The building of a relief road for Borough Green is under threat after a dispute over how long it will take to extract minerals from the site of a former quarry.

The road is part of wider plans to develop a new garden village called Borough Green Gardens, which would also see up to 4,000 homes, a doctor’s surgery, schools and a sports centre built.

However a review by Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council (TMBC) and Kent County Council (KCC) determined the plans were “suitable but undeliverable” because of how long it will take to extract 1.8 million tonnes of minerals from part of the site.

The consortium behind the Borough Green Gardens plans say this calculation is a mistake, and that at the current rate of removal the minerals will be gone in nine years.

The minerals are mainly types of sand used in building works, and those behind the plans say even allowing for a slowdown in the economy, the ex-quarry will be excavated before 2031, the cut-off point for TMBC’s Local Plan.

The Local Plan will shape the borough through to 2031.

Steve Humphrey, TMBC’s director of planning, said: “The Council has received some further evidence on behalf of the landowners about the extent and timing of mineral extraction across a wide area around the north side of Borough Green and Platt.

"This will be assessed in collaboration with KCC, the minerals planning authority.

“Whether or not the site, or part of it, ultimately features in the Local Plan as a development allocation will depend on many other factors, not least the results of public consultation to take place in the autumn,” he continued.

The group behind the proposals say the relief road would reduce congestion on the A25 going through Borough Green.

Speaking on the consortium's behalf, Martin Cavalier said the plans would "deliver the relief road that the people of Borough Green have been campaigning for," whilst also protecting green belt land elsewhere in the borough.