Whenever the Sheppey Crossing is forced to close due to severe weather, it takes us back to a time when there was only one way on and off the Isle of Sheppey and locals lived in traffic hell. Joe Crossley speaks to people about the benefits the crossing has brought the Island.

Before the opening of the ‘new bridge’ in 2006 drivers could only reach the mainland via its problematic one-lane neighbour- the Kingsferry Bridge.

Opened in 1960 the ‘old bridge’ was seen as a wonder of state-of-the-art engineering with a lift to allow boats to travel underneath. But this led to “nightmare” delays.

Steve Jackson remembers the tourist queues every Sunday as people looked for a beach getaway.

The 63-year-old, who now runs Jacksonwood Vintage Tea Rooms in Sheerness High Street, moved to the Island from East London in the 1990s to get away from violent crime.

He says he has never looked back and loves living on the Island thanks to its "slower and peaceful" pace.

For a while, that "slower pace" often meant long traffic jams with “queues backing off from the bridge which would go all the way back to Leysdown", almost ten miles away.

“It was especially bad on bank holidays when there was no chance of leaving at all. There are no queues now thanks to the bridge."

It wasn't just the tourists, people living on the Island and working on the mainland also struggled Sheerness-born and bred Susan Betts remembers the delays on her “nightmare commutes” to her customer service job in Maidstone.

“It used to take me an hour and 15 minutes to get there and the same to get back,” the 67-year-old said. “I was lucky that I had to only make the commute once or twice a week.”

In December 2002, after decades of congestion, the then Highways Agency put forward a £100 million scheme that would change life on the Island forever.

The new bridge was part of plans to improve the A249 between the M2 and the Port of Sheerness in a bid to cut journey times and improve access to Sheppey which would “foster improved and sustainable growth in the area”.

Transport minister David Jamieson said Islanders would "see a huge difference" in the waiting times which would help "to bring new investment and prosperity to the area".

This was much needed in the area which had a lot of industries leave over the decades, including glassworks and potteries. The most detrimental was the closure of Sheerness Dockyard in 1960, with all 2,500 employees being made redundant.

With the promise of investment for the Island, work started on the 35m high structure in 2004. At 1.3km long, the Sheppey Crossing opened in 2006. By 2022, 27,000 vehicles were using it on average every day.

MP for Sheppey and Sittingbourne, Gordon Henderson said during the 15th anniversary of the opening that traffic “would have been horrendous” without the new crossing.

“The houses would have carried on being built, there's no doubt about that and we would only have had the old railway bridge which, with the best will in the world, wouldn't have been able to cope as it couldn't cope before”, he added.

As well as the benefits it has brought, the Sheppey Crossing also became the scene of Britain’s biggest pile-up in 2013. Click here for the full story.

"We've only got to look at the tailbacks when the Sheppey Crossing is closed, for whatever reason. Whenever we see them, we should be thanking our lucky stars that we have the second crossing."

Mr Henderson was right about the houses. In Minster, 700 homes are planned for Barton Hill Drive and over 30 homes awaiting planning permission in Warden Road, Eastchurch- to name just a few.

And with them comes interest from elsewhere.

“Businesses look at the size of a population when they decide to open up in a new area," explains businessman Tom Allsworth who is behind the £18m Walbrook Business Park being built opposite Neats Court, with space for 30 firms.

"So as this goes up on the Island it will mean that we could get leisure centres, sports facilities and new restaurants.”

Mr Allsworth is the founder of health and beauty product manufacturer Medichem and the co-founder of Revolution Beauty which are both based in Queenborough.

He said: "I have lived on the Island all my life, and continue to do so, and I remember that you could be stranded on the Island for an hour or two if the lift went up to allow ships to go under.

"The new bridge means you don't have that problem anymore and people have come here to live and work.

“It has meant house prices and quality of housing has gone up which in turn has brought the businesses with them because the bridge has connected the Island with the rest of Kent.

"It used to be a bit of a backwater and dead end where people wouldn't really come.

"But now we are seeing big business open up on the Island because more people are living here."

And he's not the only one.

Just last month plans for a petrol station and 37-unit employment hub next to Sheppey Rugby Club in Lower Road, Minster were put forward.

These proposals came after plans for a business park with a drive-thru near Neats Court in Rushenden, which could create up to 400 jobs, were announced in September.

Meanwhile, in Sheerness, Masters House reopened after a £1.5 million revamp which was called “desperately needed” by young entrepreneurs.

Twenty years since work on the bridge started and it's clear that big things are coming for the Island, thanks to the bridge.

But smaller businesses have already been reaping the rewards.

Jessica Waghorn is one of the directors of family-run Stones Garden Centre, based in Minster.

In the 25 years the company has been there, Jessica says it's meant their custom base has moved beyond the Island.

She said: “We have a couple who come every day to our coffee shop from Sittingbourne and have weekly visitors from further into the Medway towns.

“In a way, the new bridge offers quicker and easier access for our customers that come from further afield.

"It's a very local and friendly community and our friendly, family atmosphere means people keep coming back and don't always hop off the island."

This new-found freedom also has its’ downside.

While the Island now has a stronger link to the mainland, for Jenny Hurkett it's also meant the Island has lost its sense of community.

"There’s a lot more we can do,” said the 75-year-old who founded the Blue Town Heritage Centre based in Sheerness.

“The bridge has made it easier to get on and off the island which is a good thing however this has affected places like Sheerness.

“It was hard to leave the Island so people would shop locally but now it's just as easy to go further afield.

“It should make it easier for people to come to the Island. For example, people from Iwade could shop here but they may not get further than Neats Court which doesn’t benefit the rest of the Island.”

Mrs Huckett was once the chair of the Island Think Tank, a group set up to suggest short, medium and long-term plans for Sheppey before and after the bridge opened.

“Sheppey is a hidden gem”, she continued. “We have blue flag beaches and plenty of holiday parks for people to stay in but we don’t have any brown signs telling holidaymakers what’s here.

“We also don’t have a dedicated website for the whole of Sheppey to showcase our events and what's going on."

So what's next for the Island?

Well Darren Harrison, who has run Harrisons Auto’s in Minster for more than 10 years and has lived on the Island since he was born in 1970, pointed to the number of industrial units coming to the area as a positive sign of investment.

“The bridge has helped attract lots of big businesses like the supermarkets which have moved there”, Mr Harrison added, “but it would be great if one of these business parks became a cinema complex like they have in Sittingbourne and Rainham which can bring visitors from off the Island. We do need variety.”