230 Homes Planned for a Field North of Offham Road, West Malling - on Land the Council Already Said No To

A housebuilder, Miller Homes, wants to build up to 230 new houses on a field north of Offham Road in West Malling. The twist: when Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council drew up its new long-term plan for where the area's new homes should go, it looked at this exact field and decided not to include it. More than 60 objections have already been logged against the application, and a local group called Friends of Offham Road is campaigning against it ahead of the council's 18 November deadline for comments.

This is what's called an "outline" application - it asks the council to agree to the principle of building up to 230 homes here, including some affordable ones, plus new roads and landscaping. The exact house designs and detailed layout would come later, in a separate application, if this first stage is approved. The only thing fixed at this stage is how cars and people would get in and out of the site. The developer is Miller Homes; the application itself is filed in the name of a Mr Matt Richardson, through planning agent Andrew Black Consulting. It was submitted on 9 September and formally registered by the council on 19 October.

Every council has to draw up a Local Plan - a document that decides, years in advance, roughly where new housing should and shouldn't go. Tonbridge and Malling has been putting one together, and landowners were invited to suggest sites. This exact field - "Land North of Offham Road" - was put forward by the same planning agent acting for Miller Homes now. The council looked at it and left it out of the plan. Even Friends of Offham Road, the group now fighting this application, says so in its own official written objection to the council: it backs the council's decision to leave the field out, calling it "a justified outcome" the council reached fairly, after weighing up the evidence.

The field sits inside the Green Belt - protected countryside where, under national rules, building is only allowed in special circumstances. There's a newer wrinkle, though: since December 2024, the Government has made it easier to build on parts of the Green Belt that are judged to be low quality and do little to actually protect the countryside - officially called "grey belt". Whether this particular field counts as grey belt is disputed, and isn't something either side can simply assert; it's one of the things that would be argued out if the application goes to a decision.

Campaigners describe the field as top-quality farmland, and that claim is genuinely a bit more complicated than it sounds. The old official map most planning documents still use dates from the 1970s, and it rates this land as Grade 1 - the very best there is. A newer, more up-to-date Government map from 2025 rates the same field one notch down, as Grade 3a - still good farmland, just not quite top-tier. Neither map is as reliable as an actual visit to the field by a surveyor, which is what would normally settle the question if the application goes ahead.

A local group called Friends of Offham Road is leading the campaign against this specific application. It says on its own website that it exists "to help support our Parish and Borough to develop the right plan for our future housing needs" - in other words, it isn't against new homes in general, just this particular field. Its current message to supporters: "We have until 18th November to have our say. Stop the destruction of West Malling." The group has its own Facebook page with more than 370 followers, and says it's raising money to pay for legal and planning advice.

According to the council's own public case file, more than 60 letters and online objection forms have been submitted since late October - and that's before the comment deadline has even arrived. A number of official bodies have also already responded, including the Environment Agency, Southern Water, Natural England, Kent Fire Service, NHS Kent and Medway, and Kent County Council's drainage team.

Residents can comment through the council's planning portal up to Wednesday 18 November 2026, quoting reference 26/01667/OA. The council currently has until Monday 18 January 2027 to decide. For now, the file shows the decision would be made by a council planning officer rather than going to a committee vote - though that can still change before a final decision is made. Source: Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council planning register, 26/01667/OA, Friends of Offham Road. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.