A planning application has been submitted for almost 50 more homes in a village that’s at “threat of becoming a town”.

Aile Homes, an East Grinstead housing developer, has submitted plans for 46 homes just off Newington High Street, near Sittingbourne.

The applicant wants to demolish a house to make way for the development, which would include affordable housing and be accessed from the A2 .

It would be a mix of detached houses, semi-detached villas, terraced townhouses and cottage flat maisonettes.

Of the homes, 18 would be affordable. There would be six one-bedroom, four two-bedroom, seven three-bedroom and one four-bedroom.

The other 28 will include two two-bedroom, 19 three-bedroom, six four-bedroom and two five-bedroom.

In its design and access statement, the developer says: “This development will deliver a series of interconnected, accessible and ecologically beneficial green spaces which will provide residents and the wider community with open spaces that enhance their well-being and provide opportunities to connect with nature.

“The proposed substantial native landscape buffer will enclose the site and enhance existing surrounding wildlife networks as well as provide screening to limit views from the wider landscape.”

The entrance to the site was approved under an outline planning application (21/505722/OUT).

Aile Homes says Crescent Drive will accommodate the highest proportion of traffic through the site as the homes are set back from the road.

It’s application explains: “Various links within the site facilitate access for vehicles, bicycles, and pedestrians via the access road and associated footway.

“Parking spaces are distributed across the site, including private driveways, primary-street parking, courtyard parking and on-street parallel visitor parking bays.

“The parking arrangements align with the specifications outlined in the previously approved Transport Statement (and addendum) and were reviewed during the outline planning application.”

Since the application was submitted on February 15 people living nearby have shared their concerns.

Jane Noble, of Allsworth Close, said: “The village is a village and more and more houses are turning it into a town, without the appropriate infrastructure being put in place.

“We have one of the worst GP scales in the whole of the UK and approving this application will just impose even more strain on an already failing borough.

“The A2 is a heavily congested road with frequent accidents, this development will not only add to the air quality but also poses a risk of more accidents due to the lack of footpath on the way to the train station and shops on that side of the road, forcing pedestrians to cross an extremely busy road.”

Cllr Richard Palmer, a Swale Independents Alliance councillor for Hartlip, Newington and Upchurch, says the application is not compliant with the NPPF and the councils' policies.

Cllr Palmer, who lives nearby in Station Road, said: “The affordable housing is placed in a cluster however this is not integrating the affordable housing in a mixed and balanced way.

“The parking is insufficient for the scale and rural location of the development and is not compliant with Swale council’s parking standards supplementary planning document (SPD).

“We simply do not have the infrastructure to support more homes. I feel sorry for people who moved to the area not too long ago who are now having homes dumped on them.

"People do need homes to live in but we won't be able to support more houses with the current infrastructure."

For more information on the application enter 24/500761/REM into the Swale planning portal.

This isn’t the only application in the area that is looking for approval.

Just a few yards down the road Esquire Developments has submitted an outline planning application for the land to the rear of Eden Meadow for up to another 25 dwellings.

For more information enter 23/505365/OUT into the Swale planning portal. Aile Homes has been contacted for comment.

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These applications come after the recent approval of two other developments in the village.

In September a controversial housing development in School Lane was given the go-ahead despite fears over traffic chaos.

It came after two years of planning battles. The 25-home development near Newington CoE Primary School was given the green light following intervention from the Secretary of State.

A month earlier plans for 135 homes were approved on appeal at Pond Farm in London Road.

It sparked fury from villagers who said the extra traffic would put their health at risk.