The proposal of a 'garden village' with up to 5,000 houses could take up to 25 years to build depending on demand, developers have said.

More than 170 people turned out in the cold and wet on Wednesday, January 16 to pose questions to three representatives from Gladman, the company promoting the land to the south of the town for a new garden community.

The evening was hosted by the Faversham Society, and topics discussed included traffic, drainage and sewage, and disruption to people's live.

Gladman has partnered with four landowners south of the M2 – Bensted, Holmes, Batchelor and Lees Court – to submit plans for a large-scale project to help meet housing targets.

The 317-hectare plot of land, which stretches from the M2 to Sheldwich, is one of four locations in Swale under consideration for a garden community.

It lies directly south of a second proposed site in Faversham, consisting of 131 hectares of land belonging to the Duchy of Cornwall’s royal estate in Selling Road, which could have 2,500 homes.

At the meeting in St Mary of Charity Church last week, special projects director Mike Heming commented it could take up to 25 years to build the whole development, with demand dictating the pace of house building.

Speaking to KentOnline's sister paper Faversham News, Mr Heming said that should plans take off, it would be hoped to be completed it a lot less time, however.

He said: "We would hope it would be completed a lot quicker than in 25 years, but being pessimistic it is how long this sort of thing could take depending on demand.

"We don't know what will happen in the future, we don't have a crystal ball, but what we do know is that there will always be a need for housing

Plans, however, remain largely conceptual. A Swale Borough Council local plan panel meeting on January 31, in which the option pursuing the garden communities line was due to be discussed, has been cancelled.

A spokesman said: "No decision has been made about whether new garden communities are the right strategy for the local plan review - we are still collecting the necessary evidence before that decision is made.

"Our technical assessment of the various scheme submissions is ongoing, and we hope to present it to councillors at the local plan panel in February.

"This will ask members for a formal steer as to whether the principle of the garden communities should be further pursued as part of the potential options for the future local plan development strategy."

In Gladman's prospectus, independent advisor Lord Matthew Taylor - who proposed the garden village programme to the government - says: "By working with the council, the intention is to create a long term partnership to design and deliver the best possible community, of the highest quality.

"The commitment is to meet all the objectives of the government's garden village and towns programme, and more importantly meet the needs of the people living and working in Swale, especially the next generation currently priced out of homes."