Nine years after it was first proposed a scheme to create hundreds of homes across 27 hectares of farmland has passed its last major hurdle.

The outline proposal from FD Attwood and Partners for 450 homes on land at Gibraltar Farm off Ham Lane in Walderslade was first submitted in 2015.

But then it has undergone several iterations.

The land initially was contained entirely within Medway, which refused planning permission.

Their refusal was overturned at appeal but the applicants were blocked because their application required access to the site via North Downs Way across land owned by Medway Council - and the council bluntly refused to sell the land to the developers.

The plans were rejigged with a new access via Ham Lane - but that extended the application site into Maidstone council’s area and so the scheme needed approval by both the Medway and Maidstone authorities.

Medway finally relented in August of this year and granted permission for its part of the venture.

The Maidstone section - which is for access only and does not contain any of the housing - came before Maidstone council’s planning committee last Thursday (October 17).

It requires the junction of Ham Lane onto Lidsing Road to be stopped up and a new access created a short distance away.

Extra passing bays will be provided on Westfield Sole Road with additional off-site improvements at the Chapel Lane junction and the Hoath Way roundabout.

The applicants will also give £100,000 to Kent County Council to put in traffic-calming measures at Boxley and Bredhurst.

Much of the debate centred around whether the highways authority could be relied upon to use that money to assist the two Maidstone villages, but planning officer Marion Geary was confident they would.

Cllr Kathy Cox (Green and Independent Alliance) had an altogether different point to make.

She noted that the Maidstone part of the site was just 450m from what used to be called the Kent Downs AONB, which has now been renamed the Kent Downs National Landscape.

In March this year, the new government had placed a duty on local authorities that new planning applications must “protect and enhance” designated national landscapes.

Cllr Cox asked, since clearly at least some of the traffic from the scheme will be travelling into the National Landscape, how could that be said to be enhancing it?

Mrs Geary replied that traffic through the national landscape at this point was already a “renowned problem,” but said that traffic modelling had shown the increase in traffic would be marginal and would not create any significant extra harm above that already existing.

She also said that the effect on the AONB had been considered by the planning inspector at the earlier appeal and dismissed (although that was before the new guidance on National Landscapes.)

Cllr Cox said: “So a few years ago. there was a government inspection of the traffic and it was said there was not going to be particularly any harm. But we now have an active duty to protect and enhance the landscape.

“Avoiding a little bit of harm, is not enhancing and is not protecting.

“Also that was a dated survey. I’m really struggling to see how we can accept that.”

Mrs Geary said: “Given the traffic levels through the national landscape currently, the increase from this scheme is marginal and on that basis, it doesn’t chip in to the level of harm that would justify refusing this scheme.

“There is a statutory duty upon us, but I don’t feel it deals with the very marginal increase here.”

Mrs Geary said: “National Highways have commented and have no concerns. KCC have commented and have no concerns. We don’t feel that’s an issue that we can refuse on.”

She said the application would result in very significant traffic improvements elsewhere, including at the slip road onto the M20.

There’s a tidal commuter rat-run every day

Cllr Cox said: “Just one last time, our duty is to actively enhance the National Landscape. This application is not meeting that condition.”

But Cllr Cox failed to persuade any of her colleagues to take up the issue.

The Gibraltar Farm proposal sits right alongside Maidstone council’s own plans for a 2,000-home Garden Village at Lidsing.

Cllr Tony Harwood (Lib Dem) said: “There is a huge tidal commuter rat-run through the middle of the Kent Downs from Medway to Maidstone every day and we know it’s belching out a lot of pollution.

“The big elephant in the room is that Maidstone has allocated at Lidsing an even bigger allocation than this one, so we would not have many legs to stand on if we objected.”

Approval was given by 10 votes to one.

The application has attracted nearly 800 individual letters of objection as well as objections from both Boxley and Bredhurst Parish Councils.

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The permission granted remains only outline. A fully detailed application will now have to be submitted, meaning the development could yet still be several years away.