There was some harsh criticism of Maidstone council at the first day of hearings into its Local Plan Review this week, as objectors sought to convince a Government inspector that the borough had not met its legal obligations to properly consult residents when preparing the plan.

The strongest criticism came from two of the borough's own councillors, who said they felt there had been an attempt to bully them into keeping quiet.

Lenham ward councillor Janetta Sams, and her husband Tom, represent the village where the council is proposing to impose a 5,000-home garden community.

She claimed they had been deliberately excluded from the council's discussions.

There had been three stages of public consultation, Regulation 18, 18B and the decider, Regulation 19.

But Cllr Sams said that even before the Regulation 19 consultation began, the council's officers had already prepared and out-sourced the Heathlands project (in which it is acting as land promoter), without the knowledge of the ward councillors.

She said: "It's our view that Heathlands was always the answer needed by officers and many councillors, and any evidence to the contrary was always either 'missing', 'still being formulated' or 'not available.'"

She said: "We as ward councillors were denied information available to other councillors.

"We feel we were deliberately excluded. We were treated disrespectfully and unprofessionally and only allowed to see any documents with an officer standing by us and we were told we mustn't take away anything, have any copies or make any notes."

She said that she and her husband had received a letter from the council's legal department suggesting their comments at a council meeting could be a breach of the code of conduct.

She said: "We feel this was an attempt to keep us quiet, telling us we may be being bullied."

She told the Government inspector David Spencer that was why objectors were depending on him.

She said: "All our eggs are in this basket (with the hearings) because the council has refused to engage in any significant discussions."

She labelled the engagement with the community as "woeful, truly abysmal."

Her allegations were described as "quite shocking."

In response, Philip Coyne for the council said that Cllr Sams was "conflating the clear blue water between the council's role as a planning authority and its role as a land promoter.

"A lot of the work that she was referring to was work of the council as land promoter."

But there were plenty of others to criticise the consultation process.

The CPRE complained that its comments had been missed out from a report on the consultation responses given to councillors and asked: "If ours were missed, were others too?"

Ray Dines was concerned about the 2,000-home Lidsing garden village proposal. He said there had been no proper analysis of the 1,700 objections.

He said: "It is not clear how the decision was made to introduce Lidsing into the 18b Regulation options and to remove Marden. There is no published rationale."

He also alleged: "Maidstone Borough Council blatantly failed to engage with local residents or parish councils with regard to at Lidsing - there were no meetings with residents or exhibitions of the proposals."

'Our petition was filed away and ignored'

Bredhurst Parish Council also complained that its had been consulted only at a very late stage.

Its barrister argued that there was a legal requirement for objections to be taken conscientiously into account, for which he said "there was scant evidence."

Kate Hammond for the Save Our Heathlands campaign said: "Our concern is that this has been a political process rather than an evidence-based exercise.

"We organised a 4,000-strong petition against the proposals, which was noted, filed away and ignored."

In response the council pointed out that it was not legally obliged to hold a Regulation 18 consultation at all. The fact that it held two was evidence of its desire to consult the community.

The inspector told the hearings: "I shall have to look at what has been done and see if it meets the legal requirements."

The hearings continue in the Town Hall this week and next, starting at 10am. They are open to the public and can be viewed live via a webcast.

If approved by the inspector, the Local Plan Review will determine where development will take place in the borough until 2037.