Plans to build hundreds of homes on land designated for businesses have been discussed this week.

Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council refused four separate applications to build a combined total of 435 homes around Kings Hill earlier this year.

But developer Liberty Property Trust has a second chance of getting its way after a Planning Inspectorate public inquiry started on Tuesday.

The developer wants to build 350 homes in the centre of Kings Hill's business district, on fields off Kings Hill Avenue, Abbey Wood Road and Jubilee Way.

It has plans for another 70 on land north of Amber Lane, a residential area which technically falls under East Malling.

Residents had the chance to make their views clear at the start of the inquiry on Tuesday.

Sarah Barker, chair of Kings Hill Parish Council, said: "I've lived in Kings Hill since 2003 and have been a councillor since 2007, I moved to Kings Hill from south Cambridgeshire as at the time I considered it as a well planned community.

"Previous comments are referring to it as a garden village, it is slowly losing that image.

"Since 2004 areas allocated for commercial use have been slowly converted to residential.

"The increase in residential development has as indicated put a great pressure on the infrastructure, transport, schools and NHS services. None of these have kept pace with the increase in population and some infrastructure may never be fulfilled."

Siobhan Kirk, from Shoesmith Lane, highlighted some of the problems: "The doctor's surgery is struggling to offer an acceptable level of service.

"The only sure way to secure a same day appointment is to join a queue outside the surgery at 7.45am. Every day there's a queue of up to 20 people, this is a terrible situation if you're feeling very unwell and i cannot imagine what its like for our elderly residents and those are who are very young with poorly children.

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"West Malling train station is a five to 10 minute drive away. The shuttle bus to the station is unreliable with residents frequently missing their trains which then encourages them to drive.

"The station car park is often full by 10am and the platform so crowded during peak morning rush it has become dangerous."

Paul Cairnes, representing the appellant, defended plans to build homes on land designated for offices, said: "The development of the appeal sites for employment services is simply not viable. These sites ave been marketed as such for more than 20 years.

"There is no reasonable prospect of the sites coming forward for their allocated employment uses."

Mr Cairnes told planning inspector Andrew Dawe TMBC only had a housing land supply to meet the next for the next two and a half years.

He added: "This deficit is not just some abstract concept but represents real people locally who are in desperate need for housing and whose needs the council is simply not accommodating."

The inquiry is expected to end on December 18.

Read more: All the latest news from Malling.