New plans to double the number of new homes on a site around a garden centre have been submitted.

A total of 19 homes could be destined for green space and unused land on either side of Preston Garden Centre, near Canterbury, after a second planning bid was put forward this month.

The owners of the business on The Street first proposed to build 10 homes on two-and-a-half acres of land adjoining the garden centre, said to be “surplus to requirements”.

First validated in December of last year and still awaiting a decision from Dover District Council (DDC), a mixture of house types including two-bedroom and three-bedroom detached bungalows, and four-bedroom and five-bedroom detached houses, are proposed by the applicant “to appeal to a broad range of potential occupants”.

However, the planned site access road onto Mill Lane sparked concerns among residents and the parish council, who argued the narrow road is already congested at school times and presents a hazard.

Parish council chairman Tommy Gale says while the applicants have informally suggested an alternative access through the garden centre car park onto The Street, the one in Mill Lane mentioned in the planning application has worried members.

“The applicants have been engaging with us but we cannot support the Mill Lane access,” he said.

“It’s a narrow lane which gets very congested in the mornings and at the end of the school day and we just don’t think it’s safe to have more vehicles coming out into it.

“Any traffic study really needs to be done at these critical times to get a real reflection of the situation.”

He added the parish council had not been consulted on the proposal for a footpath across a meadow gifted to the village.

Planning agents said: “The design seeks to demonstrate that the development proposal meets and addresses the defined aspirations of the Preston Village Design Statement.”

They say the appearance of the planned new homes have been created to suit the village setting and the surrounding area and will have “high quality contemporary architecture and designs, that complement their surroundings”.

Now, a separate and new application has been submitted to DDC which asking for permission to add a further nine houses on the opposite side of the centre, on land to the north of the garden centre building.

The homes would be comprised of three terraced rows of three houses with two bedrooms each on the land, which is said to be used primarily for storage.

Access would be from The Street via what is currently part of the centre’s car park.

The planning documents argue that as the access is currently built to withstand a full car park and commercial deliveries, “the reduced number of vehicle movements for only nine two-bedroom dwelling compared to all day customer use will make the existing access suitable for use”.