A council has been accused of "smacking the community in the face" after advertising a £43k-a-year job to manage its Garden Community Project that's yet to be given permission to go ahead.

Maidstone Borough Council has ambitions to develop a 5,000-home garden village, which it has named Heathlands, at Lenham Heath, in conjunction with the government quango Homes England.

Maidstone sees itself as the "master-developer" of the scheme, co-ordinating with Homes England and liaising with the many landowners involved.

But first there will be its Local Plan Review – which includes Heathlands as one of two proposed garden settlements – which needs to be approved by a government inspector at a public inquiry.

Currently the inspector has suspended hearings into the Local Plan until November, after the council submitted a raft of late documents.

Should the inspector ultimately decide to reject the Local Plan, the garden village scheme will be unable to proceed.

The garden community project manager post is advertised as paying between £43,665 and £47,703 a year, with the successful applicant "focussed on delivering the Heathlands vision".

The job description for the full-time permanent post said the key task would be working with the external master-planning consultant team "to put in place a development plan for Heathlands".

There are many bodies opposing the garden village scheme – and they have yet to give their full evidence to the public inquiry.

John Britt, chairman of Lenham Parish Council, said: "The council is putting the cart before the horse.

"This is an insult to the democratic process. As usual the borough is just assuming this project will go ahead.

"That has been its attitude the whole way through. It has decided on this scheme and it is determined to make the facts fit to justify it."

Cllr Tom Sams (Ind), who represents Harrietsham and Lenham, said: "This is extremely presumptive of the council.

"It sends completely the wrong message to residents who are still waiting to present their case.

"Frankly, the council performed so poorly at the first few days of the public inquiry, they will have a hard task to convince the inspector of the sustainability of their scheme."

Kate Hammond is the leader of the Save Our Heathlands campaign group.

She said: "This is disgusting behaviour by the borough council. It is a smack in the face for the community."

She added: "They just assume they can run roughshod over the will of the people and ignore the proper planning process."

Maidstone council has not responded to a request for comment.