An Important Message from our local PC

Our local PC, Steve Putland, (Kent Police, Police Constable, Folkestone Neighbourhood Beat Officer) has sent the following important message.

The above sign must NOT be ignored in any circumstances, if the sign is there it means that the road is closed.

If you live along the stretch of closed road or you have to get to a location that means there is no other way apart from using that stretch of road you don't get an automatic pass to ignore the closure.

I know that this can be very inconvenient when we close roads which is normally due to a Road Traffic Collison (RTC) but we do it for everyone's safety, if a police officer directs you past the sign then obviously that's fine.

We will always endeavour to have an officer stood or sat in a marked police vehicle with the road closure signs as although it is obvious that the road is closed, on occasion someone will have a valid question to ask regarding access to their home, workplace or a general access question but sometimes this can't be achieved and if there aren't any officers present as said above you must not breach the signs and cones and find an alternative route or wait in a safe location nearby until the road is opened.

Today I closed a road using the above sign and no less than 5 cones between the broken white line in the centre of the road and the nearside verge, it couldn't have been more obvious that the road was closed (by the police) and yet two vehicles drove around them into the other carriageway, negotiating a couple of ‘double’ bends (the really sharp ones!) before coming face to face with a recovery truck straddling the middle of the road recovering a vehicle from a verge.

Fortunately there was not another collision due to the recovery truck being on a stretch of road that was nice and straight and visible from a distance giving the two drivers plenty of time to stop.

This is very dangerous and there is no excuse for doing it and in fact the drivers could have been reported for this.

Thank you for reading this.

Steve."