Plans for an 800-home estate that will double a village’s population have been given the green light despite being slated as turning Kent into a “garden of concrete”.

The proposal for a sprawling development north of Hersden, near Canterbury, also represents the final financial step to the long-planned Sturry relief road - contributing £6.3m to the project.

Canterbury City Council’s (CCC) planning committee were originally meant to vote on the bid at a meeting on July 23, but deferred the decision so they could visit the site.

The final call was made last night, paving the way for Persimmon Homes to push forward with the scheme.

The decision was made in the face of fierce opposition from many residents concerned about the impact of the development on the village.

Among them was Craig Thompson, who lives in Hersden and spoke at the meeting, urging councillors to reject the application.

“We can’t continue to keep building on green spaces. At some point we will run out of land, leaving us with the garden of concrete, not the garden of England,” he said.

“Hersden will no longer be a village and the proposed plan will increase the village by three times its current footprint.

“We live almost next to the community centre and we’re right on the edge of the mushroom fields overlooking far-reaching countryside views north of Hersden, which was one of the biggest attractions when we bought the property in the first place.

“With the new proposed plans we’re going to have a new community centre which is going to be six metres in height, totally overshadowing any views.

“We moved here from a densely populated area and believed it would be our forever home.”

Mr Thompson’s wife, Michelle Brayford, expressed similar sentiments, saying the new estate was “not what we signed up for when we bought our property in Hersden - we bought it because it was a village property”.

Of the 800 homes proposed, 240 will be affordable, meaning they will be sold or rented at a discount on the market rate.

The application was a hybrid one - meaning full permission was given for 261 homes, while for the remaining 539 further planning applications will need to be made in future to decide the design and layout.

However, a planning officer told councillors that as a condition of the development, most of it will not be able to go ahead until the relief road is complete.

“They cannot develop any further than 255 dwellings until the Sturry Relief Road is delivered – that’s constructed and built,” she said.

The Sturry Link Road will serve about 16,000 new homes to the east of the city, while a 250-metre stretch of the road will be built over the Great Stour River, its flood plain and the Canterbury to Ramsgate railway line.

Lucy Wilford, acting as planning agent for the bid, stressed at the meeting that the housing development will ”contribute £6.3m towards the relief road”.

“The payment from this development is the last to be received to facilitate its delivery,” she said.

The £40 million project was originally approved in September 2021 and is set to serve thousands of drivers daily.

In March this year, Kent County Council appointed firm VolkerFitzpatrick to design and build the 550-metre-long carriageway on the A28.

Construction is planned to start in 2025 and run into 2026.

Cllr Ian Stockley (Con), however, is dubious of the commitment to funding for the long-awaited highway project.

“I’m old enough to remember the planning for the large estates on the top of Sturry Hill which we were told we needed to get this bypass built,” he said.

“Two years ago the plans went through, the houses are being built, but no bypasses yet.

“So this is yet another. I was unaware that we were still relying on £6.3m from this development to also build the same road.”

The 800-home estate will cover an area the size of almost 87 football pitches and is one of the final allocations from CCC’s 2017 local plan.

Part of the site will host a newly built Water Recycling Centre which Persimmon claims will be able to treat water to a better quality than required at the existing Westbere Water Treatment Facility.

It also includes permission for business space including a cafe, office space, expansion of the village primary school, a community building and a sports pavilion.

The planning committee voted to approve the application by nine votes to two, with one abstention.