A holiday lodge caravan park has been so successful that its owners have now lodged their 11th planning application in 13 years.

The Hillberry Holiday Park off Wateringbury Road, East Malling, began in 2011 when the owner John Hilden first obtained planning consent for 20 touring caravans on the site.

In 2012, his company, Hilden Entreprises, applied for and won permission for those 20 touring caravans to become 20 static holiday lodge homes. Although officially still classed as caravans, the homes were designed to look like log cabins.

In 2015, an application to extend the site was made and another 10 lodges followed. In 2016, an application for an access road and three underground LPG storage tanks to serve the holiday park was approved.

In 2017, came an application for a further extension for 15 holiday lodges; then in January 2018, permission was granted for another 26 units.

This was followed in August the same year with permission for a further 11 lodges.

Finally, in June 2019, the gaps on the site were filled in with permission for a further 16 units, bringing the total number on the original site to 98.

Having fully built out the land to the north of the access road, the company then sought permission to extend the park to the south of the road, with an application in August last year for 12 more lodges.

This was followed with an application in May this year for a further single lodge.

This time the lodges were to have three bedrooms instead of two, and be more widely spaced.

The first application was approved, the second (refernce number 24/00708) is still to be determined. The lodges are currently under construction.

Now the company has made a new application to Tonbridge and Malling council seeking permission to construct a 15m by 8m steel shed to store machinery and equipment used on the Hillberry Holiday Park.

The application includes the construction of a new spur road off the existing access road, running through an adjacent 12-acre field to reach the storage shed which would be situated to the south below the latest holiday lodges,

Details of the latest application can be seen on the council’s website under application number 24/00745.

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

Oaken Wood, an area of ancient woodland, lies immediately to the east of the site.