By Hayley Robinson

Two members of the public who helped motorists stuck in the snow have been praised by police.

Key Street resident Tony Knott, 41, used a shovel to free a number of vehicles which became stuck as they tried to approach the Key Street roundabout from Sittingbourne on Saturday afternoon.

PC Dan Schyberg said: "Due to the compacted snow at the location and the incline, vehicles were finding it near to impossible to get up to the roundabout.

"Tony spent five hours helping motorists until the area could be used freely again. Without this help vehicles would not have got to the roundabout and traffic congestion would have increased."

Farmer Simon Mickleburgh was also on hand with his tractor and plough, trying to clear Keycol Hill.

PC Schyberg said: "No vehicles could get up the hill initially. However, with Simon’s help we were able to send one vehicle at a time safely up Keycol Hill to continue their journey. He took it upon himself to attend and clear the road as best he could."

Police community support officers Melanie Platt and Sarah Bodiam spent two-and-a-half hours helping traffic negotiate the ice and snow along Staplehurst Road and St Paul’s Street, Sittingbourne.

PCSO Platt said: "Drivers were getting stuck going up the hills before and after the roundabout, so we gritted the roads by hand and pushed cars up the road to try to keep the traffic moving."

Meanwhile, Doreen Diddams, of Vincent Road, Sittingbourne, had an encounter with a good Samaritan.

The 74-year-old was catching a train back from London on Saturday night after seeing the West End show Wicked when she got chatting to a fellow passenger who told her how bad the snow was in town.

The man, who was being picked up from Sittingbourne railway station by his wife, then offered her a lift home so she did not have to walk.

Doreen never got the man’s name but knows he is a manager of a London Argos store an his wife is a child carer.

She said: "I thought it was absolutely brilliant of them.

"I didn’t know about the snow and it was getting rather late and I’m nowhere near a spring chicken. They went really out of their way – it was atrocious weather."

Were you the man who helped Doreen? Contact the newsdesk on 01795 580300 or email sittingbourne@thekmgroup.co.uk