Some 1,661 acres of green fields are to be built upon in one part of the county by 2038.

They were the staggering figures given by the Maidstone council’s cabinet member for planning, Cllr Paul Cooper at a recent meeting, following a question from member of the public, Steven Heeley.

The area is the equivalent to the size of Gibraltar, or more than 3.5 Mote Parks.

But Cllr Cooper said the overall figure – which broke down into 1,310 acres across the proposed Lidsing and Heathlands garden village sites, and 351 acres across others – was only an estimate, as a government planning inspector was still in the process of considering the borough’s Local Plan.

The Tory cabinet member explained: “These figures include all the green space, open space, amenity space, and other onsite infrastructure requirements, meaning that the total net development area will be considerably less.”

In response, Mr Heeley said: “A survey by Helen Whately MP of 2,000 local residents earlier in the year found that the overwhelming majority wanted high-quality farmland and greenfield land protected.

“Do you think the allocation of over 1,600 acres of green field is consistent with local residents’ views and the view of the Conservative MP?”

Cllr Cooper said: “Yes I do.

“We balance those 2,000 views against the 170,000-odd other residents in the borough, many of whom are short of quality accommodation, many of whom rely on high-quality employment land, all of which is being delivered in this Local Plan Review.

“We will continue to make very difficult decisions to deal with our chronic housing shortage.

“The government has an annual housing target and we are doing our best to step up to the plate and deliver our portion of that for the benefit of all of our residents.”