A2/A28 fourth slip road

Our concerns about the design of the new coastbound slip road off the A2 into Wincheap.

A new “fourth” slip road would take coastbound traffic off the A2 at Wincheap and feed it into Ten Perch Road and the A28. The Wincheap Society has examined each version of the plans since 2017 and raised serious concerns about their safety, the dangers to pedestrians and cyclists, pollution, and the lack of any comprehensive traffic plan for Wincheap. Below is the latest position, followed by our reports and correspondence. Click or tap any plan to see it full size.

  • Plan showing traffic paths around the proposed slip road

    Traffic paths around the proposed fourth slip road

Where things stand

Last updated November 2026.

  • 2018: Planning permission for the £8.8 million slip road was granted as part of the Thanington Park (Saxon Fields) housing development, despite detailed objections from the Wincheap Society and Thanington Without Parish Council.
  • 2019 to 2021: Highways England said it could not accept the approved design, and the permission lapsed in 2021 before any work began. In 2021 Barratt David Wilson Homes (BDW) bought the remaining phases of the estate and took on the obligation to build the slip road.
  • November 2023: BDW submitted a fresh planning application. The new design brings traffic off the A2 to a new traffic-light junction at Ten Perch Road, from where it can turn towards the retail park or onto the A28. It cuts across part of the Wincheap Park and Ride.
  • January 2025: The City Council’s planning committee approved the slip road, even though some councillors criticised the layout, one calling it a “nasty snarl of traffic lights”. Under the planning conditions it must be built before the 450th home on the estate is occupied.
  • February 2026: The council considered a £25.5 million multi-storey car park at Wincheap Park and Ride, partly because the slip road would reduce the site to around 300 spaces.
  • March 2026: The High Court rejected a local resident’s legal challenge to the council’s approval of the slip road.

We are not aware of a start date for construction yet. We will update this page when we know more.

News coverage

Our earlier work on the slip road

The reports and correspondence below date from 2017 and 2018, when the first design was going through the planning process.

January 2018: walking and cycling assessment

The Wincheap Society’s comments on sections of the “Thanington 4th Arm Slip Road, Walking, Cycling & Horse-Riding Assessment & Review Report” by Peter Brett Associates (October 2017, on behalf of Pentland Properties).

December 2017: notes for the City Council

Comments for Ruth Goudie and Austin Mackie of Canterbury City Council, following a meeting on 22 November 2017, covering:

  1. timetabling and pollution
  2. dangerous roads, and dangers to cyclists and pedestrians.

October 2017: land transfer nodded through

On 4 October 2017, the gifting of land owned by Canterbury City Council for the fourth slip road came before the council’s Policy and Resources Committee. The plan put before the committee was the same one that has been widely criticised as dangerous and illogical.

Barney Parsons for the Wincheap Society, Graham Page for Thanington Without Parish Council and Wincheap ward councillor Nick Eden-Green all gave sound reasons for delaying the land transfer until proper plans were in place. With dispiriting predictability, it was nodded through by the councillors on the committee.

This premature gifting of land may well come back to embarrass councillors and officers if Highways England rejects the plan outright or requires extensive changes to it.

Before the meeting (29 September 2017)

The committee’s agenda proposed transferring the council land marked in yellow and blue on the plan below to Kent County Council and Highways England respectively, so they could build the slip road. The transfers were based almost to the inch on the assumption that the plans discussed in our August report would be approved by Highways England. The possibility that Highways England might reject them as unsafe and unsuitable was not considered: there is no plan B. The council appears confident that what is on the table now is what will happen, regardless of the concerns raised over many months by residents, their representatives and consultants.

  • Map of City Council land to be transferred for the slip road

    City Council land to be transferred: yellow to Kent County Council, blue to Highways England

August and May 2017: reports and schedules

The Wincheap Society received copies of two further plans for the fourth slip road, produced after the one we commented on in May 2017. Both are equally problematic. All three plans are set out in our August report, with our comments and queries in Schedule 2.

  • Coloured plan of the proposed fourth slip road

    One of the proposed layouts for the fourth slip road