Maidstone borough council has been accused of viewing proposals to build a large warehouse, office and light industrial development on part of the former much contested Kent International Gateway site as a “cash cow.”

The borough’s planning officers are recommending approval of the scheme at Woodcut Farm off the A20 at Hollingbourne, which is due to be determined by the council’s planning committee on Thursday (June 30).

But among the reasons given for supporting the application is a reference to the fact that “an estimate of the business rates for the development indicates that MBC and KCC will potentially be in receipt of between £0.4 million and £0.8 million annually, depending on the mix of different uses when completed.”

Chartered surveyor Robert Sinclair, who is opposed to the scheme, said: “Planning permissions cannot be used as cash cow.

“There are various points in the officers’ report which need to be questioned.”

Chief among them was an assumption that because the site had been included in the borough’s draft Local Plan submission to the Government, the application should be approved.

Mr Sinclair said: “The inspector may well reject that aspect of the Local Plan.”

The previous proposal for the Kent International Gateway scheme on the same site had been rejected by a Government planning inspector.

The scheme has its supporters: one unnamed “local business” and also the Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce “fully supports the principle of economic development around Junction 8.”

But the objectors to the scheme include Hollingbourne Parish Council, Leeds Parish Council, Thurnham Parish Council, Bearsted Parish Council, Detling Parish Council, the Joint Parishes Group (representing 15 parish councils), the Bearsted and Thurnham Society, the Campaign To Protect Rural England, The Kent Downs AONB Unit, Leeds Castle, and Natural England, Kent County Council, and even the borough council’s own conservation officer.

Mr Sinclair has written to members of the planning committee to say: “I am very concerned that the decision-making process has been taken away from the people that you are charged to represent.

“It is very important for local democracy that it is seen to be working.

“At present, I regret to say, there is real feeling that it is not.”

The Bearsted and Thurnham Society agreed, describing the application as “wholly speculative.”

Secretary Mary Richards said: “The borough’s planning officers seem to be pushing this through before the inspector has barely had time to read about it.”

The society called on the public to attend the meeting in the Town Hall. It starts at 6pm.

Mrs Richards said: “This may be our last chance to save the countryside at Junction 8.”

Application number 15/503288 refers.