The firm behind plans for a “high-end” housing development on the outskirts of Canterbury says it hopes to celebrate Kent and its traditions through the design of its houses.

A proposal to build four large family homes at Nethergong Yard, Chislet, Canterbury has been submitted by civil engineering firm Hannafin Contractors.

And bosses at the company are keen to see Kent’s hop-making roots honoured through the design, having used oast houses around the county as inspiration.

A spokesperson for Hannafin told KentOnline: “We hope to be an example of both design and biodiversity gain, as well as being viable from an economic point of view that can benefit the community by making use of a disused brownfield site.

“In terms of the actual design itself, we’ve looked at the history of the area, and the idea of escaping to Kent is something people idealise and we’d definitely say this is a celebration of Kent and its traditions.

“We’ve looked at the hop-growing history and have used the oast house at Chislet as an inspiration, using the anatomy of the building to help us design the houses at Nethergong Yard.”

The 0.82-acre site is currently used to store building materials and is considered to be a brownfield site.

It was historically a chicken farm before becoming the home of a coppicing business in 2009.

Hannafin had planned to turn the site into a temporary depot for its south-east projects during the pandemic, but said operational changes led to this idea failing to come into fruition.

If the plans are approved, three four-bedroom homes and a three-bedroom house would spring up, each named after processes of hop farming.

Listed as lifting, drying, bagging and storing, each home would also be modified slightly to reflect this, with features changing from house-to-house based on its assigned stage.

The developers are keen to promote environmental and ecological features, with rainwater harvesting and flood resilient measures being key parts of the plans.

It is hoped that raising the homes above ground could help to negate any issues linked to flooding in the area.

As well as this, biodiverse planting strategies could be used on the site to encourage wildlife and threatened species, with the under croft space being described as ideal for “shade loving plans and species”.

When describing the potential cost of the proposals, the firm could not stipulate a project outlay but described it as “high-end”.

Elsewhere in the city, plans for a nine-house bungalow-type development in Sturry have been submitted by Provectus Developments.

Described in documents as “high quality”, the units will each be three-bedroom properties and is currently the home of Underdone Plant Hire and Blast Cleaning.

It is proposed to demolish all buildings on the site, having been used for commercial uses since records began in 1947. Previous uses include a paint shop and a builders yard.

Details of the plans can be found on Canterbury City Council’s planning portal using CA/23/00014 for the Chislet development, or CA/22/01811 for the Sturry development.