Top Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson has slammed Ashford’s controversial shared space traffic scheme.

He said: “Doing away with lights and pelican crossings is a bit like doing away with bolts in the scaffolding on a building site in the hope the labourers walk around a bit more carefully.”

Writing in his column in The Sun, Clarkson adds: “In the same way that keepers at London Zoo could put all the animals in the same cage and sit back hoping that the Baby Jesus will stop the lions from eating the goats.

“Someone is going to be killed, you idiots.”

The new road layout of Bank Street, Elwick Road, West Street and Forge Lane, where the number of crossings has been reduced and cars and pedestrians share the same bricked road surface, is the first Shared Space scheme of its kind in the country.

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