An outline planning application has been made to build 99 homes in the green belt.

The application has been submitted by Obsidian Strategic Asset Management Ltd for land at Hubbles Farm, off the Hastings Road, in Pembury.

The company will not be the final developer, but instead intends to sell the site on once planning permission is obtained.

The application to Tunbridge Wells council seeks to demolish the four existing homes on the farm and also the existing stables, barn and equestrian centre.

Despite being green belt and within the High Weald AONB (Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty), the land has been put forward as a potential development site in the emerging - ie, yet to be adopted - Tunbridge Wells Local Plan, and also in the Pembury Neighbourhood Plan - albeit only for 80 homes.

The site has been the subject of development speculation since at least 2017, and original concepts talked of up to 121 homes.

The outline plan contains only details of the access - which will be onto the Hastings Road. All other details will be left to the future developer to finalise, but an indicative plan suggests there could be a central public space, with a children’s play area and drainage pond nearby.

There would be a substantial woodland buffer along the southern boundary of the site, which borders the busy A21.

Land below the existing Pembury Cemetery would be left undeveloped to accommodate a future expansion of the cemetery. However, it could be used in the meantime as public recreational space.

The homes shown range from 18 one-bedroom maisonettes to 16 four-bedroom houses, with a suggested 171 parking spaces in total. Forty per cent of the homes would be affordable.

Development of the site is somewhat compromised by the undulating topography of the land. It rises by 12m and then falls again.

At the moment, the land is chiefly put to pasture.

The application can be viewed on the Tunbridge Wells website, where comments can also be left, under application number 24/02085.

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Only two comments have been received so far - from Susan Nuttall of Greenleas, and from Craig Tuck of Romford Road.

Both object to the plans, primarily citing the already existing strain on local infrastructure such as schools and doctors’ surgeries, and saying that Hastings Road already suffers congestion.

Mr Tuck said: “There is simply not the provision in the village to accommodate a development of this size.”