A bid to protect a treasured space from development could be scuppered by a Google Streetview image from 2009.

Campaigners from the Medway Ecological Riverine Link, known as MERLin, have been trying to get a special “village green” designation for land at Bunyards Farm, near Allington, since June 2021.

For the protective status to be awarded, Kent County Council (KCC) has to be satisfied the public has had unfettered access to the land for a period of at least 20 years, that the land was used by a “significant” number of the local community and that they used it for bona fide recreational purposes.

The applicants – who included former borough councillor James Willis, current borough councillor Paul Harper, and newly elected county councillor Chris Passmore – gathered evidence from 63 residents stating they had used the land “as of right” and for legitimate purposes such as dog-walking and blackberrying.

But the application has been disputed by the landowners, who are the trustees of the Andrew Cheale Will Trust, and by Barrett David Wilson, a development company that wants to build 435 homes on the site.

The objectors argue that for at least some of the last 20 years, the land was used for grazing cattle, and that during that time it was secured with a barbed-wire fence, such as residents could not have used it “as of right” – although the objectors allege that the fence was frequently vandalised.

Unfortunately for the campaigners, one of the key “entrances” to the site, which 39 of the witnesses say they used, was from Beaver Road, and KCC has found a GoogleStreetview photo from 2009 showing a barbed wire fence across the entrance.

The county’s investigating officer, Graham Rusling, has therefore discounted the evidence of the 39 witnesses who say they used that entrance.

That leaves the statements of 24 other witnesses who say they used different ways of accessing the land.

That raises the question as to whether 24 people is a “significant number” – there is no legal definition of “significant” – and also whether they also had free access throughout the 20-year period.

Mr Rusling said if the evidence of the objectors that the land was occasionally used for cattle grazing was accepted, then it would stand to reason that the land was likely to have been fenced at that time – to stop the cattle escaping if nothing else.

He suggested there was insufficient evidence to reach a definitive conclusion either way.

The land, between Beaver Road and the Maidstone railway line, which covers 37.5 acres, lies within the parish of Aylesford and is in the borough of Tonbridge and Malling, but the applicants say it was residents of Allington in Maidstone who have used it as open space.

KCC’s regulation panel will meet on Friday (September 15) in County Hall at 10am to determine the next step. The panel’s five members – Cllrs Steve Manion, Mike Baldock, Ian Chittenden, Mark Dance and Harry Rayner – are being advised by officers to hold a full public inquiry to determine the issue.

The application has been supported by Aylesford Parish Council and by Andrew Kennedy, who is the county councillor for the area and who said that he personally had spoken to residents who had used the space for over 20 years.

The land has been described as “an important green space in an overly developed area with poor infrastructure.“

Cty Cllr Chris Passmore, one of the applicants, said: “I am confident in the evidence of our witnesses and hopeful of a successful outcome.”