The Bearsted and Thurnham Society has launched a new campaign - Save Our Green Fields.

Posters have been going up all around the villages urging residents to attend the forth-coming public inquiry into the proposed Waterside Park development.

The society is opposed to the scheme submitted by Gallaghers to construct an industrial and warehouse complex off the A20 near J8 of the M20.

The society told members: “This, together with the application already submitted by Roxhill Developments for Woodcut Farm, ie. to the north of the A20 at J8, pose the biggest threat to this area since Kent International Gateway!”

"If either or both of these developments are permitted there is nothing to stop development from J8 all the way through the KIG site to Thurnham Lane in Bearsted.”

The inquiry is scheduled to start at 10am on Wednesday, May 6, at Sessions House in County Hall, Maidstone.

There will be a rally by objectors on the steps of County Hall from 9.15am.

The society wants as many residents as possible to join the rally and also to sit in during the course of the hearing to show the Government planning inspector the strength of opposition to the scheme.

The application has already been rejected by Maidstone council, but Scarab Sweepers and ADL, two Marden-based firms who had been hoping to relocate to the new business park, lodged a joint appeal.

The inquiry is expected to last eight days. Maidstone council has engaged barrister Tim Corner QC to defend its position. Mr Corner successfully fought the Kent International Gateway application for the council four years ago..

The appeal is also being opposed by KCC, by the Joint Parishes’ Group representing 14 parishes in the immediate area, and by the Campaign to Protect Rural England.

CPRE’s director Hilary Newport said: “We are ready to fight this. We have already submitted 10 expert witness statements to the inspector.”

Gallagher Group chief executive Nick Yandle maintained the site was in the right location for such a development and that it would retain jobs in the county town.

He said: “We wouldn’t be pursuing this appeal unless we thought we had a reasonable chance of success.“

The company has appointed its own barrister, Craig Howard-Williams QC, to fight the case on behalf of itself, ADL and Scarab.

Mr Yandle said: “You have to look at the need for this application. You have to look at possible alternative sites and you have to look at the connectivity to the motorway network. If you consider these three things, you come up with Waterside Park.”

*The appeal will run from May 6 to May 8 inclusive; then from Tuesday, May 12 to May 14 inclusive, and finally from Monday, May 18 to May 21, starting at 10am each day.