Parents fighting council plans to build a car park on a green space where their children play were given some hope this week.

At the start of the month, the Conservative-led cabinet at Tonbridge and Malling introduced a number of measures affecting parking across the borough.

Among them was a scheme to extend the Upper Castle Fields car park in Tonbridge by 28 spaces by grabbing a bit of green space, next to some children’s swings.

The suggestion upset parents of pupils at the nearby Slade Primary School who said the area was a valued amenity for play after school, as well as providing a safe route to the school.

At a meeting of the borough’s overview and scrutiny committee on Monday, Conservative councillors Dennis King and Adem Mehmet proposed a motion that the decision be referred back to the cabinet with a view to having the extension scrapped.

It was passed by a unanimous cross-party vote of the committee’s 17 members.

The issue will now be considered again by the cabinet at a meeting next Tuesday.

Cllr Mehmet announced he had felt “uncomfortable” with the proposal from the outset.

He was concerned about the planning implications of extending the car park, which was close to the Grade I listed Tonbridge Castle.

He also suggested: “Perhaps we need to be a bit slower when taking decisions that reduce the town’s green space.”

Acknowledging the considerable public opposition to the extension, he said: “The strength of local feeling has added to my apprehension.”

Cllr King said: “I don’t think encroaching on this green space is a good idea. The extension should not go ahead.”

Earlier, the committee heard a speech from Jacquie Wyatt, of the Slade Area Residents Association.

Mrs Wyatt had organised an online petition against the car park extension that had quickly attracted more than 2,900 signatures.

She told councillors that the justification given for the extension - that the existing car park was often full - was rubbish.

The evidence for it came from a survey taken on two exceptional days - one when there had been a sold-out concert at the castle, and the other on the last shopping Saturday before Christmas. She said the true picture was that most of the time the car park had plenty of space.

As well as the adverse consequences for the primary school, there had been no consideration given, she said, to the effect on the centre for hearing-impaired children at the school, or on the adjacent housing for the elderly.

She was supported by Cllr Garry Bridge (Lib Dem) who quoted a Joni Mitchell song to the committee: “They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.”

Observing that the green was well used, he said the previous Saturday there had been a group of girls practising dance routines there.

He said: “The extension itself is going to cost £180,000. It is just not justified.”

Cllr Anna Cope (Green) pointed out that the green was in an Air Quality Management Area because of its already poor air quality. She said adding parking spaces would encourage car trips and add to the pollution, contrary to the council’s own policy.

In addition, the impermeable surface of the car park would increase flood risk and could hardly be expected to add to biodiversity.

She said “We are in the midst of a mental health crisis,” and she argued that green spaces were a place where relationships were formed, helping to combat loneliness and mental illness.

She called the cabinet decision: “Harmful and tone-deaf.”

Conservative Cllr Mark Rhodes revealed that he too had been “uncomfortable” with the cabinet decision, and he recalled how as a child in the 1960s, he had been a pupil at Slade School and had enjoyed playing on the green, which then had also extended over the land that formed the current car park.