Maidstone council’s Local Plan could be in trouble.

The borough had hoped it had finally signed off on the Local Plan in October, when councillors voted by a majority to approve the plan, as reviewed and revised by a Government planning inspector.

But now the Campaign to Protect Rural England has taken the first step towards seeking a Judicial Review of the plan over the inclusion of one specific site allocation - commercial development near Junction 8 of the M20.

The CPRE has lodged a pre-action letter with the council through its solicitors Richard Buxton and warned that the council should now postpone consideration of a planning application for the disputed site at Woodcut Farm that was due to be determined by the council’s planning committee this Thursday.

The solicitors have given the council until 4pm today to confirm deferment.

If the council declines, CPRE is expected to seek a court injunction preventing the meeting going ahead.

CPRE is not alone in opposing the allocation for commercial development at the foot of the Kent Downs AONB.

Both the local MPs, Helen Grant and Helen Whately, had also sought to have the site removed from the final version of the plan.

CPRE is challenging a policy EMP1(4) in the plan which sets aside 16.8 hectares at Woodcut Farm on the Ashford Road in Hollingbourne for up to 49,000 sq metres of mixed employment floorspace.

It alleges the council failed to prove the need for the allocated office and warehouse space, and therefore the plan was unsound.

It also alleges that the council had failed to take into account the need and supply of commercial opportunities in adjoining boroughs, and so had breached its “duty to co-operate.”

It warned the council that it might add other grounds when the case goes to court, one of which is expected to be the effect on air quality if the proposal from Roxhill Developments were to go ahead.

Richard Knox-Johnston, chairman of CPRE Kent, said: “It’s very disappointing that Maidstone council seems so determined to press ahead with development at this site.”

A Maidstone council spokesman said: "We have received two pre-action protocol letters in relation to the Local Plan which we are considering.

"There are currently no plans to postpone Thursday’s meeting."