A huge 450-home development based on farmland in north Kent has been recommended for approval despite receiving nearly twice the number of objections.

After being in the pipeline for three years, the latest application to build the homes, a children’s nursery, and a retail unit on Gibraltar Farm, Ham Lane in Hempstead, is finally set to be decided.

Council officers have recommended approval for outline planning permission for the nearly 30 hectare site.

But conditions, including that a quarter of the new houses must be delivered as affordable homes, the provision of a nursery, and £5.6 million must be made in contributions to local infrastructure, have all been attached.

If approved, the money will go towards mitigating the impacts of the development on local services.

This includes providing funding to school provision for children with special educational needs and disabilities, youth services programmes, waste collection, walk and cycle paths and roads, and public realm improvements in Gillingham and Rainham town centres.

Some of the funding will also go towards offsetting the environmental impacts of the development, including 20 dormouse boxes, 24 bat boxes, 24 bird boxes, and 20 invertebrate habitats.

Additionally, 75% of buildings with integrated bee bricks, which allow bees to build nests within them, and 149 roosting and nesting features on buildings for bats and birds.

Other conditions for the proposals include creating six hectares of open spaces, a minimum of four hectares of new woodland, and a minimum of a 15 metre buffer zone between the development and the ancient woodland which is towards the western part of the site.

Additionally the applicants, F.D. Attwood & Partners, will have to come back to the council with specific designs, seeking permission for the layout, scale, and design of the new houses.

An outline planning application for the site was initially refused by Medway Council in 2016.

However it was granted on appeal as the secretary of state at the time, Sajid Javid, believed the development would provide enough economic benefits to the area to offset the environmental losses on the greenspace.

The current version of the plans were first submitted in May 2021, but a previous iteration was rejected by Medway Council’s planning department in 2019 owing to concerns about the sustainability of the development.

Officers cited a lack of access route to Lordswood, which new residents would be reliant upon, and those access routes which were included went through the nearby ancient woodland, which was determined to be irreplaceable.

Following its rejection the applicant appealed but the decision was upheld and the appeal dismissed.

Council officers now say the application can go ahead because of further studies of the area which have determined local ecology, such as bat populations, wouldn’t be as badly affected as previously suspected.

They say the large number of affordable houses which the development would provide, as well as the employment opportunities the construction would create, and the further economic development of the area are strong benefits of the scheme.

The application has received 789 letters of objection from local residents, as well as from The Woodland Trust, Sport England, and former MPs Rehman Chishti and Dame Tracey Crouch.

In total, 90 different points were raised by members of the public, air pollution, loss of an area of natural beauty, local public transport being unreliable, claims the area is too crowded, and a lack of consultation with the public.

The current MP for Faversham and Mid Kent, Helen Whately (Con), has also objected, raising concerns about over-development, increased pressure on the road network, and the loss of countryside.

Some letters also raised the issue that part of the development falls within Maidstone council’s area and residents were concerned the new occupants would be using Medway Council facilities but paying council tax to Maidstone.

However, Medway Council planning officers say they have recommended the plans for approval due to sufficient financial mitigations for the environmental and infrastructure impacts and the economic benefits of the scheme.

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Due to the significant number of objections, the decision will now go to the planning committee on August 28 where councillors will have the final say.