A question mark hangs over the funding of a long-awaited village bypass.

H+H UK, formerly Celcon, which has a concrete block factory in Borough Green, originally offered to fund the Borough Green and Platt bypass if it was given permission to build a second factory on neighbouring land.

But the firm withdrew its factory application, which included the cost of the bypass, in 2007 when it emerged a vital document issued by Kent County Council on which planning permission rested was invalid.

Now KCC plans to re-submit its planing application for the bypass in March 2009, but Stuart Brittle, H+H’s deputy managing director, said: “We are not prepared to fund the whole bypass now. The funding is still up in the air.

“The background in the building industry is substantially different to what it was last year.”

Mr Brittle, who is liaising the KCC over the proposal, said H+H UK had to have strong economic reasons to invest in the bypass and the current loss of jobs in the building trade meant it could not justify the cost.

The company, which employs more than 300 people, with 120 of them working at its factory in Borough Green, will also wait to see whether KCC gets permission for the bypass before considering whether to seek planning permission for a second factory.

A KCC spokeswoman confirmed the authority planned to submit another bypass application next March, but said no further details were available at present.

The news of the new bypass application was welcomed by Mike Taylor from the Borough Green Traffic Action Group.

He said: “If the bypass happens, it will turn Borough Green into a haven because the bypass will take 16,000 vehicles which go through the village every day.”