Innovation Centre Access Re-designedProposals for access to the new Innovation Centre, which is expected to be built during the next year or so, originally involved a so-called all-movements signalled junction, which would have entailed traffic crossing Maidstone Road through a nreach made in the central reservation.
Clearly this would have been extremely dangerous just beyond the blind bend heading northward from the Bridgewood roundabout and (especially!) the flyover, as traffic would not be sure of stopping in time if the lights were red. If a queue had already built up, the situation could have been really serious.
Fortunately, several expert professional people happen to live opposite the junction, and—along with assistance and advice from local councillor John Ward—they were able to put well-reasoned strong representations opposing the planning application for this junction.
Here, Councillor John Ward discusses the access situation with fellow ward councillor Nick Brice.
This was followed by a planning meeting to determine the application, at which it was decided to defer a decision for a site visit to be undertaken in order inspect the intended location of the junction and the surroundings. At this event, once again our residents from across the road came to the fore, and showed members of the planning committee and council planning officers the very real dangers of what was being proposed.
As a result of this, the planning committee members had no hesitation in refusing the planning application on highway safety grounds.
Now, a re-designed application has been lodged for a different kind of access that would involve a slip lane instead of the junction. There are still concernes about safeguarding on the Rochester Airport side of the access, but there are ways this could be dealt with.
The primary worry is that vehicles could cross in the airport administration buildings direction by accident, and possibly encounter an aeroplane landing or taking-off across their path. This could be solved with fencing and a lifting barrier that is remote-controlled from the airport's control tower, and this is probably the only viable solution.
This is what will be put to the members of the planning committee when this new applications come before them. No date has yet been set for this.