Dover MP Natalie Elphicke has joined calls from local businesses and organisations to scrap proposed road changes in the town centre.
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00:00 This busy road in Dover is set to get busier. A consultation is underway for a new £1.5 million
00:06 ContraFlow bus route. The proposal by Kent County Council is designed to make public transport more
00:12 attractive to residents. Here is the public notice on Pencester Road. It says the street could become
00:18 a two-way system with parking bays for disabled people being removed. Dover MP Natalie Elphick
00:25 says the plans are discriminatory. The Pencester Road fast track proposals that have come forward
00:30 from Kent County Council are absolutely wrong on so many levels. It's going to make it harder for
00:37 people who are disabled to have mobility issues, to access the church, to access businesses.
00:43 A number of residents have raised concerns about school children because the area where this new
00:49 two-way system will go is an area where many school children change buses at the moment
00:55 in the middle of the town. One of the places praying that the proposals won't go ahead is
01:00 St Paul's Church. The building has been a site of cultural importance since it opened in 1868.
01:06 They say these proposals threaten their future. If this goes ahead, in 20-25 years this church
01:13 will be empty. I think in a nutshell for me this church has been here since 1867. It would actually
01:20 mean that we couldn't have a hearse outside the front door for the first time since 1867
01:26 or a wedding car and that's really quite shocking. And children being what they are,
01:32 sometimes they will wander towards the road. This is a dangerous situation but what would bother me
01:38 was if there was a traffic light there and there was a large diesel vehicle engine running right
01:44 outside the church with all these youngsters at almost exhaust level height standing there.
01:51 It's really not good. It's just destroying the parish life here. So they haven't considered us
01:58 at all in their workings. They seem to have made up their mind and just ploughing ahead with it.
02:06 So we're very upset by this. A Kent County Council spokesperson said the design of the scheme has
02:12 been and will continue to be subject to safety auditing processes in line with normal highway
02:18 standards. Natalie Elphick will be presenting a petition in Parliament on Monday calling on the
02:23 government to intervene with KCC's consultation running until the 11th. So while KCC may believe
02:30 that the plans will help improve transport links here in Dover for churches and businesses like
02:35 St Paul's, they believe they're being treated like sacrificial lambs. Oliver Leeds of the Saks
02:41 reporting for KMTV.