Opinion: Fundamental flaws with Canterbury’s roads are being exposed by the Westgate renovations

We are going into our second bank holiday of the last three weeks, off the back of a mini heatwave that caused Brits across the country to dust off the garden furniture and break out the barbeque for the first time this year.  

I have a long list of things I want to do this weekend, and I can categorically say none of it includes sitting in an endless queue of traffic while the temperature in my car gets high enough to slow roast a pork belly.  

The closures and changes to the roads surrounding Westgate Towers have caused chaos for anyone unfortunate enough to find themselves driving through the city.  

At the beginning of March, Canterbury City Council said the overall aim of the Westgate development is to reduce the dominance of the car in that part of the city, but right now we are seeing what impact that has on the remaining roads.  

Traffic is being redirected onto streets not built to handle it and it’s not just the works at Westgate that are to blame. Road works, temporary traffic lights and the closure of other key alternative routes, like Chaucer Road, have forced commuters to converge on a few key highways.  

All it takes is one car crash on Rheims Way or Rhodaus Town and Canterbury will come to a screeching halt. These kinds of accidents are not uncommon, especially if drivers are exceeding speed limits. You can see how big of an issue speeding is in Canterbury here. 

We got a taste of this when a Waitrose lorry was involved in an incident with five other vehicles on Lower Chantry Lane on Wednesday (30 April). The road was closed in one direction, causing a build up of traffic on Longport and St Martin’s Hill.

The first phase of the Westgate renovations alone is estimated to take five months, meaning these problems are unlikely to be resolved anytime soon despite the vocal complaints from residents. 

Canterbury drivers need to get used to the new reality of their roads and start getting comfier in their cars. That means keeping an extra couple of bottles of water and maybe finding a new podcast with a healthy backlog to keep entertained.