Planning permission for a rapidly expanding traveller site off the A249 has been refused, six months after ownership of the land was disputed.

Over the past year trees have been chopped down and the ground levelled at the site near Longton Woods, known as Longton Manor, despite no permission from Maidstone Borough Council (MBC).

A retrospective application to allow four mobile homes and a utility building to remain on the site was lodged last August but reports suggest the scale of the development, which is easily visible from Sittingbourne Road, far exceeds that.

On Friday MBC rejected the proposal due to its scale but made no mention of an ongoing ownership dispute between applicant Zachariah Kiddle and local landowner Paul Burden.

Mr Burden initially objected in September as he owns part of the site but was never informed of the intention to build on it.

Writing to MBC on his behalf Jane Scott, of Hobbs Parker, explained materials had been delivered and a large area of woodland had been cleared.

She described the development as an “engineering project” which had been significantly harmful to the surrounding Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, adding tipping had occurred and the site boundary now sat less than 85 metres from protected Squirrel Wood.

The council did request ownership documents from Mr Kiddle’s agent, Brian Wood, six months ago but the paperwork never materialised. Mr Wood refused to comment when approached by the Kent Messenger.

MBC will pursue enforcement action, while the Environment Agency continues to investigate allegations of illegal dumping.

Kent County Council Highways had raised no objection in principle but asked for the entrance to be moved back.