When Otterpool Park was voted on in April last year, it was one of the largest planning applications in the country.

But despite the first 8,500 homes on the site near Sellindge being approved by Folkestone & Hythe District Council (FHDC), not a brick has been laid since.

However, a deal with the government is now pending, according to the authority’s leader.

Cllr Jim Martin told KentOnline he is “more confident than ever” about the future of the proposed “garden town” - and that building could even commence in 2025.

Otterpool Park has been in the works for years and, once all the new homes are fully occupied, will have a bigger population than the nearest town, Hythe.

Twenty months ago, FHDC’s planning committee gave the go-ahead to an outline application for what will be Kent’s biggest development at the former Folkestone Racecourse.

However, in November this year it came to light that the council had not yet secured a business partner to help it deliver the mammoth project.

But, at the council’s cabinet tonight, the Green-led administration are set to agree to enter into a “collaboration agreement” with Homes England on Otterpool Park.

This, says Cllr Martin, could finally get things moving - with the potential for 300 new properties a year to be built.

The Green representative says that the delay has partly been due to the need for an “eye-wateringly expensive” wastewater treatment plant for the site.

“We’re talking £20 million-plus that has to be spent right at the off before you can even release a single plot,” he said.

Wastewater from the development would otherwise flow into the Stodmarsh catchment area, where phosphate pollution - and rules enforced by Natural England to counter it - have held up thousands of new homes in east Kent over recent years.

The two councils most affected by Stodmarsh - Ashford and Canterbury - agreed in October to form a joint venture company trading in “nutrient credits” for developers.

The firm will use funding from housebuilders to create new wetlands, improve water treatment plants, and invest in new water infrastructure to mitigate the effects of pollution.

Nonetheless, large developments still require their own dedicated treatment plants, with the new town at Otterpool included.

Including road changes and other infrastructure work, Cllr Martin thinks it will cost about £26 million to get construction under way.

But FHDC’s “collaboration agreement” with Homes England does not yet commit the government agency to funding the new facilities needed.

Cllr Martin said: “There’s no mention of them funding the wastewater treatment plant in that.

“What that collaboration agreement essentially says is that we will work earnestly and purposefully towards getting an agreement within six months.”

This period can potentially be extended for a further three months. If Homes England decides not to be FHDC’s key partner by the end of that timeframe, the council will go back to the market to find a partner.

FHDC has devised a planning application for the wastewater facility which will be submitted to the county council in January, with Cllr Martin expecting a decision on that bid by the end of May.

Building of homes could start simultaneously with the work to create the new plant - which would take about 16 months.

“A lot depends on what central government wants to do here,” the Hythe representative said.

“We have got a plan which we’ve discussed with Homes England that we can deliver pretty quickly, but again we would need funding for it.”

The Labour government has made the building of 1.5 million new homes by 2029 one of its key pledges.

Elsewhere in Kent, last month the huge 8,400-home Highstead Park development planned near Sittingbourne was called in by a minister on behalf of housing secretary Angela Rayner.

It means the government will make the final decision on the application, rather than Swale Borough Council.

With Otterpool, Cllr Martin says in a “normal environment”, about 150 new homes could be built a year at the site.

But he added: “If the government wants us to push the pedal flat to the floor we could probably double that and go to 300.”

He stressed that this is dependent on funding from Homes England and the willingness of developers - who usually build according to the rate at which homes can be sold.

Despite the challenges ahead, Cllr Martin added: “I am more confident than I’ve ever been about the future of Otterpool.”

Shortly after Cllr Martin took over as leader of the council in 2023, Otterpool Park LLP, a company created by the authority to help deliver the project, asked for an additional £80 million from FHDC, on top of £120 million which had already been borrowed.

While only 8,500 homes have been approved, FHDC’s plans are for the whole estate to be up to 10,000.

A spokesman for Homes England said: “We are currently reviewing the design and delivery of the waste treatment works.

“Otterpool LLP is funding the planning application, which will be submitted in the new year.

“Once planning has been obtained and the design works completed, we will be in a better place to understand the full costs required to deliver this key piece of infrastructure.

“We're not able to confirm the best solution for the delivery of Otterpool Park at this stage. Conversations are ongoing and we are working closely with FHDC to identify the best course of action.”

Otterpool Park will be built on land just south of the M20 between Folkestone and Ashford.

KentOnline previously revealed that Southeastern high-speed one (HS1) rail services could begin serving nearby Westenhanger station by 2027.

Meanwhile, it has emerged as many as eight primary schools and two secondary schools are likely to be needed to meet the surging demand as thousands of families move in.

The 'garden town', which could one day be home to almost 25,000 people and support about 9,000 new jobs, will be developed in a series of phases.

Opponents have staged significant protests in the past, and in 2019 marched through Hythe to express their dismay at the scheme.

They carried signs, made speeches and wore specially-made shirts reading 'No to Otterpool new town, yes to local homes for local people' as they made their way around town.

Objections to the development include loss of countryside, clean air and tranquillity.