A bid to turn a million-pound property into flats and more houses has been rejected after years of planning battles and even the intervention of a TikTok influencer.

A ward councillor described the plan for Cobham Lodge, in Gravesend, as “like putting an estate in someone’s back garden”.

The owner had previously failed to get permission to build 64 apartments on the site in what was dubbed “the worst planning application in history”.

A fresh request for planning permission was submitted which included converting the house into 10 flats, turning a rear annex into two houses, building a new block of 11 apartments, eight semi-detached homes and a detached house.

Gravesham council received 419 letters objecting to the plans and 185 in support.

Objections focused on the development being too dense with housing, too similar to the previously rejected bids, overcrowding, traffic and lack of supporting infrastructure.

Residents and campaigners have been lobbying against development on the site since the initial application was submitted in February 2019.

Cllr Diane Morton (Con) represents Singlewell ward, where Cobham Lodge is.

She said: “It's been a very contentious and a very difficult journey from the beginning from when we had the first application.”

She added: “It would’ve been an absolute nightmare with the traffic for a start. There clearly weren’t enough parking spaces.

“It would’ve been over-massing basically. It would have been like putting an estate in someone’s back garden.”

However, mortgage adviser, estate agent and TikTok influencer Saira Haider was disappointed with the result.

She said: “I couldn’t understand why somebody would be against it."

She didn't put much stock in residents’ congestion fears.

“It’s right bang on a motorway – you’re always going to get tons of traffic," she said.

Ms Haider thinks new developments such as the rejected plans for Cobham Lodge are what Gravesend needs.

“I want more housing in this area,” she said. “I see and experience it from the demand point of view of the tenants. We just don’t have enough stock and availability.”

“The actual community that has grown in this area is being priced out."

However, the development was set to be exclusively market rate properties, with none reserved as affordable.

Cllr Morton said: “If you allow a development of that size to go through without any affordable housing, then every developer could do that."

She also echoed concerns of residents around setting a precedent.

“Of course people are going to come along and say ‘well they did it, so why can’t we? I’ve got a big garden I want to build a block of flats in my back garden’.”

Cllr Morton stressed that residents didn’t just oppose any development, and that plans “more sympathetic” to the area, like nearby Sheldon Heights, wouldn’t attract the same objections.

“Maybe keep the existing Cobham Lodge, make the bedrooms a bit bigger, take away the apartment block and then get some decent housing up there with plenty of space for gardens and car parking. It’s not rocket science,” she suggested.

The council’s planning committee rejected the application at its meeting on November 23.