Allington community hope Village Green status will stop 400 homes being built

Campaigners argue Bunyards farm is the last remaining green space in their community, with a surge of development near Maidstone.

Transcript

00:00 One of the last green spaces in Addington. Land in this area is being developed to meet

00:07 Maidstone's housing demand. The locals worry Bunyard's Farm could become the latest estate.

00:13 A campaign group is heading to a public inquiry this week to make the case that this is 15

00:18 hectares of public open space.

00:20 We wanted to live in an area where there was lots of open space with plenty of views and

00:26 it had it in dozens and dozens of views everywhere around here. You can see it right behind us

00:30 now. The downs are notorious for being beautiful. They are protected. This land needs protecting

00:40 too. It will have that status if it's a village green.

00:43 For village green status, campaigners will have to convince the inspector that there

00:47 has been unimpeded access for at least 20 years.

00:50 This is one of the many well-tridden paths at Bunyard's Farm and campaigners are using

00:55 that to say, well, look, the local community have been using this land for many years.

01:01 But the owners claim there were fences around this land for some of the past 20 years. BDW

01:08 Trading wants to build 435 homes, but a campaign group hopes those plans will be scuppered

01:14 as they have 108 witnesses making the case for village green status.

01:19 I think it's wellbeing more than anything and it's the fact that it's been wellbeing

01:24 for 25 years for us.

01:28 People come over of differing ages doing different things. A lot of older parents or grandparents

01:33 like myself bring over their grandchildren. I know myself with my own grandson, we did

01:38 a scavenger hunt over here.

01:41 Village green status won't turn Bunyard into your stereotypical postcard scene. This former

01:45 farm has been left to wild for decades, some arguing it should now remain that way.

01:52 When you have a land like this that has been really left to decline, it attracts the foxes

01:57 and the wildlife and everything and we see that all the time. It's one of the things

02:02 that attracts people here.

02:04 Yet with a demand for new homes, is this campaign group just being a bunch of nimbys?

02:09 I mean we talked to our witnesses about that the whole time and they are very clearly not

02:15 nimbys. It's about the benefit of this space to current and future residents. People are

02:21 talking to saying they're going to move away from Maidstone because there's going to be

02:26 no green space.

02:27 The inquiry is expected to end on Friday. Its then-four-to recommendation will be made

02:32 within six weeks.

02:34 Gabriel Morris in Maidstone.

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