Letter to KCC about road safety on Lower Road and request for a multi agency review

Covering Letter

To: Peter Osborne, KCC Cabinet Member for Highways and Transport

CC:

• Head of Road Safety & Active Travel, KCC – saferroadusers@kent.gov.uk
• Stewart Fowler – Road Safety Intelligence and Innovations Team Leader
• Rich Lehmann – KCC Member for Swale East
• Matthew Scott, Police and Crime Commissioner for Kent
• Kent and Medway Road Safety Partnership
• HM Senior Coroner for North East Kent
• Julien Speed – SBC Councillor
• Lloyd Bowen – SBC Councillor

From: Teynham Parish Council

Date: 26 June 2026

Subject: Urgent Road Safety Concerns – Lower Road, Teynham
(Tonge / Snipeshill to Norton Lane / Deerton Street)

Dear Peter,

Teynham Parish Council, writing alongside neighboring Tonge Parish Council, and local residents wish to express grave concern regarding the high frequency and severity of road traffic incidents along Lower Road, Teynham and request a multi agency review — specifically the corridor from Tonge / Snipeshill to Norton Lane / Deerton Street.

Before outlining our requests, we wish to express our sincere condolences following the recent tragic death of a 17-year-old motorcyclist on this route. Our thoughts remain with their family, friends, and everyone affected.

While it is not our role to draw technical conclusions regarding the causes of individual incidents, the compounding level of public concern is significant. Local residents report routinely altering their travel behaviour or completely avoiding sections of Lower Road due to perceived risk and dangerous driver behaviour.

Crucially, the Parish Council believes that official online crash data fails to show the true extent of these incidents. Because standard databases rely primarily on injury-reported collisions, they omit a substantial volume of severe near-misses and significant structural-damage incidents.

This sustained danger has forced local residents to change their daily behaviour. Many now actively avoid the stretch of Lower Road between the Frognal Lane and Hempstead Lane junctions, opting for longer alternative routes purely out of safety concerns.

Request for multi agency review

Given the repeated nature of these collisions and the intense public concern, the Parish Council formally requests a multi-agency road safety review of the Lower Road corridor between Tonge and Deerton Street, including collision history, police incident records, traffic speeds, traffic volumes, and consideration of potential engineering, enforcement and education measures.

We request:

• An extended dataset review: Evaluating historic collision data cross-referenced with local police incident logs, rather than relying solely on online statistics.
• A cumulative risk assessment: Re-evaluating intervention thresholds against the multi-factor risks of this corridor, specifically Deerton Street to Hempstead Lane.
• Targeted safety interventions: Determining whether enhanced monitoring, physical infrastructure adjustments, speed reductions, or proactive enforcement are appropriate.

We welcome an early opportunity to discuss these concerns.

Thank you for your commitment to keeping Kent’s roads safe.

Yours sincerely,

Teynham Parish Council

Indicative Corridor Map

Note: Locations shown are community-sourced and indicative to support strategic safety discussions. They are not presented as verified, official highway collision records.

Indicative Local Incident Log

The following collisions illustrate the frequency and severity of incidents along Lower Road, Teynham over the past decade. This list is not intended to be exhaustive but highlights a pattern of repeated fatal and serious collisions at several locations along the route.

• 31 October 2014 – Fatal: Motorcycle and Audi A4 collision at the junction of Frognal Lane and Lower Road. The motorcyclist, a man in his 30s, died at the scene.
• 2 September 2018: Car overturned on Lower Road near Whiteleaf Stables.
• 27 January 2019 – Serious: Single-vehicle collision near the Frognal Lane junction. The impact snapped a telegraph pole in two and damaged electricity supply cables.
• 9 October 2020 – Serious: Collision near the Frognal Lane junction destroyed a telegraph pole, causing a power outage affecting approximately 2,000 properties. This was the second collision involving the same pole.
• 26 February 2021 – Fatal: Two-car collision on Lower Road. The driver of a Toyota Starlet, a man in his 20s, died at the scene. Police Reference: SM/COJ/14/21.
• 2 May 2022 – Fatal: A 19-year-old cyclist died following a collision with a car near Bax Farm Crossing on Lower Road. Police Reference: KH/COJ/51/22.
• Date to be confirmed – Serious: Cyclist collision near Bax Farm Crossing, Lower Road, requiring attendance by the Air Ambulance.
• October 2025: Collision with telegraph pole on Lower Road near Greenstreet. Location reference: ///mime.actor.shapeless.
• 18 February 2026 – Serious: Three-vehicle collision outside 21 Lower Road. The impact snapped a telegraph pole in two.
• 25 April 2026 – Fatal: Fatal collision involving a motorcycle and a Volkswagen van near Snipeshill on Lower Road.
• Date to be confirmed – Serious: Vehicle collision near Teynham railway station resulting in a telegraph pole being snapped in two.

---------------

We have also written to our local MP, Helen Whately, asking for her support. Click here to read letter to Helen.