Dover MP joins church in petition to get road changes scrapped

Dover MP Natalie Elphicke has joined calls from local businesses and organisations to scrap proposed road changes in the town centre.

Transcript

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.