A consultation starts this week on plans to build nearly 300 homes in an area that is already facing the prospect of huge house-building projects.

People can have their say on a new development which borders Tunstall and Borden, in Sittingbourne, from today.

The proposed site has been named Ufton Green and is owned by Hallam Land Management.

If granted planning permission, it would have 290 homes, a play space and parkland.

The developer says it would be accessed via a new roundabout at the junction of Minterne Avenue, College Road and Riddles Road.

Concerns about the impact the development would have on traffic in Sittingbourne have been raised.

The plot has not been identified by Swale council as a potential site for housing in its blueprint for what will be built and where.

A spokeswoman for Borden Parish Council said: "Increased traffic from such a large development would have to use a road network already at capacity.

"This would bring problems to the residents of Borden parish, as drivers would seek shortcuts to the A249 and M2 through its villages and rural areas.

"The local road network, including a very narrow Riddles Road, is totally unsuitable for extra traffic plus two primary schools are on access roads servicing this development."

Leader of Swale council Cllr Mike Baldock (Swale Independents), whose Borden and Grove Park ward is close to the edge of the proposed development site, said: "This potential housing site idea has been floating around for many years.

"It wasn't considered a suitable option in the Local Plan 2021, as it doesn’t appear to meet the housing criteria in Swale.

'Increased traffic from such a large development would have to use a road network already at capacity...'

"We need to consider the amount of development that we have already suffered from and any future development that encroaches on an already fragile highway network."

Hallam Land Management is also currently working on Perry Court Farm in Faversham.

The 300-home development – with an Aldi, Premier Inn and 60-bed care home – is now nearing completion.

Other new homes are already being built in Sittingbourne, close to the site Hallam wants permission to develop.

The former grammar school, most recently used as a Kent Adult Education Centre, in College Road, has been sold and is likely to be turned into housing.

And fields off Wises Lane, Borden, are to be used for a huge estate numbering more than 600 homes.

Public consultation for Ufton Green opens midday today (Wednesday) and closes on Sunday, October 23.

Email comments to uftongreen@lrmplanning.com or send them via a form here.