A parish council is considering spending up to £3,000 on expert consultants to contest allocations in a local authority’s draft Local Plan.

East Peckham has been earmarked to take up to 586 homes in the latest iteration of the Tonbridge and Malling Local Plan, published last week.

It comes as Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council (TMBC) seeks to find space for the 19,746 new homes that the government says it must build by 2042, which will expand the borough’s population by over a third.

Its proposals, which are only just at the beginning of the adoption process, will be subject to at least two rounds of formal public consultation, although East Peckham is to hold its own community events to make sure everyone is aware of what could be coming.

The parish council chairman, Mark Williams, said: “We only have around 1,300 households, so what is proposed would be an enormous expansion of the village.

“Some of the sites put forward today were put forward in the last round and were dismissed then as being unviable, yet here they are again.

“Every single one is in the Greenbelt, and every one is subject to flooding.”

“The thing you never get is the infrastructure to go with it. We already have problems with our gas and water mains. The school is full. People can’t get to the dentist in Paddock Wood because the public transport is rubbish.

“It’s not just us, of course. It’s the same for every village.

“There’s just no proper thought gone into this and no compassion.“

Cllr Williams acknowledged that TMBC was just trying to reach the targets imposed on it by the government, but he said: “The remedy shouldn’t be just to roll over and accept it.

“One of these sites is literally covered in thousands of trees. What’s to happen to them?”

This is causing real stress in the village

There are five allocations altogether, with three sitting alongside each other in the centre of the village.

Cllr Williams said: “One of these sites is literally divided into hundreds of plots, all in separate ownerships, and people don’t want to sell.

“Another was put forward by the previous owner, but the current owner is not interested in selling.

“It’s quite shocking how these have come to be included.

“This is causing real stress in the village, both for the landowners and their neighbours.”

“We already have the situation where children who live within a mile of the village school can’t get a place there.”

Cllr Williams said the parish would be organising its own consultations because it was sceptical of what the borough’s official consultations would look like.

He said: “The questions asked will be loaded, and the answers will come out of the questions.”

The TMBC proposals include 50 homes on land west of Addlestead Road; 140 homes to the west of Hale Street, and 396 homes across three sites south of Church Lane at Hale Street.

The parish council is holding an extraordinary meeting in the Jubilee Hall in the village this Friday (October 24) in order to agree to set aside £3,000 to hire expert advice if necessary to contest the allocations.

Tonbridge and Malling has been without an up-to-date Local Plan for six years, ever since its last attempt was rejected by a government planning inspector in 2019 and had to be withdrawn.

The resulting policy void has left the council vulnerable to “planning by appeal” with only limited grounds to refuse any planning applications that come forward.

Tonbridge and Malling council has been approached for comment.

Meanwhile, one East Peckham resident is urging her fellow villagers to sign a national petition on the House of Commons website calling on the government to think again on its definition of “Greybelt” sites.

Karen Gittins asks: “Why should the government change the Garden of England to suit their targets?”

The petition can be signed here.

So far, it has collected more than 33,534 signatures. If it receives over 100,000 before November 14 , it will be considered for a debate in Parliament.