The outcome of a public inquiry into a controversial application to protect a pocket of land from developers could be known in the coming days.

Campaigners have spent more than three years making the case for Bunyards Farm, at Allington, to be awarded village green status.

It would mean the 37 acres of former farmland could never be built on under the Commons Act 2006.

There is currently an option for hundreds of homes in the last green space on the border of the neighbouring Maidstone and Tonbridge and Malling boroughs.

Members of the Medway Ecological Riverine Link (MERLin) argued the land has been in common use by dog walkers, berry pickers and kite-flyers for two decades - the time required for village green status under the act.

KCC councillor Chris Passmore and colleague Duncan Edwards were among the group who constructed the case.

Cllr Passmore said: “The point of having the inquiry in March was so that it might avoid the general election, which was anticipated to be in November.

“Because the election was called for July has caused the delay but we’ve been told the inspector’s report will come back by the end of August.”

Their claim was contested by the land’s owners, the Andrew Cheale Will Trust and by the developer BDW Trading Ltd, which retains an option on the site to build 435 new homes.

Government planning inspector Annabel Graham Paul, a barrister, will issue her report and KCC officials will digest her observations before it is sent on to the council’s regulation committee for a decision.

Cllr Passmore , who does not sit on the committee, added: “Every hurdle we have had to clear has always taken significantly longer than we thought it would. But it is a big piece of land and it’s a complex issue.”

The Liberal Democrat member said the landowners must be “extremely worried” about the outcome but “that does not mean that we are going to be successful”.

He added: “This would be the biggest village green registration in 2024 and there is an awful lot at stake and KCC is very keen to get it right.”

The landowners argued that, although the land has not been intensively farmed since 1998, it has been used for other activities such as hay-making and horse-grazing since.

Douglas Edwards KC suggested the access points, gaps in the perimeter, used by the local people had been caused by vandalism.

Campaigners argued fencing had fallen into disrepair.