Campaigners are celebrating after winning the battle to put lights along a deadly unlit stretch of motorway.

The Highways Agency has confirmed that the Kent Messenger's Lights for Life campaign to improve safety at junction 3 of the M20 (M26/Wrotham) has been successful.

It was launched after the death of three young men on the M20 in December 2003, and got its first victory came last year when the Government agreed it would fund the project, expected to cost about £2 million.

But the decision was subject to an environmental impact assessment by agencies including the Environment Agency, English Heritage, and Tonbridge and Malling council.

It was also subject to a review by the Highways Agency which looked at the “competing priorities” for funding.

But the agency has now confirmed the review had been successful and lights should be installed within a year.

A Highways Agency spokesman said: "We looked at the environmental impact because extra lights have a carbon footprint. We also looked at the benefits versus the cost. Construction will begin in the 2008/09 financial year."

One of the campaigners, Tonbridge and Malling MP Sir John Stanley said: "This campaign has taken three years, innumerable letters to the Department for Transport and two meetings with ministers. We never knew when we were going to get across the finishing line but now that's going to happen."