Contractors have moved onto a site where new schools are to be built just days after being granted planning permission.

Construction company Bowmer and Kirkland sent teams onto on Pope's Field in Boxley, near Maidstone, just four days after the council gave plans for two new schools the green light.

Rebecca Darling, a spokeswoman for the firm, said: "Our project team are on site with the permission of the land-owner carrying the initial archeological surveys that are a standard part of all applications.

"It is nothing controversial and we did inform the local ward councillors in advance that we would be doing this."

Permission was granted for Bearsted Primary Academy and for Snowfields Academy, a secondary school for students with learning difficulties on Thursday, by a narrow margin of seven votes to five.

Neil Willis, the deputy chief executive of the Leigh Academies Trust which will run the two schools, said: "We are excited by the opportunity to deliver outstanding learning environments at both Bearsted Primary and Snowfields Academies.

"Leigh Academies Trust provides strong academic performance, highly supportive pastoral care and close working with local communities.”

There were more than 600 letters of objection from residents opposed to the scheme.

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