A long-delayed planning blueprint for thousands of homes may not be adopted until 2025 after draft plans were dramatically dropped due to councillors' concerns.

The Medway Local Plan has been deferred but a crucial vote next week will decide whether the plans can go back a stage.

If approved, it means another round of public consultation will be expected next summer.

Medway Council leader Alan Jarrett (Con) announced plans to return to the previous stage of the Local Plan's development, called Regulation 18, in August.

It came after a draft version of the wide-reaching plans was dropped at the eleventh hour before councillors were being asked to vote on them this time last year.

Opposition and backbench Conservative councillors said "incomplete and flawed" elements of the Local Plan would make it difficult for the plan to progress through a government inspector's scrutiny.

They said key documents surrounding transport and sustainability measures were missing and concerns remained about decisions to allocate thousands of homes in controversial locations including Deangate, Chatham Docks and the Hoo Peninsula.

Next week, cabinet members will be asked to restart Regulation 18 - which had already been carried out between 2016 and 2018 - when they meet on Tuesday.

The Local Plan - which will run until 2040 - not only plots sites for potential new housing, but also commercial and employment sites.

Earlier this year, Medway's required housing figures were upped from 1,586 homes a year to 1,675, meaning the authority is being asked to deliver around 28,500 by the end of the Local Plan period.

The authority is already in an uncertain position with its housing delivery.

Even though it has recorded its highest-ever numbers of new homes over the last two years, it does not have enough deliverable sites to bring about five years' worth of housing against its current requirements.

In 2019/20, 1,130 new homes were built and the following year there were 1,082.

It is expected that members of the public will be consulted on the plans next summer.

The process will also include asking landowners to put forward potential sites for development and working on a sustainability appraisal and an assessment of habitats.

The new Local Plan was supposed to be adopted in 2019 to replace the 2003 Medway Local Plan.

The revised timeline for the new Local Plan is:

• Consultation - summer to early autumn 2023
• Draft plan publication - early 2024
• Submission to Secretary of State - mid 2024
• Independent examination - 2024 - mid 2025
• Adoption of plan - autumn 2025

Cllr Jarrett previously said the council was unable to move forward with the plans, going to Regulation 19, because there was a lack of "political consensus".

Some councillors expressed their dismay towards plans to build 3,265 homes and commercial space at Chatham Docks, which has been earmarked for closure in 2025.