Skip to main contentAccess keys help

[an error occurred while processing this directive]
BBC News
watch One-Minute World News
News image
Last Updated: Monday, 26 March 2007, 11:40 GMT 12:40 UK
Road protest for cycle race day
Cyclists generic
Cyclists will visit Kent and Medway on day two of the race
A retired engineer fed up with the high volume of traffic through his village has threatened to cause chaos during the British leg of the Tour de France.

Alan Howland, of Bridge, said vehicles used the road outside his house as a rat-run to avoid the A2 to Canterbury.

He said residents in the village were prepared to disrupt the traffic being diverted away from the cycling event.

Kent County Council and the Highways Agency said there had been accidents and they were looking into the problem.

Both have been holding talks about introducing signs on the A2 to encourage drivers to use an alternative slip road, instead of Bekesbourne Road through Bridge.

'Complete standstill'

The Tour de France is set to attract thousands of people when it passes through Kent in July.

The opening 8km prologue is in London but day two will see 200 riders travel out of London, passing through Dartford, Medway, Maidstone, Tonbridge, Tunbridge Wells and Ashford, before finishing in Canterbury.

However, although the race will not go through the village of Bridge, traffic will be diverted away from the Tour de France route.

Mr Howland said residents had had enough of the situation affecting the 14ft-wide road, and there was no alternative but to take "a more direct route of action".

"It doesn't take much to bring the whole system round here to a complete standstill.

"Faced with a prospect of 'Do we have somebody killed or do we inconvenience a lot of people', we inconvenience a lot of people because that dead person is probably going to be one of our neighbours," he said.


SEE ALSO
Le Tour looks for London boost
02 Feb 07 |  Cycling
Tour unveils detailed 2007 route
15 Jan 07 |  Cycling

RELATED BBC LINKS

RELATED INTERNET LINKS
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites



FEATURES, VIEWS, ANALYSIS
Has China's housing bubble burst?
How the world's oldest clove tree defied an empire
Why Royal Ballet principal Sergei Polunin quit

PRODUCTS & SERVICES

AmericasAfricaEuropeMiddle EastSouth AsiaAsia Pacific