The boss of a car garage says it has been losing trade due to roadworks for a reoccurring sinkhole.

Staff at Berengrave Service Station in Lower Rainham Road, Gillingham, have been calling up customers to confirm they are still open for business despite road closure signs.

The subsidence at the junction of Berengrave Lane was reported by manager Kerry Geer last Sunday (January 28) afternoon.

She had heard the sound of two cars bursting their tyres as they passed the garage last week.

Emergency works started on Thursday morning with a three-way traffic light system set up at the junction.

However, at around 2pm the road was then shut.

A section of the road – measuring approximately 4m by 5m – was dug up and the sinkhole was filled. Kerry said business suffered during the closure.

Speaking last week, she said: “We're barely seeing any customers at all because they can't get to us. We are open, all our staff are here.

“I've had to just sit and ring all of our MOT and workshop customers to explain how to get here.”

Birling Avenue, which leads onto Berengrave Lane, was also closed from Monday, January 29.

Southern Water has been carrying out the repairs and doing maintenance works.

A spokesman from the utility company said: “The local Highways Authority requested Southern Water to fix the broken tarmac round a water frame and cover in the middle in Berengrave Road.

“It is suspected that the broken tarmac was caused by the recent cold weather.

“The road has been closed to enable our teams to excavate and re-tarmac the affected area.

“We apologise to the local residents and commuters for the inconvenience caused.”

Berengrave Service Station asked its customers to ignore the closure signs as the road was still accessible.

Motorists were also cutting through the forecourt at speed as a shortcut so Kerry made the decision to barricade off the Lower Rainham Road entrance of the site to prevent this.

She added: “It was happening especially at rush hour – people get silly. You can understand it. They’ve got the hump stuck in traffic.

“But it endangers us, our customers and the vehicles that we're pulling in and out of our workshops.

“It's too dangerous. So for the safety of everyone and all the vehicles on-site, we chain up.”

This is not the first time a hole has appeared at the junction.

Kerry said: “It first opened up in October 2021. Since then it has happened five or six times.

“We thought it was fixed when they did it back in September. We thought they'd finally nailed it.

“Then all of a sudden over the last few weeks it dropped again.”

In June last year, residents slammed CityFibre works that were taking place along Lower Rainham Road. It was part of a £40 million project to bring faster internet to Medway.

One said: “Rainham is officially the world’s biggest car park.

“It’s definitely the worst I’ve seen it. The roads aren’t built for the volume of traffic.”