A disused quarry could become 108 homes in a rural village.

Skillcrown Homes has submitted a detailed planning application for a scheme to be build within the site off Straw Mill Hill in Tovil, near Maidstone.

The plot is set in the excavated quarry, and the new homes would be surrounded by 15-metre high banks.

Skillcrown proposes 15 two-bedroom and 18 three-bedroom houses, along with 20 one-bedroom flats and 38 two-bedroom flats, to be sold on the private market.

There would be a small number of affordable units - 17 in total, comprising two three-bedroom houses, five one-bedroom flats and 10 two-bedroom flats.

This equates to 15% of the total, less than the 40% rate of affordable homes currently being sought by the borough, but in line with proposals in the emerging draft Local Plan.

The site was previously used as a paper-recycling plant, but is currently vacant.

An earlier proposal in 2011 to turn it into a materials recycling plant generated bitter local opposition, largely because of the number of HGV movements it would have created. It was rejected.

However, the council was prepared to grant permission for an outline application for 117 homes on the site in 2012, but this stalled over disagreements over the section 106 payments that would be required.

Skillcrown Homes said its plan would generate on average 456 traffic movements a day between 7am and 7pm.

The site is adjacent to the Tovil Scouts hut and opposite the Loose Valley Conservation Area and Loose Valley Area of Local Landscape Importance.

Details can be viewed on the Maidstone borough website. Application number 15/505441 refers.