Campaigners are celebrating victory in a 'David and Goliath' battle against a developer who wanted to build 74 homes on farmland.

If built, the scheme by Land Allocation Ltd would have wiped out part of the green wedge off Reading Street Road and Convent Road, in Broadstairs.

A green wedge is the open area which maintains the distinction between the countryside and built-up locations. In this case, it separates Broadstairs from Margate.

Thanet District Council planners refused the application for the site, which is near to the exclusive North Foreland Golf Club and two of the Isle's stunning beaches - Kingsgate Bay and Botany Bay.

In the decision notice, they said the proposed development would result in the "inreversible loss" of part of the green wedge and the "best and most versatile" agricultural land.

Planners also said the development would appear cramped, with a disproportionately higher density than homes immediately adjacent.

They also pointed out the additional traffic and increased recreational pressure on the Thanet Coast and Sandwich Bay Special Protection Area (SPA), and Sandwich Bay and Hacklinge Marshes Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI).

However, Land Allocation had stated the scheme would have included public open space and landscaping.

But planners refused the application, which had received some 140 objections.

Jenny Matterface, spokesman for the campaign group Fight the Reading Street Road Development, said they kept their fight simple.

"When the plan was submitted last June, we weren't able to hold any meetings or demonstrations, quite rightly because of Covid," she said.

"We set up a Facebook page, we printed a load of leaflets and people went out leafleting. We kept it simple and we focused on the important points, such as the green wedge, loss of farmland and loss of parking.

"It was a bit David and Goliath but we had lots of support and we used our knowledge from campaigning against the Club Union planning application."

She says it wasn't just Broadstairs residents against the plan, but people in nearby Kingsgate, too.

"They felt very strongly about this, because if the Reading Street part of the field was to go with the 74 homes, they could see the next area which would go and the long-term danger to them," she said.

"People also felt incredibly strongly about the loss of prime agricultural land.

"If we look at the way the world is going, we're going to need it more than ever."

She added that the site was not allocated in the Local Plan.