A DEAL offering a by-pass for Leeds and Langley in return for up to 1,300 homes in countryside near Maidstone has been revealed.

A design study being carried out on land off Gravelly Bottom Road between Kingswood and Leeds has aroused concern among local people and councillors.

Trevor Gasson, director of development services at Maidstone Borough Council, said: "The borough council is extremely supportive of the by-pass and has been instrumental in bringing it to a high priority in the county council programme. I must, without committing the borough council, express some concern about the prospect of a large scale residential development being supported to achieve this."

Broomfield and Kingswood and Leeds parish councils, Maidstone Borough Council and Kent County Council have all held talks with the Howard Hutton Associates, which is completing the study on the 160-acre site owned by farmer Robert Schroeder.

The design includes a small supermarket, community hall, pub and land for a primary and secondary school. It would also incorporate a link roads to the proposed bypass, the alignment of which could be amended to incorporate the development. The land includes 18 acres of woodland.

Cllr Malcolm Robertson (Lib Dem), the council's cabinet member for planning and transport policy, said: "It may be that the people of Maidstone will be happy to have the development in the countryside in order to get the bypass quickly. But I don't think people really want to see that much countryside taken in that location."

The proposed development would have to be included in the borough council's Local Plan from 2006 and the county council's Structure Plan and would be unlikely to be completed before 2010.