A developer has branded a council “bang out of order” for dashing his hopes of building a housing estate and medical centre.

Max Tillings hoped Folkestone and Hythe District Council (FHDC) would approve his proposals for 32 homes and land for a doctors’ surgery in Sellindge.

But planning chiefs recently threw out the scheme on his former piggery off the A20, labelling it “unsustainable, visually dominant” and “out of character”.

The same council will soon decide where Quinn Homes can press ahead with an alternative project consisting of 101 homes and a medical centre at the opposite end of the village.

Having had similar proposals snubbed last year, Mr Tillings, 52, said: “There has been no attention paid to this application at all, they've just completely dismissed it, which is bang out of order.

“It's absolutely ridiculous - completely absurd. The whole situation has left a really nasty taste in my mouth, I have to say.

“I'm sure anyone else would be of the same opinion.

“We've got a brownfield site here, which is a well-screened, level, and we are proposing to provide a much-needed medical facility and homes for the elderly.”

The landowner of 20 years believes a review of the decision is necessary, adding: “I'd like to give the local authority the opportunity to retract that refusal because I feel that's exactly what they should do.

“People say ‘Oh, you've got biased opinion because you've had a refusal’, well no.

“It’s a matter of principle now.”

The rejected plans show the homes would have been made up of nine bungalows, 12 three-beds, six two-beds and five four-beds.

Mr Tillings has an ongoing scheme to deliver six houses on another section of the same site.

The application has been ongoing and undecided for five years.

Speaking to KentOnline, Mr Tillings questioned how one application take such a significant amount of time, and the other just five months.

He added: “Here we are, five years on and we've been asked to jump through endless amounts of hoops.

“They literally keep moving the goalposts continually.

“Then with this one, it's taken five months to go through a consultation process and for the local authority to refuse it.

“There is no justification.

“It’s an unpleasant experience.”

In a recent report, the planning officer who snubbed the scheme outlined various shortcomings which led to its refusal.

“The site is set outside of the defined settlement boundary and away from established and planned strategic residential development, amenities and services, with no justification of the need for the proposed residential and healthcare uses in this location,” they said.

“It would represent a significant, unsustainable development, away from the emerging village core.

“Furthermore, the proposed layout, scale and poor building design would fail to respond to the character of the existing development or rural location, failing to create a sense of place and as such it would appear incongruous, visually dominant and out of character with the locality.”

However, Mr Tillings claims he and his team “brought the level of the houses considerably down”, to reduce the bulk and scale of the development, as instructed by planning officers.

He also claims there is a need for a doctor's surgery in the village, despite the officer's comments.

Earlier this month, the house builder lashed out when Sellindge Surgery consultant Dr George Vattakuzhiyil publicly supported Quinn Homes’ proposals to develop Elmtree Farm and appeared to label his own plans “speculative”.

At the time, the developer said: “How dare this person have the sheer audacity to make reference, and even criticise, our proposals without so much as to actually reach out to us.”

‘It’s an unpleasant experience...’

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While he accepts the site is “away from the emerging village core”, he points out that this is also the case with Quinn’s development, which is still under consultation.

Mr Tillings also took issue with the officer’s claim his development lacked sufficient parking and affordable housing.

The officer’s report also says the latest planning bid is too similar to the first refused application.

Concluding his findings, the officer wrote: “It is considered the proposal is an unsustainable development that does not comply with development plan policy or the NPPF and is therefore recommended for refusal.”

A FHDC spokesman said: “The application was submitted as an alternative proposal to a similar application that was refused in 2023.

“The site is outside the settlement boundary and not on land allocated for development.

“Apart from some changes to the proposed layout, the application had not addressed the multiple grounds of refusal in respect of the first submission and was therefore determined in accordance with the Development Plan policy and within the statutory time period.”

Quinn Homes says its development, which would be off Main Road at the opposite end of the village, will supply a “significantly larger” GP practice than the current “outdated and constrained one”.

The firm believes it will help increase the range of primary care services in the village and wider area, having worked closely with the current practice.

The outline planning application includes proposals for 105 homes – including affordable and self-build housing – alongside the replacement doctors’ surgery, a dental surgery, shop and land for future school expansion.