Drivers were stuck for hours near a busy leisure centre due to a faulty traffic lights system.

Cars were queuing along Barker Road, in Maidstone, near the Lockmeadow complex, yesterday after the traffic light system was letting 'only three cars out at a time' onto the A20.

Christopher Glue's family took over two hours to get home after going out to walk their dogs in Maidstone.

Leaving Lockmeadow car park at 4.45pm, they came across an unusual amount of traffic along Barker Road and Hart Street, which leads to the McDonald's drive-thru.

Christopher said: "Initially I thought it was roadworks, but by the time they got to the set of traffic lights by McDonald's, they saw it was only letting out three cars at a time.

"When my family got to the front of the queue, people were fighting to get out, both from their side and the road leading to the McDonald's drive-thru.

"Luckily there wasn't any children in our car at the time, as there would have been normally!"

Mr Glue added: "I phoned both the police and Kent County Council Highways, but they didn't do anything."

Kent County Council (KCC) Highways tweeted at around 4pm that there was an accident along the A26 Tonbridge Road which was causing delays.

The road was later reported to have cleared.

Lucy George, who lives in Hart Street, said: "It is getting beyond a joke now. Every single weekend without fail there is traffic and none of it is moving.

"It is very frustrating due to the amount of homes that are down my road - if anyone wanted emergency services they would have no chance in getting to the place they needed to be."

The stretch of road outside Lockmeadow has been subject to complaints before.

In 2018, angry drivers took to twitter after being stuck in a complete standstill for hours.

Maidstone Council confirmed that roadworks were being carried out by UK Power Networks along Tonbridge Road at the time.

KCC Highways were asked for a comment.