A new estate of 115 homes to be built near a busy roundabout will help “meet local housing needs,” developers say.

The proposal for Grovehurst Farm, near the Grovehurst Roundabout, in Kemsley, already has permission in principle.

Pentland Homes says it will “deliver a range of homes” that will help to “meet local housing needs whilst creating a characterful and congruous neighbourhood”.

The new homes would be among around 1,500 new houses due to be built in the north-west Sittingbourne area as per Swale council’s local plan.

Already 1,200 homes have been given the green light for farmland north of Quinton, between the Sittingbourne to Sheerness railway line and the A249.

Access to the new homes at Great Grovehurst Farm would be from Grovehurst Road which is set to have a new roundabout if another planning application is given the thumbs up.

The estate, which would be 4,800 square metres – just under the size of six standard 11-a-side football pitches – is planned for between Grovehurst Road and Swale Way.

It would consist of five one-bedroom homes, 25 two-bedroom homes, 64 three-bedroom homes and 21 four-bedroom homes.

Of the two-bedroom properties, 15 would be in a three-storey apartment block which would make up half of the 30 affordable homes included in the plans.

There would be 192 parking spaces, 21 visitor parking bays and 15 electric vehicle charging points.

For the full application click here and use the planning reference 23/505226/REM.

Outline planning permission for the estate was granted in July 2021 after being applied for in May 2018.

This followed Swale council allowing the demolition of former agricultural buildings which had been converted to be used for business and retail but were vacant by May 2017.

The development is part of the larger expansion of Kemsley which includes the £32 million improvement of Grovehurst Roundabout, which Pentland Homes has contributed more than £570,000 towards.

KCC highways, which has awarded the contract for the improvements, say the works “will increase capacity on the road network, and provide the infrastructure needed for the housing plans”.

The scheme will use the existing bridge but will replace the dumbbell design with a new one-way gyratory system incorporating a second bridge.

Planned to be finished in August this year, the works saw controversy when residents and businesses in Iwade complained they wouldn’t be able to leave the village because of the traffic.

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This came after the diversion routes were dismissed as “beyond a joke” in July.

Meanwhile, hundreds of schoolchildren from the Isle of Sheppey were arriving late to classes as traffic chaos ensued when one lane of the A249 was shut due to the Grovehurst roadworks.

Cllr Mike Whiting (Con) had said at the time that Sheppey residents who commute to Sittingbourne for work and school were having to sit in “two or three hours of traffic every day”.