Kent County Council's (KCC) cabinet has been criticised for "ignoring" Swale council over its opposition to £38m of government cash for road improvements.

County councillor for Swale, Jason Clinch (Swale Ind), said he was surprised at the "outrage" of KCC's cabinet over Swale council's decision not to take the offer up due to fears that Sittingbourne junction improvements are "tied to housing".

His comments come seven days after KCC published outline plans to push ahead with major enhancements at the A249 Grovehurst Road and Key Street to reduce traffic levels at the highly congested junctions.

KCC leader Roger Gough (Con) recently said the road infrastructure is "desperately needed" in Swale and it would be "wholly irresponsible" of the county council to reject millions of pounds of Government grant funding.

But, Cllr Clinch told the Local Democracy Reporting service: "It's a shame that KCC have taken it upon themselves to ignore the local council and press ahead with the scheme anyway."

The Sittingbourne North councillor added: "Sheppey and Sittingbourne are being vastly over developed and it's time to take a step back and ponder if this deluge of new housing is really needed."

KCC say 6,500 homes are planned for development in the borough until 2031, but local highways bosses say the new houses cannot be delivered beyond 2022 due to huge capacity "constraints" on Sittingbourne's road network.

Maidstone County Hall's cabinet member for highways, Cllr Michael Payne (Con), has argued to push ahead with the works. In an executive council paper published last week, he said: "The objective of both schemes is to increase capacity and reduce congestion."

If approved, the funds for the projects will be financed by £38.1m from Whitehall's Housing Infrastructure Fund.

Cllr Clinch, of Swale Independents, said: "I think we need to look at this Housing Infrastructure Funding (HIF) for what it actually is, which is basically a project to open up more land for thousand's more new houses.

"You'll get your junction improvements somewhere down the line, but not before a majority of the new housing is already built."

But, Cllr Gough recently said: “I understand the frustration that councillors must feel with housing targets, however, rejecting major investment in critical infrastructure will not stop those houses being built on sites already allocated for development in Swale council’s own Local Plan.”

Former council leader Andrew Bowles (Con) has also criticised the Swale council administration, saying: "I do not believe KCC can or should stand by and watch Swale residents condemned to years of more queues or allow businesses to go into liquidation or take their business and jobs elsewhere."

His counterpart, Cllr Clinch, disagreed and said: "It's well known that certain members of the opposition in Swale are keen to support these schemes, but what they need to realise is that most in Sittingbourne do not want them."

KCC's environment and transport committee were due to consider the proposals today, but the meeting has been postponed amid coronavirus concerns.

A highways spokesman added the progression of major highways schemes have been put on hold until the public health crisis concludes.

Head to our politics page for expert analysis and all the latest news from your politicians and councils

For the latest coronavirus news and advice, click here

Read more: All the latest news from Sittingbourne