A 60-year-old training site for greyhound racing could be swept away to make room for new homes.

Luckhurst Kennels at Home Farm in Staplehurst has been training greyhounds for six decades, but the owners have now submitted an outline planning application to Maidstone council to redevelop the 2.83 hectare plot for 51 homes.

The business was founded by Donald “Bink” Luckhurst in the late 1950s and is now run by his daughter Julie Luckhurst and her partner Michael Jeives.

Mr Jeives said the move had been forced on them by the construction of two new housing sites close by, by builders Bovis and Redrow.

He said: “We’ve now got 300 homes right on our doorstep. We are a rural business, at times we can be quite noisy, with dogs barking late at night.

“We used to have a lot of privacy, but now we have people walking by all the time and their cats and dogs getting into our site and disturbing our dogs.”

He said the intention was to move the business to a more isolated location if a suitable site could be found.

He said: “We’ve looked at one or two places, but we can’t really make any firm decision until we know how the planning application turns out.”

He said it was the intention for the kennels to stay in Kent or Sussex if possible.

The brownfield plot currently includes kennels and runs to house 150 dogs, plus an oval race-training circuit and a mobile home for staff. The farmhouse and associated barn are not part of the application and would remain.

In addition to the brownfield site, the application includes a second parcel of land of 0.7 hectares on the other side of Pile Lane, which they want to develop for an additional 10 homes.

The main site would be accessed via a new entry to be created onto Headcorn Road. There would be pedestrian links to Sweetlands Lane and Pile Lane.

The secondary site, which is divided by a public footpath, would have traffic access onto Couchmans Green Lane.

A reptile survey has found good populations of slowworms and common lizards on the main site, which includes a pond, as well as some grass snakes.

The applicants propose to set aside a strip of land bordering Pile Lane as a reptile habitat.

Altogether, the two sites will provide 24 new affordable homes, although the application is outline at the moment, with all details of design reserved for future discussion.

The main site has been allocated for potential development in the borough council’s emerging Local Plan, which has yet to be passed by a government inspector.

Details of the plan can be viewed here.

Search the application number 23/502771 refers.