A decision by councillors not to grant planning permission for 250 homes to be built on a treasured green space in East Malling, known as Forty Acres Field, has been overturned by a government planning inspector.

Councillors were told by Tonbridge and Malling's council officers in August last year, that if they refused to approve the plans their decision would overturned the planning inspectorate.

In fact, officers even insisted that members vote twice on the matter last year.

But following an appeal hearing in December, a government planning inspector, Anne Jordan, has this week overturned the refusal and granted Wates Developments outline permission for the land off Winterfield Lane.

Wates intends to build a community centre as well as the homes on the 18 hectares of farmland, with access from London Road and Winterfield Lane.

The site is not allocated in the council's emerging Local Plan, but that plan itself has recently hit the buffers with the council again coming into conflict with the planning inspectorate, so the appeal was determined under the council's existing policies.

Unfortunately, the borough cannot at present indicate that it has a five-year housing supply, a government requirement, which was the key element in the inspector's decision.

The council argued that it was close to the target with 4.3 years of supply, but after examining the evidence, the inspector said the real figure was more like 2.2 years' supply.

The application had generated massive public opposition when it came before the council last year. There were 621 letters of objection and two petitions, each of almost 1,000 signatures.

In contrast the application received 38 letters in support.

Deputy Mayor Cllr Roger Roud (Lib Dem) was one of the key voices in opposition to the proposals.

He said: "This is a travesty. The vote of our planning committee was unanimous for refusal, but this..."

Cllr Roud said: "A tremendous number of people will be very upset by this decision, no doubt some will now even think of moving.

"This land is well used by the local population with a number of rural footpaths passing through it.

"Now instead of green fields people living along the A20 will just see houses.

"It's very disappointing."

The inspector acknowledged the application would alter the character of the area she called the Medway Gap and spoil views for residents, but said that was all outweighed by the housing supply shortfall.

But Cllr Roud said he feared the decision would not be the end of the bad news.

He said: "There is another, smaller adjacent field, that can only be accessed through this one.

"No doubt that will be the next to fall.

"Unfortunately because we do not have a five-year land supply we are now in a situation of 'planning by appeal'.

"This decision will start a feeding frenzy among developers who will look to build on all our remaining green space."

It had been Tonbridge and Malling council's intention to place Forty Acre Field in the Greenbelt in its proposed draft Local Plan, which would have protected it from development.

The one piece of good news is that contrary to the warnings of the borough's planning officers that the council could face a huge costs bill if it lost the appeal, the inspector did not in fact make any award of costs against the council.

The planning inspector's decision can be found here.

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