The campaign group Save Capel, which is opposed to plans for a garden village at Tudeley and other aspects of Tunbridge Wells council's draft Local Plan, has launched a fund-raising campaign.

The Local Plan is in its final stages before being submitted to the Government's planning inspectorate for approval.

There is one final round of public consultation, known as Regulation 19, which runs from March 26 till May 21, but the campaigners are now looking beyond that to the fight that must follow when the planning inspector holds a public inquiry into the proposals.

For that Save Capel believes it will be necessary to hire professional advice - and has set a target of raising £20,000 to engage consultants and barristers.

Chairman Stewart Gledhill said: "The community has already been incredibly generous and we have substantial funds available. However, we need to raise a further £20,000 by the end of April to engage the specialists we need.

"Please donate whatever you can and encourage others at this crucial stage of our campaign."

The campaign group is already engaged in poring through the hundreds of pages of information connected to the draft Local Plan to supply detailed responses to the consultation, but it is hampered in that the borough has yet to publish around 40 key documents that form part of the plan.

Mr Gledhill said: "There is a huge amount of information and detail to review, analyse and to synthesise into a robust and fact-based response."

It needs more volunteers to help with this and anyone with the time and analytical skills to assist is asked to email savecapel@gmail.com

To make a donation to the Save Capel campaign, click here.

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