Hundreds of protesters marched to the proposed site for a new gigantic housing development in the heart of the countryside.

It follows the Shepway District Council’s plans for a ‘garden village’ called Otterpool Park which would see 12,000 homes built on land south of the M20 at the former Folkestone Racecourse.

But residents in nearby villages such as Sellindge, Lympne, and Newingreen fear it would create a whole new town with a population potentially double the size of Hythe.

On Saturday they converged from the surrounding villages and gathered at the Airport Cafe off the A20 to register their opposition to the scheme.

The Otterpool Park plan is the council’s initiative to apply to the government for a ‘garden town’ masterplan after it acquired the land for £5.3 million earlier this year.

The massive development would be phased over the next 30 years, and council leader David Monk believes it will create jobs and homes while being well connected to the M20 and Eurotunnel terminal.

But resident Bob Paddon said he felt the council’s tactics were “underhand” because the of promises that it would be leased as farmland.

He said: “The policy for garden towns was devised by the last coalition government. So they must have had some idea back then that this is what they intended to do.

“The south east of England is already one of the most densely populated. With this development local roads and public transport won’t be able to cope.”

Campaigner David Plumstead addressed 500 protesters who had gathered outside the cafe and called for a concerted campaign of opposition.

He said: “Because the public have been excluded from two meetings at Shepway next week, I’m hoping what we can all do is gather outside the front doors of the Lubjanka, that is the Civic Centre, on Wednesday.

“Let’s make sure it happens, because we have got to impress our parish councillors and Shepway District Council that we mean business.”

He asked people to write to Greg Clarke MP at the Department for Communities and Local Government.

Shepway District Council’s cabinet meeting will take place on Wednesday, June 8 at 5pm at the Civic Centre in Castle Hill Avenue.

Full pictures and a report from the protest will be published in the Folkestone and Hythe Express on Wednesday.