Residents are staging a last-ditch campaign to defeat a planning application on treasured farmland.

Esquire Developments first submitted an outline application to build 52 homes on an orchard at Ivy Farm off Wateringbury Road, East Malling, two years ago.

But the lengthy application process is finally coming to a head with members of Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council (TMBC) due to make a decision at their meeting next Wednesday (September 18).

This weekend, objectors to the scheme have been distributing 1,000 leaflets to homes in the village urging residents to attend the planning meeting at the council chamber in Gibson Drive, Kings Hill, to show their opposition.

The scheme is outline only, and councillors will be asked only to agree the principle of the development and the access details.

Nevertheless, the developer has provided an indicative layout which shows the provision of 39 market homes with 23 three-bedroom and 14 four-bedroom, plus 13 affordable housing units, four of one-bed, four of two-bed, three of three-bed and two of four-bedrooms.

The site covers 4.6 hectares, but 1.95 hectares would be left as open space, including an area of the existing fruit trees to be retained as a community orchard.

One of the most controversial aspects is the access onto Wateringbury Road, and the subsequent increase in traffic through the already often-congested village of East Malling.

The proposed access road lies just outside a 20mph zone on Wateringbury Road, but Esquire intends to extend that zone by 10m so that its new road is included in the 20 zone.

That gives the company the advantage under highway regulations of not requiring such a wide visibility display. Nevertheless, the immediate neighbours claim that insufficient sight-lines can be provided without taking up part of their garden.

In addition, developments of more than 50 homes are required to have two accesses, one for use by emergency vehicles. The applicants argued that this could be overlooked as “the exceedance is small”.

Marc Page is a resident in one of three properties closest to the orchard.

He said: “This has been going on for two years and has been torture for the locals.

“The figures that the applicants have provided showing just a minimal increase in traffic on Wateringbury Road are just laughable. This is going to affect the whole village.

“This site is really the gateway to East Malling and if development is allowed here, it will be the start of urban creep.”

The site in classed as being in the countryside and was not a designated allocation in TMBC’s last Local Plan, but currently, the authority doesn’t have a valid Local Plan and cannot show it has five years of housing land supply. In those circumstances, the Government says the presumption should always be in favour of development.

But Mr Page warned: “East Malling Trust owns farmland behind here and this will open up their land for development too.”

The East Malling Trust already has an application to build 1,600 homes on farmland on the edge of East Malling and Ditton.

The Ivy Farm application has been opposed by both Teston and Wateringbury Parish Councils, which fear the extra traffic will impact on their communities.

East Malling and Larkfield Parish Council also submitted objections - extending to six pages, including the effect on the East Malling Conservation Area, on nearby listed buildings, and on a badger sett known to be on the site.

There have also been 238 private letters of objection, although there was also one letter of support.

Objectors said that Wateringbury Road was narrow and already dangerous - they pointed to a fatality that occurred in October last year a short distance from the proposed access.

Jason Allen, who lives adjacent to the orchard, said: “Councillors really need to come down here and see this stretch of the road for themselves.“

Mr Allen and his wife Natasha will be the most affected by the proposal - the access road would swing right along the boundary of their garden, just 11m from their house.

Mr Allen said: “Wateringbury road is above the level of the adjacent land, so the access is going to be raised up in relation to our land - everyone using it will see right over the top of our fence into our garden and house.”

His neighbour, Frances Saunders, is most exercised by the potential harm to the badgers.

She said: “We’ve lived here for 20 years. There’s always been a large badger sett straddling the orchard and the neighbouring woodland.

“But about a month before the planning application, someone levelled the sett in the orchard and blocked the entrance holes with earth and traffic cones.”

Badgers are a protected species, and the matter was reported to the police, but their investigation did not result in a prosecution.

However, Mrs Saunders said that subsequently the applicant’s ecology report, and a report commissioned by TMBC from KCC’s ecology unit, failed to mention any badgers.

She said: “I had to file a formal complaint with TMBC that went all the way to the Chief Executive - then Julie Beilby - before TMBC acknowledged the presence of badgers on the site.”

Mrs Saunders said the sett was still active, with four entrance tunnels extending about eight metres into the orchard.

She said: “Legislation requires a sequential approach to protecting badgers. The first step is to avoid disturbing them.

“If that can’t be done, the second step is mitigation and a developer is supposed to leave a 30m buffer zone.

“The applicant is proposing a 20m buffer round the site perimeter - that’s just 12 metres from the badger sett - and there is no evidence that either Esquire or the council ever gave any consideration to the first step of avoidance.”

Mr Page said: “Sadly, despite the enormous number of objections, we feel no-one is taking the public’s view seriously. It will still be passed because Tonbridge has no Local Plan.”

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

Details of the Ivy Farm application can be seen on the TMBC website.

Search for application number 22/01570.

The Area 2 Planning Committee starts at 7.30pm and is open to the public.