A garden centre is set for a major redevelopment – including an extension, five new houses and private stables.

Bosses at Folkestone Garden Centre, near Densole, have applied for permission to transform the current building and surrounding land.

They also want to build the four- and five-bed homes near the site, located off the A260 Canterbury Road in Swingfield Minnis, in order to fund the redevelopment of the business.

According to Rightmove, the average house price in the hamlet is £403,155.

Work is currently being carried out to re-roof and re-clad the current garden centre. The hybrid application would see the building extended in two directions to provide larger and improved facilities.

A new wing could be added onto the side to provide a new cafe complete with its own kitchen, as well as toilets to replace the current temporary ones.

Work would also take place at the front of the building, where a further extension would provide a new entrance.

The car park is also set to be redeveloped, providing 75 parking spaces (including 10 disabled and five for parents and children), adjacent to an overflow car park of 46 spaces.

At the back of the building, a new covering would be established in the courtyard to provide a covered retail area, alongside a new delivery area and storage building.

Further away from the building to the north, a new stable is proposed to be built on a field that is also part of the centre’s land.

These stables are proposed to be let or sold for independent, non-commercial use.

As part of the development, the plans also propose five new houses to be built to the south of the garden centre.

An excerpt from the plans argues that the homes – a mixture of four- and five-bed properties – are necessary to provide “much-needed” cash to redevelop the garden centre, “rendering it commercially viable, while continuing to contribute to the economy of the area”.

It adds: “The proposed residential development to the south will be set back from the highway and will not be visible. It will be further concealed with an enhanced landscape planting proposal.”

The new homes – one of which will replace a derelict house that currently sits on the site – would be set back from the road and shielded with natural barriers including trees.

They would be accessible via a separate access road onto a lane that serves existing houses to the east of the site, leading onto Canterbury Road.

The plans are currently open to comments from the public on Folkestone and Hythe District Council's planning portal.

A decision is expected to be made by the beginning of October at the latest.