The body responsible for the country’s motorway network has intervened in a controversial planning application.

National Highways has told Tonbridge and Malling council (TMBC) it shouldn’t determine an application to build 950 homes around Eccles until August 15, because it is still awaiting key details from the developer, Trenport, on the effect on the M2 and M20.

It had earlier served the borough council with a similar notice saying the application should not be determined before May 15, but on the day that limit ran out, Trenport lodged an appeal with the Planning Inspectorate for non-determination.

National Highways said it had been in talks with the developer and said Trenport had satisfied it on four of the nine issues it had raised, but five were still outstanding.

Now the application has gone to appeal, Tonbridge and Malling council no longer has the power to decide the issue, but it would usually still consider the application, and its decision would form the basis of the case it presented at the appeal hearing.

But it has emerged in a published “memorandum of understanding” signed by both National Highways and Trenport, that the borough council had failed to consult National Highways when the application was first submitted.

National Highways said it had only become aware of the plans in February after reading about it in local news media, even though it had been submitted in January 2022.

Eccles parish councillor Steve Beadle said: “Tonbridge and Malling council is gaining a reputation for its failure to consult properly.

“As long ago as 1997, when this area was being suggested in the Local Plan, it agreed with a planning inspector that it would produce a planning brief for the Bushey Wood development and subject it to public consultation.

“ We are still waiting for that. On the present consultation, the council waivered the need for a statutory Area Action Plan as specified in its current Local Plan.

“Instead, the developer has centred its proposal on a so-called ‘constraints analysis’ which the public are not allowed to see. How can you have a valid consultation if you can’t see the key document?

“A few weeks ago, I watched a council planning meeting by video link. The councillors agreed to allow a new development in Aylesford without any discussion of the issues raised by members of the public who had been invited to speak.”

(Cllr Beadle was referring to an application for a later living community of 500 homes at Aylesford Quarry.)

He said: “I am genuinely undecided as to how badly local democracy has been degraded.”

Cllr Beadle said there was concern that if approved, the Bushey Wood plans would have a devastating effect on a fragile local economy due to gridlocked traffic on road infrastructure that would be unable to cope.

He said: “One aspect that Treport has still not addressd is the effect on the sometimes already lengthy delays at the level crossing in Aylesford, which can lead to tailbacks that block key junctions in the village.”

A council spokesman said: “When this application was validated in 2022, National Highways were inadvertently omitted from the list of statutory consultees for which we apologise.”

“Following the notification to appeal from the applicant, National Highways submitted representations on the scheme to address impacts on the strategic road network and have confirmed that their statutory function has not been compromised as a result of the lack of a formal consultation as part of the original application process.

“The applicant is working with National Highways to address the issues raised. We do not release dates for consideration of applications in advance.

“However, as the applicants have chosen to lodge an appeal, we now need to proceed in a timely manner to establish the decision that members would have taken had they been able to determine the application.

“This will form an important element of our submissions to the appeal, and on that basis, we anticipate this application going to a planning committee in the near future.”

The next possible planning committee date is June 8.

Trenport said: “Trenport is continuing to work with National Highways to provide information that has been requested and a decision would not be made by the Planning Inspectorate before this work has been completed.”