A battle is brewing over plans to erect a mobile home the "size of a two-bed bungalow" in the garden of a listed property.

Neighbours in Lower Green Road, Pembury are angry over the size and scale of the "caravan" proposed.

Michael Boyle has applied to Tunbridge Wells council for a lawful development certificate to construct a mobile home in his garden.

He intends to use it for his mother to use as an annexe to the house.

In law, there is no difference between a mobile home and a caravan and neither require planning permission.

But an essential pre-condition is that they must be "mobile" – in other words, the structure can be removed.

Mr Boyle says his proposal meets the requirement since it will not be fixed to the ground and will rest on plinths.

But his neighbours argue it's too large to qualify in anyone's mind as being a mobile home.

It will include two bedrooms with two shower rooms, and at 55ft by 22ft, would, according to the Pembury Society, offer "very spacious" accommodation and would in effect be "a complete two-bedroom residential development".

Mr Boyle has submitted a letter from his proposed supplier of the home, Contemporary Log Living, stating that the proposal does meet all the legal requirements to classify as a mobile home.

Details of the application and decision notice from the council can be found by clicking here and searching for the reference 22/03534.

The situation is aggravated in the eyes of Mr Boyle's neighbours by the fact that his home is Grade II listed, and the garden lies within a designated conservation area, facing the village green.

They are also annoyed he has already felled – albeit with permission from the council – eight mature trees in his garden to make room for the structure.

The scheme has attracted eight letters of objection as well as letters of concern from the Pembury Society and from Pembury Parish Council.

But Mr Boyle is adamant the mobile home will be used only as ancillary accommodation to the main house.

It will not have a separate address, post box, utility meter, parking, garden nor a separate access and the entire structure remains temporary and could be lifted out by crane, it is claimed.