00:00It's dangerous and they should make it a one way, round here or round the other way.
00:03It'll be no problem, so get rid of it.
00:06Lorries, gridlock and frustrated motorists mounting the kerb.
00:11This is what life looks like along Stanhope Road, one of the busiest in Swanscombe.
00:17Ever since the A226 Galley Hill Road collapsed back in 2023.
00:23What we've got here at Bottlenecks, there's only room for one car at a time to pass.
00:27So we have two cars coming down, either side, there's no passing point.
00:31So this is creating a problem where cars are having to go up onto the pavements
00:35and sometimes people have nearly been hit or knocked over by cars mounting pavements.
00:40Before the landslip, Galley Hill Road was used by heavy goods vehicles, buses and commuters alike.
00:48But since then, traffic has cut through this stretch of residential housing
00:52and it's gotten so bad, in fact, that people living here have been taking to the street
00:59to keep an eye out for illegal behaviour such as ramping up onto the pavement.
01:05Now this road's not been...
01:07It was only built for awesome cars.
01:09Not cars, not roads.
01:11And as I said, it's dangerous.
01:13You've got elderly people living in Swanscombe, scooters and everything else.
01:17The paths are not wide enough
01:18and there's a lot of people going to get hurt along this road.
01:22Kent County Council has responsibility for highways.
01:25But so far, calls for a one-way system or traffic lights have been dismissed.
01:31But for residents, the main issue is fixing the landslip.
01:35They see that as the root cause to all of this
01:38and that's something that could take years.
01:41Galley Hill's got to get sorted out
01:43to make Stan Oak Road and other roads in Swanscombe
01:47more accessible again.
01:49This road was not built for the traffic that it's got to happen at the moment.
01:53You know, people haven't got the money to sort things out
01:55but where do you put the difference between money and lives
01:58or people getting hurt?
02:00KCC says it has considered different ways
02:04to ease the prevailing situation
02:06but the road remains part of a key bus route
02:10and a one-way system is unworkable as a result.
02:16But as the roads around the landslip continue to worsen
02:20the hopes of people living here are also being driven into the ground.
02:25Ollie Leader in Swanscombe.
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