Lenham residents are angry at Maidstone Borough Council’s housing proposals for their village.

Several hundred of them went to the community centre on Sunday morning to tell Lenham Parish Council’s Neighbourhood Plan team that their village must not become a town.

Under the housing proposals set out in Maidstone’s draft Local Plan, the village’s population of about 2,000 is set to treble in size with 1,745 new homes in the pipeline.

Kingsley Hughes, of Designscape, which is advising the parish council on the Neighbourhood Plan, said: “Villagers are not opposed to development per se, but they are concerned about the sustainability of the village.

“They expect housing numbers to be proportionate to the existing size of the village and to pay heed to the landscape character.”

Author Amy Myers, who lives in the village, said: “So much building would suffocate Lenham. We are a village and must not become a town.”

Parish council chairman Colin Gillett said: “Lenham is being assigned 10% of the total housing requirement for Maidstone borough. That’s simply unbelievable.”

Brian Llong of the Lenham Enhancement Society said: “We all want to see enough housing to allow Lenham to thrive as a village, but we need to preserve our vibrant community spirit, which would be lost if 1,700 houses

were built.”

Resident Hannah Beams said: “Maidstone council seems to have over-looked that we are located on the edge of the nationally important AONB and there are many sensitive landscape issues.”

Mr Gillett said: “We are facing a very, very big challenge. People are getting quite frustrated.

“Politically its quite damaging for the council to pursue policies like this.”

Lenham was one of four wards to elect a UKIP councillor at the last elections.

There is a further chance for villagers to give their views at a meeting entitled Lenham: Past and Future, to be held in the community centre in Groom Way on Sunday between 10am and 12noon.