Council U-turn over town flyover

The closure of the flyover led to confusion on two-way switch day

A flyover at the centre of a campaign by residents and traders in a Kent town is set to reopen almost a year after it was closed to general traffic.

The Sir John Hawkins flyover in Chatham had been facing demolition after the one-way road system was changed to a two-way ring road.

It led to complaints that congestion in the town had increased and businesses were losing trade as a result.

The flyover is now due to be reopened from Railway street towards Globe Lane.

We haven't come to a final decision on the flyover Robin Cooper, Medway Council

Robin Cooper, Medway Council's director of regeneration and development, said the views of local people had been taken on board in reaching the decision.

The changes to the road system last September were part of the town's £2m regeneration plans, but Mr Cooper denied that it had been a waste of money.

"One of the things we were trying to do is discourage people who don't actually have business in Chatham, who are simply using it [the road system] to go through, because there are very good alternative routes."

He said "to a degree" motorists had been successfully diverted onto other routes.

However, he explained it was unlikely the town would revert back to the old one-way system as the objective of making it more pedestrian-friendly had been achieved.

"We haven't come to a final decision on the flyover.

"It's there at the moment. It makes sense to reopen it and we're looking to reopen it from the middle of October."