Cherished village greens and town centre car parks have all been swept up in a list of sites that could be lost to development in the next two decades.

Having been instructed to go back to the drawing board on its Local Plan, Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council has drawn up a list of 300 sites which could be built on as it seeks to find space for 15,941 new homes by 2040 - a rate of 839 each year.

The council has been through the whole process once, only to have its previous plan thrown out by a government inspector last November last year, because it had been deemed not to have co-operated sufficiently with neighbouring authorities.

The sites earmarked for potential development in the document, which has been branded "ridiculous and "worrying", includes Tonbridge Police Station car park, two car parks in West Malling - at the High Street and Ryarsh Lane - and a village green in East Malling.

Also on the list are the Larkfield Leisure Centre car park, the car park adjacent to Birling Church, the Martin Square car park in Larkfield, and the Tonbridge Sports Ground, home to the town's bowls and football clubs.

But a council spokesman hastened to re-assure residents that just because the sites were on the initial list, did not mean they would be developed.

A spokesman said: "Earlier this year, we invited developers and landowners to suggest areas which could form part of our local plan proposals through a Call for Sites process.

"In addition, an urban capacity study has also identified some other potentially available sites.

"It’s important to stress that just because a site has been suggested, it does not mean it will be included in the next phase of the plan, or be suitable for development.

"Each will be subject to a rigorous assessment against our development principles and against the feedback we get from an initial public consultation, which we now expect to open later this month.

"Only after this process has concluded will we know which sites are suitable and available for inclusion within the new Local Plan."

The list was described by Cllr David Thornewell (Lib Dem) as an "Alice In Wonderland document."

He questioned the point of including so many sites that could not possibly be developed.

Cllr Frani Hoskins (Lib Dem) said: "It seems a little dishonest to me, as well as being worrying for people.

"How could the police do without their car park - it seems ridiculous."

But Eleanor Hoyle, the council's director of planning, said the police were required to review their estate regularly and it was not impossible that their car park could become available at some time in the future.

Not all councillors thought it was a ridiculous idea to build on car parks or green spaces.

Cllr David Lettington (Ind) said: "The need for open spaces and car parks does need to be looked at regularly - especially in Tonbridge."

He even suggested there were some green opens spaces in Snodland that would be "perfect to put housing on" that had not been included in the urban capacity study and perhaps should be.

Cllr Garry Bridge (Lib Dem) also questioned whether surface area car parks in Tonbridge could be replaced by a multi-storey.

Planning officer Gudrun Andrews said none of the sites mentioned in the urban capacity study had yet been subjected to any sustainability or availability testing, which would all come at a later stage.

She assured councillors that "any that have Village Green status will be clipped (removed) from the study."

She also revealed why so many apparent non-starters had been included in the study.

She said: "You must remember that some responses to the consultation will be from developers and landowners. Excluding any sites at this stage would have left us open to challenge (at the eventual public hearings before a planning inspector.)"

Outside of the council chamber, the process has been criticised by Cllr Trudy Dean (Lib Dem), who is both the KCC councillor for Malling Central and the chairman of West Malling Parish Council.

She said: "The Urban Capacity Study has been carried out by consultants acting for the borough council for appear to have used some software which has just picked up all the available open space without regard for whether there is a realistic potential for the land to be built on.

"Some of the open spaces identified have been registered as Village Greens and so have legal protection from development."

She said: "Similarly the car parks in West Malling could not be built on - it would be the end of West Malling as a retail centre."

A problem for residents wanting to see the proposed sites is that at present they are only listed by postcode, without accompanying maps to show exactly which piece of land is that is being proposed.

When the six-week consultation goes live, there will be maps to refer to, although they will be in an accompanying document and not easily cross-referenced, something that also disturbed a number of councillors including Cllr Paul Hickmott (Lab) who confessed: "I'm struggling to find where these places are."

The proposals have come in for a storm of online criticism, in which a Facebook comment by Beverley Godfrey-Hall was typical.

She said: "This just beggars belief. We need some people with even half a brain on the council, because the leaders at the moment don't seem to have even that."

The council was due to publish the first consultation on its new attempt on Thursday this week, but that has now been postponed along with all other formal council business during the period of national mourning for Queen Elizabeth.

The six-week consultation, known officially as Regulation 18, is now expected to start on Thursday.