WHOLE villages could be swallowed up into Maidstone’s urban sprawl because of weaker protections against development in the countryside, it has been claimed.

A councillor has warned that developers are set for a potential free for all on the rural fringes of Maidstone, with villages such as Langley and Otham going the same way as Bearsted and Weavering, losing their independence to become suburbs of the county town.

The pressure for development along the M20 is well known, with the shortage of employment sites in the town, a problem that has increased with the loss of commercial land for housing.

Maidstone Borough Council’s drive to create more high quality jobs has already led to exploratory talks on possible sites for commercial development.

These include a rejig of the Newnham Court Shopping Village site off junction seven. There is also speculation about fledgling proposals for a new business park on a green field site off junction 8 of the motorway at Hollingbourne.

Under the existing Kent Structure Plan, there is protection for special landscape areas and policies that keep urban Maidstone and its satellite communities apart.

This protection could be reduced once the new strategic South East Plan is approved later this year, despite new rules giving district councils a greater say over where development takes place.

Borough Cllr Tony Harwood (Lib Dem) said it could mean large areas of the borough became “fair game” for developers.

He said: “Those parts of the borough outside the Kent Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty are not going to have the same protection as they do now.”

By the autumn, revised plans for the Leeds/Langley bypass should also become clearer.

Burt Cllr Harwood believews its change to a more strategic route will mean development going beyond the desired expansion of the Park Wood industrial estate.

His view is not shared by Maidstone council's cabinet for regeneration, Cllr Dan Daley (Lib Dem), who insists existing land protection would remain in its new style local plan.

He said: "We don't want untrampled growth in Maidstone. We want to retain control of what and where we develop. At the moment, it is all speculation because we still do not know how many extra homes, if any, we will need to take."