Plans to demolish a church to make way for 22 new homes have been given the green light.

Councillors approved the proposals for The Brethren’s Meeting Room at a planning meeting last week.

The church, on the corner of Canterbury Lane and Otterham Quay Lane, in Rainham, is run by the Long Reach Gospel Trust, which is part of the Plymouth Brethren Christian Church.

It said the rising number of people in the congregation means it needs a larger site and is in the process of moving to Swale.

Although the outline application has been given the go-ahead, the trust will still need to submit detailed plans for the two and three-bedroom homes before the religious building can be torn down.

The scheme, which was approved unanimously, will also include 48 parking spaces and six garages.

Seven letters of objection were sent by residents as well as from Swale council and a neighbouring industrial park.

People living nearby argued the area is “too heavily developed, suffers from congestion problems, has insufficient infrastructure to cope with new homes, and the development would damage wildlife”.

Since the location is right on the boundary with Swale, the local authority also objected, saying it will cause significant air quality problems which had not been accounted for as no assessments had been carried out inside its jurisdiction.

It also said the trust claimed it would be relocating to somewhere in Swale, but no application had been made and acceptance wasn’t guaranteed.

Tetlow King Planning, on behalf of IPM Sipp Ltd which owns Cloverlay Industrial Park, said the change to a residential area would likely to throw up problems for the businesses based there.

It said the noise from the industrial park would likely cause difficulties for residents of the planned development, either incurring costly attempts to reduce noise for businesses or inconveniencing the new homeowners.

Despite this, planning officers recommended the application for approval with conditions where developers have to provide funds for infrastructure.

Councillors agreed and the application was given the go-ahead.