It's great news! That's how the leader of Maidstone council reacted to a report from the government planning inspector on his findings following the first stage of an examination of the town's Local Plan Review.

But other political leaders have very different views on the report.

The inspector, David Spencer, declared the public examination could proceed to the second stage, though he would require some major modifications to the plan as currently presented.

Council leader David Burton (Con) said: "This is a big step forward in making sure the council remains in control of where development takes place in the borough over the next 15 years and beyond.

"Our ambition has always been to make sure we provide housing, jobs and other infrastructure in a way which delivers the boroughs growth in a coherent manner, while also maximising social and economic benefits and managing the impacts on existing communities properly.

"Sadly, we have seen too many plans from other local authorities hit the buffers at this stage, which demonstrates the level of scrutiny that these proposals undergo.

"So the fact that the inspector is confident in the strategy that we have worked so hard to develop could not be more welcome."

Cllr Burton continued: "We are grateful that the inspector has offered us the opportunity to undertake further work on the Leeds-Langley corridor, which we know is a proposition that enjoys considerable support across the borough.

"But we are equally reluctant to cause any further delay to the examination timetable.

"Therefore, we will seek to build on the very positive work that has been started and look forward to the next plan, and how we can continue to establish development options for the area within the guiding principle of strategic infrastructure being the key to growth."

Cllr Paul Cooper (Con), the council's cabinet member for planning and infrastructure, said: "We embarked on a strategy that was designed to make sure that the significant growth we were required to accommodate by government could be delivered in a manner which brought significant new strategic infrastructure that would benefit our residents and our borough for many years to come."

"This was a bold strategy, a fact which the inspector has acknowledged in his letter."

He said: "However we were convinced it was the correct approach and I am delighted that even though we still have a great deal of work to do in stage two of the process, the inspector is of the view that our approach is sound.”

Cllr Cooper is referring to the twin garden village schemes which the Local Plan proposes, for Lidsing, between Maidstone and Medway, and Lenham Heath, which together account for 7,000 of the new homes the borough needs to provide.

The inspector found both schemes to be "unsound" in the form in which they were currently presented, but said they could be fixed.

But Cllr Clive English, leader of the Lib Dems on the council, said: "The Conservative administration is being a little selective with their comments.

"While the plan has got the go-ahead to move towards the next stage, several key parts of the borough's proposal were either removed - as in the case of the very damaging proposal for the Leeds Langley safeguarding policy - or had large question marks added - as in the case of the garden village proposals at Lidsing and Heathlands, which were both found unsound in their current form.

"The Leeds Langley safeguarding policy risked a large amount of extra development, but did not guarantee that a bypass would ever actually be built."

Cllr English said: "You would think from the administration's comments that the inspector had endorsed this highly damaging suggestion that would open up the south of Maidstone to thousands of extra homes above the Government target. Of course he did not do so."

Cllr Tony Harwood (Lib Dem) said: "Equally significant were the inspector's changes to the plan in relation to Invicta Park Barracks.

"I have struggled with getting the borough to commit to safeguards for the irreplaceable natural, historic and cultural features within this still largely parkland landscape.

"The inspector ruled that an indicative framework diagram showing constraints to development is necessary for 'soundness.'

"This is the first time that explicit protection for the high-quality sylvan environment through the heart of the site, other areas of woodland within the site and the undulating topography, especially around Park House."

He said: "The borough had refused to action my formal requests for a Tree Preservation Order survey, so I view the inspector's intervention as a significant victory for local people, for the landscape and for wildlife."

People can read the inspector's report for themselves here.

Meanwhile, the Maidstone Green Party had yet another take on the report.

It welcomed much of the inspector's findings, but said the housing targets are politically and economically driven rather than being based on need and labelled the entire plan as "ecologically unsustainable".

Cllr Stuart Jeffery (Green) said: "While I was pleased to see the serious criticism of the Heathlands, Lidsing and Leeds/Langley plans, the inspector has frustratingly agreed that work can continue rather than dismissing the plan completely."

He said: "This is a mistake as this is a truly awful Local Plan and the entire plan is ecologically unsustainable.

“Even just building this number of homes will emit a phenomenal amount of carbon at time when we should be drastically reducing these emissions.

"When you add in the damage to water courses and the traffic that will be generated, the plan is simply destroying the future."