It could take two more years to complete work on a council's controversial planning blueprint for thousands of homes as officers have been told to go back to the drawing board.

Council leader Alan Jarrett (Con) says Medway Council will be pushing back the process on the long-delayed plans blaming a political deadlock.

The authority had been trying to get the plan - which will set out sites for 27,000 new homes as well as space for employment up to 2037 - through to the next stage called Regulation 19.

This stage, which would have involved consulting residents on a number of wide-reaching plans, could not go ahead after plans were dropped ahead of a crucial vote in October.

The reason for the delay was given as more evidence documents needed to be completed.

It was hoped that the plan would have then been adopted next year if an independent inspector found it to be sound.

But many councillors disagreed with the draft plans, including how much of the proposed development could happen on the Hoo Peninsula.

Some also disagreed with plans to build 3,265 homes and commercial space at Chatham Docks, which has been earmarked for closure in 2025.

The council will now have to restart a stage called Regulation 18, which had already been carried between 2016 and 2018. This part also involves consulting residents and businesses.

Speaking to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, Cllr Jarrett said: "I have asked officers to prepare a paper for cabinet which will hopefully be in September or October.

"The Regulation 19 process has been stymied; there isn't a political consensus to get [that phase] out for consultation.

"Members have decided they don't want to consult the public, they don't want to hear what the public have to say.

"Without political consensus we have to cancel [the previous] Regulation 18 and we'll go back and start again which will take anything up to two years."

The Lordswood and Capstone representative - who is stepping down as the leader and as a councillor next year - said the process will involve going back to look at sites for possible development, adding: "In the interim, our position of not having a five-year housing land supply, and not having an up-to-date Local Plan means we are largely defenceless against speculative planning applications.

"Those responsible for holding things up, they will have to answer to the public for that," Cllr Jarrett added.

On Thursday, councillors decided to send a crucial document called the Medway Infrastructure Delivery Plan to full council for consideration after Tory councillors called into question the affordability of many of the proposals.

This effectively undid a cabinet decision to start a seven-week long consultation into the council's £170 million Housing Infrastructure Fund for the Hoo Peninsula which was due to start on Monday.

The leadership of Medway Council has also been butting heads with Maidstone Borough Council over its Local Plan Review, the public hearing for which is due to start next month.

Cllr Jarrett has spoken out on a number of occasions on the neighbouring authority's plans to develop 2,000 homes in the hamlet of Lidsing.

Cllr Jane Chitty (Con) who has been overseeing the local plan process in her role as portfolio holder for planning, economic growth, and regulation, said: "At the moment we can no longer take the draft Local Plan out for consultation.

"As an authority we have complied and are complying.

"The government insists on other things as you go along, so that then becomes part of the Local Plan. We are fulfilling the duties that the government requires us to fulfil and will continue to do so.

"But in the absence of any agreement we can't take it out for consultation."

'Those responsible for holding things up, they will have to answer to the public for that'

Cllr Simon Curry (Lab), Medway Labour Group's spokesman for regeneration, culture and environment, said he didn't think anything to do with the Local Plan will be considered by councillors before the next local elections in May.

He explained: "They'll have to do all the consultation on sites, they will have to do the Strategic Land Availability Assessment, which means going back to consult with all the landowners as to who wants to put their land forward for housing and other uses."

He added how not having a Local Plan in place could prove costly for the council trying to defend planning applications in areas councillors don't want to see development.

He said: "We have got to put up with planning applications for houses on the Hoo Peninsula with no Local Plan.

"The Labour position is that we are very cross because we think that the leadership of the council, Alan Jarrett in particular, failed Medway completely on the delivery of the Local Plan and the delivery of HIF and we are calling for a change."