Opposition is mounting against an application for a new "garden village" on the former Detling Airfield site.

The long expected planning application for a major development at Binbury Park near Detling has finally been submitted to Maidstone council.

An outline application, jointly submitted by Binbury Park Estates and EJ Mackelden and Sons, seeks permission for 1,750 houses, 46,000sqm of commercial space, a hotel, a shopping centre, a primary school and a park-and-ride facility.

It includes works on the A249 in both directions to facilitate access, including a new entrance to the Kent Showground.

The plans also propose a 50-hectare country park, based around the historic Binbury motte and bailey castle, currently difficult to access by the public.

The site, often thought of as being Detling, actually lies within the parishes of Thurnham and Stockbury.

The application will be discussed by Thurnham Parish Council at its next meeting on Monday, November 19, at 7.30pm at the Marriott Tudor Park Hotel in Bearsted.

The Bearsted and Thurnham Society intends to oppose the application, pointing out that the site is not allocated for development in the Local Plan and is in the countryside, part of the North Downs Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Protect Kent, the Kent branch of the Campaign to Protect Rural England, is also opposed.

Maidstone council is about to embark on a review of its Local Plan and may well have to find more housing sites, but none of the possibilities has yet been tested.

The society said it would be "entirely wrong" to start allocating new tracts of land for development until the review had taken place.

Nevertheless, now that an application as been submitted, the council must make a decision by January 17, 2019, or risk having the developers take it straight to appeal.

To view the planning application click here