Drone footage has shown the latest progress on a multi-million-pound roundabout project.

Aerial images have been released of the ongoing Grovehurst Road Improvement Scheme, between Iwade and Kemsley in Sittingbourne.

The project is set to unlock plans for new homes for the A249 corridor, from the junction with the M2 to the Isle of Sheppey.

Ongoing work now is to build on a second bridge over the A249 at Grovehurst Road.

The scheme will use the existing bridge, but will replace the dumbbell design with a new one-way gyratory system incorporating a second bridge.

It will be built on the Sheppey side of the roundabout and include a cycleway and footpath linking through to Iwade.

The £32.7m revamp was given the green light by Kent County Council (KCC) in March 2022, with the majority of the money coming via a £38.1m grant from the government's Housing Infrastructure Fund (HIF).

Contractors began work last summer, with completion set for winter 2024.

Speaking previously, KCC explained: “The improvements include altering the slip and approach roads to the junction, service diversions, changing traffic signals, lighting, and major earthwork operations.

“This will increase capacity on the road network and provide the infrastructure needed for the proposed housing plans in Swale”.

It comes after developers declared a new estate of 115 homes to be built near the Grovehurst roundabout will help “meet local housing needs”.

The proposal for a development at Grovehurst Farm in Kemsley already has permission in principle.

The homes are among around 1,500 new houses due to be built in the north west Sittingbourne area as per Swale council’s local plan.

Already 1,200 homes have been given the nod for farmland north of Quinton, between the Sittingbourne to Sheerness railway line and the A249.

However, the constant road closures while work takes place have been labelled as “beyond a joke”.

Cllr Roger Clark (Con, Bobbing, Iwade and Lower Halstow) previously branded diversion routes in the area as a “terrible” thing for his ward.

Speaking in July, he explained: "Although the roundabout is in desperate need of an update, the works are going to make it difficult for the people living in Iwade.

“We’ll have to survive on traffic lights in the village, [so] it’s beyond a joke. Anything the developers do will impact Iwade - it is going to be very congested and terrible for the area".

Meanwhile, National Highways begun the latest part of the Stockbury flyover project on Friday (February 23).

Construction of the new A249 carriageways means the stretch's Maidstone-bound will close for five weeks between the Stockbury roundabout and Church Hill.

The route will reopen when this part of the scheme is finished on March 30.