Campaigners opposed to plans for a garden village at Tudeley point to recent severe flooding in the area as a reason not to allow further development.

Residential areas were affected across Capel at Tudeley, Five Oak Green, Alders Road and by the manor on Badsell Road on the weekend of July 31 and again on August 7.

Stewart Gledhill, the chairman of Save Capel, said: "Capel suffered from yet more severe flooding in the middle of summer.

"This is the fourth significant flood since Tunbridge Wells Borough Council published its Local Plan with proposals to build extensively over Capel parish, just over two years ago.

"The situation would be even worse if the surrounding countryside was not there to absorb the intensity of the rainfall, which under the borough's plans will soon be covered in housing and concrete."

"The Government has repeatedly warned against the folly of building on or adjacent to flood plains with surface water flooding now being given more prominence.

"Severe flooding in the future, that will affect residents and those further along the Medway caused by run-off from the proposed concreting over vast swathes of farmland, is inevitable."

A spokesman for Tunbridge Wells Borough Council said: "Throughout the process of developing the Local Plan we have liaised closely with both the Environment Agency and Southern Water, and have received technical input from specialist drainage engineers.

"We appreciate drainage is a major concern for local residents in Capel and Paddock Wood.

"The proposals for the growth in these areas will not only be required to incorporate sustainable drainage measures and demonstrate that it will not increase flood risk elsewhere, but will also offer an opportunity to provide infrastructure to improve the well understood existing drainage issues in these areas."

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