it is affordable within our funding envelope.”

Cllr Hudson added: “This is primarily not new money but set aside from the section 106 developers’ contributions from about 15 years ago and which has to be spent on the A228 or it has to be given back to the developer.”

Last year, Kent Street resident and lorry driver Graham George, 64, said: “It seems that this is a project that is the ‘next thing to do’ that they never get around to doing but it has to be done.

“Before the speed limit was reduced to 40mph, there were crashes pretty regularly with people hurtling around the corner.

“It’s a really busy road and really hard to get out of Kent Street, depending on what time of the day it is.”

The first stage of the three-phase scheme has already taken place, by cutting back the hedgerows.

The next phase starts on March 31 and lasts until June 22 and the third begins after the strawberry season and other fruit-picking from September 22 until November 30.

Cllr Harry Rayner said when he was first elected to Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council in 1985, this issue was on the agenda that autumn.

He told members: “This has taken 40 years to get to this point and I am personally delighted…it is absolutely necessary.”

The scheme was given the green light by cabinet member for highways, Cllr Neil Baker, who has been broadly in favour of the A228 project put forward by Cllr Hudson and the leader of Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council leader Cllr Matt Boughton.