The Green Belt should be extended to protect separate communities from merging into one, a Tonbridge and Malling councillor has argued.

Cllr Dan Markham (Con) said that people in his home village of East Malling were genuinely worried that they could be subsumed by an expansion of Kings Hill, if a controversial proposal submitted under Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council’s Call For Sites is allowed.

The 400-acre site north of Kings Hill, known as Broadwater Farm, could accommodate 4,772 homes, offering the council the attractive prospect of almost meeting its housing needs in one blow.

But Cllr Markham said it would create an urban sprawl joining Kings Hill and East Malling, and in addition would not meet the need to supply differing sorts of houses in varying locations.

He said: “It would destroy the character of our village.

“We must be realistic and accept that we need to build more houses, but we should see this site as an opportunity.

“The green belt could be extended from West Malling across part of the site to make a buffer that would protect East Malling.”

The village is feeling under threat because a second site at the East Malling Research Station centre has been identified as being able to take 5,487 homes.

The borough is looking to find room for 13,460 new homes for the Local Plan period 2011 to 2031, but 7,457 of those have already been built or are in the pipeline, leaving 6,003 new homes to be built.

The call for sites has identified 262 potential locations which between them could potentially yield 20,000 units.

Council leader Nicolas Heslop (Con) has sought to reassure residents that fewer than half of the sites suggested would ultimately be adopted.

No decision has yet been made on either Broadwater Farm or the research station. There will be a public consultation in the autumn.

The Interim Sites Assessment is available on the council’s website at www.tmbc.gov.uk/callforsites