Frustrated residents fired questions at Kent County Council last night as they battled for answers as to when a major road would reopen.

More than 80 residents from Greenhithe and Swanscombe packed into Swanscombe Heritage Hall in Craylands Lane to find out when Galley Hill Road would be reopened following the cliff collapse on Easter Monday.

Almost six months to the day after the A226 crumbled and the road between Swanscombe High Street and Ebbsfleet Football Club was closed, residents demanded to know what had been done to remedy the problem and how long it would take to fix.

KCC Highways representative Toby Howe opened the meeting with disappointing news.

“There is no answer as to when and how the road will be fixed,” he said. “There is an awful lot that needs to be done before that can happen.”

Mr Howe confirmed the delay was down to the owners of the cliff, as while the road is owned by KCC, the cliff it sits on is not.

“The chalk spine is owned by others and until the owner can carry out repairs we cannot do anything with the road.”

He added: “It’s a chicken and egg situation.”

Once the cliff has been made safe he said intrusive surveys can then be carried out.

Revealing the owner is a firm called Broomway, he said KCC was awaiting communication over whether the company will carry out the repairs or will allow access for KCC to do the work.

Pressed about whether anything could be done in the meantime, Mr Howe said quotes were being obtained from contractors in case KCC has to make it safe.

“If the owners are not interested in helping we are getting quotes for if we have to stabilise that part of the cliff ourselves,” he said.

Resident Wendy Jarrett was not impressed.

“It’s a giant arm-wrestling contest,” she exclaimed. “And we’ve just got to sit and wait for a winner to appear.”

Lorraine Smith, of Milton Road, Swanscombe, was frustrated KCC had not given the owners a deadline for the answer.

“How long have they given them to reply?” she asked. “This is a major problem and it needs to be project managed better.”

Residents demanded KCC extends its work to ensure the whole road is safe and another part of the road does not collapse in the future, after more than 50 leaks along London Road between Galley Hill Road and McDonald’s.

Lorraine said: “They are just putting a sticky plaster over one section. They are just focusing on one little bit. They need to be looking at the whole road and planning ahead.

“This could easily happen again.”

But Mr Howe said surveys had confirmed the rest of the road was stable.

Residents were keen to know what work had been going on in the last six months and Mr Howe was able to explain that three surveys had been carried out to determine the condition of the cliff and the cause of the collapse. He confirmed one survey revealed a “water wash out”.

He added: “Did the cliff collapse break the water main or did the breaking water main cause the cliff to collapse?”

KCC admitted it had not got as far as considering alternative options if the cliff road could not be fixed.

Labour leader on Dartford council Cllr Jonathon Hawkes said this was not good enough.

“Can we not speed things up a bit?” he said. “If the best solution is permanent closure of the road how do we get to that decision so we can work around it and get a realistic timescale? At the moment we are in a state of not knowing anything.

“It’s not acceptable. We cannot be left in a state of limbo.”

Secondary issues as a result of the road closure were also discussed including the problem of lorries failing to follow the diversion and causing traffic chaos in the narrow residential streets.

Swanscombe and Greenhithe Residents’ Association and KCC councillor Peter Harman confirmed a LorryWatch scheme had been created and urged residents to volunteer for a two-hour stint counting lorries travelling along Stanhope Road in Swanscombe.

Inspector Nick Grainer, from Kent Police, confirmed his officers would work to issue fines to those lorries crossing the enforcement point at Swanscombe High Street and to cars illegally parked which are adding to the issues.

Cllr Harman urged residents to sign a petition calling on Thames Water to replace the existing Victorian mains pipe with a modern pipe which is not placed on a chalk spine.