More than 100 people took part in a walking tour of Oaken Wood at the weekend as part of a campaign to preserve the ancient woodland from further harm.

The Save Oaken Wood campaign is concerned that a proposal to extend the Gallagher Aggregates Hermitage Quarry in Barming would result in further loss of the ancient woodland, as well as large swathes of farmland.

Kent County Council is currently preparing its next iteration of the Kent Mineral and Waste Local Plan, to take the county up to 2039, and has identified a shortfall in hard rock production of 17.4m tonnes over the next 16 years.

Gallagher Aggregates said it could meet that shortfall if the company were allowed to expand its existing ragstone quarry off Hermitage Lane by a further 96 hectares. It said that would allow it to quarry a further 20m tonnes of ragstone in the time frame.

But local Green party members who organised the walk on Saturday said they were “overwhelmed” by the numbers attending and the strength of public opinion against any extension.

They spent 90 minutes walking through the woodland to see for themselves what was at risk.

Green campaigner Rachel Rodwell said: “The turnout has been great and we have all been able to share our concerns about the loss of this ancient woodland. Together we will stop this.”

Cllr Stuart Jeffery, the leader of the Green party group on Maidstone council, said: “This would be the largest loss of ancient woodland this century, if it were allowed to go ahead. Not only would this loss be horrendous, but to know that almost all of the stone will be used not for repairing historic buildings but for road building just adds insult to injury. Let us hope that we win this fight.”

He said he was pleased to see cross-party support for the campaign.

Gallagher Aggregates has argued that the term quarry “extension” is wrong, since the size of the void will not increase.

After they dig out one pit and move on to the next one, they backfill the hole with inert waste material and reposition the topsoil on it and plant new trees. The company prefers to consider the quarry is simply moving across the landscape.