Confusion over boundaries could mean the same home in Sonora Fields could be in two different wards.

This is because parts of the estate fall in an unparished area whilst some in the south west corner come within Bobbing.

However, as the line doesn’t fit neatly to individual roads or even buildings, it means parts of a house, or a block of flats, could be inside the marker and the rest of the building outside of it.

The issue came to light when 114 homes on the development received a letter from Swale council informing them they will pay an extra £19.82 for a Band D property for the financial year 2015/16.

This is due to Bobbing parish council’s precept charge not being added. Swale will collect the money, which is approximately and extra £2,000 for the year, on behalf of the authority.

The areas affected were initially listed as Gemstone Court (20 homes), Opal House (12), Quartz Way (18), Spinel Close (nine), Peridot Walk (11), Pearl Walk (16), and Helidor Walk (22) and Garnet House (six).

However, several residents in Quartz Way and Peridot Walk contacted Meads ward councillor James Hunt saying they thought there had been a mistake.

He raised the matter with the borough council, which led to problems with the boundary line being discovered.

Officers will now go back to the drawing board to scrutinise in detail which individual homes should and shouldn’t be paying the charge.

A council spokesman said: “We want to make sure people are being charged accurately, but this is an unusual case where streets - and in some cases buildings - straddle the parish boundaries.
“We are currently working to identify how many properties are affected, we are also clarifying the legal situation.

“The precept has not previously been collected and the parish council is aware of this.

“We’re currently checking the legislation about what this might mean for money owed to the parish, and looking at records to ascertain how much this might be once things like single occupier discounts etc are applied.

“We do not want to rush this and risk people being charged more than is necessary, but we hope people can continue to be patient as we work to resolve the situation as quickly as we can.

“We will write to those not in the parish to clarify the situation.”