Plans for a 115-home development near a busy roundabout have been approved.

The housing estate at what was Great Grovehurst Farm, next to the Grovehurst Roundabout, in Kemsley, was given the go ahead by Swale council yesterday (Tuesday, July 22).

The developer, Pentland Homes, said it would deliver a range of homes that would help to “meet local housing needs whilst creating a characterful and congruous neighbourhood”.

The 115 homes are among 1,500 due to be built in the north-west Sittingbourne area, as per the 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 cover 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 will 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 will be in a three-storey apartment block and make up half of the 30 affordable homes included in the plans.

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

To see more planning applications and other public notices for your area, click here.

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

This followed the 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 £32.7 million improvement of Grovehurst Roundabout, to which Pentland Homes has contributed more than £570,000.

KCC Highways, which has awarded the contract for the improvements, says 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.

It had been planned to be finished in August this year however a range of issues has led to the project being at least six months behind schedule.

The works saw controversy when residents and businesses in Iwade complained they wouldn’t be able to leave the village because of the traffic due to a lane closure on the A249.

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.

Then this month, when the Kingsferry Bridge was closed by Network Rail for what it called “urgent” works, school children and other motorists were left sitting in traffic for hours.

These issues have been exacerbated by the one-lane closure for the Grovehurst scheme which sees traffic pile back to Key Street in Sittingbourne and over the Sheppey Crossing back to the Island.

Cllr Mike Whiting (Ind) 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”.