Protests from Downswood residents have succeeded in saving six lime trees from being felled.

But another three will still be lost.

Bellway Homes has begun construction of 421 homes at its site in Church Road, Downswood, surrounding the Grade I listed St Nicholas Church.

As a result there has been a heavy increase of construction traffic travelling from the A20 along Deringwood Drive to reach the site. A condition of its planning approval was that Bellway carry out improvements to the junction of Deringwood Drive and Church Road.

KCC wanted the road widened and Bellway has begun digging up two small lay-bys at this point with the intention of creating one new layby further into the verge and shifting the kerb-line over. This will enable a new right-hand turn lane into Church Road to be created.

There is a row of lime trees at the site that were planted 40 years.

At first KCC and Bellway planned to fell all nine trees, but after a site meeting24May called by Downswood Parish Council, a compromise was reached.

The meeting was attended by around 60 local residents keen to display their anger that the trees were to be felled, although they were not invited to take part in the actual discussions. Also present was Cllr Gordon Newton, the Deputy Mayor of Maidstone, who represents the area, a KCC highways officer and four members of staff from Bellway.

Cllr Newton said: "The construction vehicles have been causing some problems, but the trees were not the problem and residents were very angry at their potential loss."

He said: "Surprisingly Bellway agreed that it was not necessary for all the trees to come down."

Instead three trees will be felled and six spared.

Two smaller trees a short distance away on the corner of Deringwood Drive and Grampian Way will have their lower branches lopped off to improve visibility.

In addition, another tree just inside Church Road, will also be felled so that the entrance to that road can be widened.

Downswood Parish Council said it considered its intervention a success, in that it had saved some trees.

John Everett, the chairman of the Downswood Community Association, was less enthusiastic.

He said: "A lot of us stood out in the rain for a long time to show our disgust, but we were not allowed to speak in the meeting.

"At the end of the day, trees are still being felled. It seems nothing will stop Bellway getting their way."

Bellway only won planning permission for the site after appealing to a Government planning inspector. The company's application had been turned down twice by Maidstone council on highways grounds.

Recently, the developer was successful in having a planning condition, imposed by the inspector when granting permission, lifted.

The inspector had required that Bellway introduce signals to the junction of Deringwood Drive with Willington Street before work on the construction site went above slab level. She said the condition was necessary "on safety grounds."

However, under pressure from Bellway, Maidstone council has agreed to that condition being altered to require the new traffic signals being installed only after the occupation of the first 100 homes on the site.

So the junction which many consider to be already dangerous, will have to bear the weight of all the construction traffic and the residential traffic of an extra 100 houses, before any improvement is made.

'Two trees will be planted to replace each tree removed'

KCC welcomed the move, and said it had been working on a compromise behind the scenes.

A spokesman said: "These works are to mitigate the impact which the traffic to the new development will generate through this junction.

"KCC was against the removal of these trees as part of this planning application, which was allowed following a successful appeal to the Planning Inspectorate.

"Since then, KCC has managed to negotiate a reduction in the number of trees that need to be removed by the developer. Two trees will be planted elsewhere to replace each tree that is removed as part of this application."