The pubic hearings into Maidstone’s Local Plan Review have been suspended by the Government Planning inspector, after the borough council attempted to introduce a raft of new documents mid-way through the inquiry.

There will now be a delay of at least six weeks until November for the review which is looking into the borough's development plan from 2011-2031 comprising 17,660 homes.

During the lunch-break at last Thursday’s session the council’s interim director for the Local Plan Review, Philip Coyne, handed the inspector a three-page letter listing new documents that the borough wanted to introduce in support of its proposals for garden villages at Lenham and Lidsing.

They included key documents on the occupational capacity of a new railway station to serve the Heathlands development at Lenham, as well as a highways analysis of junctions capacities, traffic modelling and possible mitigation measures of particular relevance to the Lidsing scheme. Other documents related to the council’s assertion that Heathlands could create 5,000 jobs.

In his letter to the inspector, Mr Coyne admitted there had been “some slippage in the production of these documents over the summer months” while describing them as “highly relevant” to the examination.

The inspector was unhappy that neither he or the other parties involved in the hearings would have time to properly digest the new information while the inquiry was ongoing.

The inquiry had been due to consider the garden sites the following Tuesday.

Earlier in the inquiry, Lenham borough councillor Janetta Sams had complained that the borough had been withholding key information.

James Neill, acting for Lenham Parish Council, said he was “deeply concerned “ about such a late introduction of key information.

While Ben Fullbrook, representing Bredhurst Parish Council, said that while he supported a postponement, he wanted to put on record the enormous extra pressure that such a late introduction of material would place on his parish council’s time and purse.

Only Peter Coulling, chairman of Teston Parish Council, cautioned against delay.

He was concerned the first five years of Maidstone’s adopted Local Plan would expire on October 27, after which new housing figures referred to in the Local Plan Review would apply.

Cllr Coulling said Maidstone’s five-year housing supply figure was fast “moving downwards”.

Mr Coyne said that a “technical glitch” had prevented some of the documents being submitted earlier.

After the inquiry, the parties opposed to garden village schemes were furious with the borough council.

Cllr John Britt, chairman of Lenham Parish Council, said: “We’ve been asking for two years for the evidence on which Maidstone was relying.

“All of these documents should have been provided by the council ahead of the Regulation 19 consultation ages ago. Instead we’ve had a drip, drip, drip of new information throughout the hearings.

“It appears to us that Maidstone is making it up as they go along. They have come up with this proposal (for a garden village at Lenham) and now they are trying to retro-fit the evidence around it.”

Cllr Britt complained that Lenham - and the other objectors - would now not only have to read all the new documents but would have to re-instruct their consultants, which would take time and money.

He said: “We’ve already spent around £30,000 fighting this.”

Vanessa Jones, the chairman of Bredhurst Parish Council, which is fighting the Lidsing scheme at a cost of £46,000, said: “It’s a disgrace.

“Maidstone has just submitted so much late evidence. It just shows how the council rushed through the plan in the first place. The plan was never ready to submit.”

She was also concerned that the barrister and legal experts engaged by the parish would now need to prepare new briefs - at more expense for the tiny village.

She said: “We raised £46,000 to fight our campaign. I hope it will be enough. It’s unfair, but we are not going to give up.”

She pointed out that two of the “new” documents submitted to the inspector had now been uploaded onto the borough’s website. She said: “They are both dated July 7.

She said: “Why weren’t these put in the public domain two months ago?”

A Maidstone council spokesman said: “Local Plans and Local Plan examinations are complex processes, particularly when their spatial strategies include large, multi-faceted proposals such as garden community schemes.

“The plan is under-pinned by a vast range of evidence and it is standard practice that this evidence is iterative and continues to inform the way in which promoters manage and deliver schemes throughout, and indeed beyond the examination process.

“In this instance, there is updated evidence which became available in early September which it is felt will assist the examination and provide greater context to both the inspector and others involved in the process.

“In such instances, it is not uncommon for inspectors to pause proceedings while they consider this new evidence, and indeed provide time for other interested parties to considerthe evidence and comment upon it.

“The inspector has confirmed that the examination will recommence in the first week of November.”