More than 200 residents worried about plans for 1,300 homes on 80 hectares of farmland near their village attended a meeting to express their fears.

The meeting was called by East Malling Parish Council to discuss an outline planning application submitted by the East Malling Trust to build on fields between Kiln Barn Road and Hermitage Lane.

To be called Bradbourne, the plans include the provision of a primary school; commercial, community and employment plots, and 29 hectares of public open space, with a 2.5-hectare community park.

But feelings at the meeting in East Malling Village Hall on Sunday were running high.

The chief concern appeared to be traffic. The proposal includes two accesses onto Hermitage Lane, which many felt to be already over-congested.

But there was also anger about a road link into East Malling.

Chairman of East Malling Parish Council, David Thornewell, chaired the meeting.

He explained: “When these ideas were first put out to public consultation, the trust’s plans included the provision of a public road through their site into East Malling.

“The plans as now submitted show only a ‘sustainable corridor’ limited to buses, cyclists and pedestrians - though it is not clear where the bus would be going to!

“But people have picked up on wording elsewhere in the application that says that the issue could be revisited at some time in the future and the road turned into a public road with traffic from the 1,300 homes.

“That is confusing.

“A member of the public called for a vote on that issue and everyone in the room who voted, voted against the road ever being allowed to become a public road.

Cllr Thornewell said: “There were other issues too. People were just generally concerned about the loss of agricultural land and the continued urbanisation.”

Cllr Roger Roud (Lib Dem) was at the meeting. He said: “People were quite angry - particularly over the ‘sustainable transport corridor’.

“East Malling doesn’t have any buses, apart from one on Friday mornings that goes into Maidstone. So they were asking, why the need for a bus link?

Cllr Roud said: “There was a map on the wall showing not just this proposed development, but others that are in the pipeline in the area. There clearly will be no green gap left between Ditton and Maidstone.

Cllr Roud said that after the meeting several people had also spoke to him of their concerns for an area of ancient woodland within the site.

He said: “The ancient woodland is to stay, but it will be surrounded by houses.”

Cllr Roud estimated that “99.9% of people at the meeting were vehemently opposed to the plans.”

However, it is not clear whether Cllr Roud and his fellow East Malling, West Malling and Offham Ward representatives will get a chance to vote on the issue.

East Malling comes under TMBC’s Area 2 planning committee. But the vast majority of the application site falls within Ditton Parish which comes under the Area 3 planning committee.

Cllr Roud said: “I don’t know what will happen. I don’t recall there ever being a similar situation before.”

The application is likely to be decided in November

The deadline for the public to make their comments is this Friday.

Cllr Dave Naghi (Lib Dem), who is standing as his party’s candidate to contest the new Maidstone and Malling constituency when a General Election is called later this year, was also at the meeting.

He said: “The plans are crazy! The thought of putting yet more traffic onto Hermitage Lane is ridiculous. People were fuming.”

There are also plans to demolish part of the listed wall at New Road in the village to accommodate changes to the existing road through the research site.

Find out about planning applications that affect you at the Public Notice Portal.

The Bradbourne proposal is not entirely new.

The East Malling Trust put forward the land as a suggestion for the last Tonbridge and Malling Local Plan, but that blueprint was rejected by government inspectors.

Ditton Parish Council held a similar meeting for its residents earlier this month that was attended by around 240 people.

No-one there spoke in favour of the plans either.