Plans for a “new town” in Kent have been sent to the government for a final decision after an intervention from the housing secretary.

Swale Council was due to decide on Thursday whether 8,400 homes could be built near Sittingbourne, but said the government intervened just hours before the meeting.

Planning officials had previously recommended that the council vote against the project, with campaigners saying it would overwhelm current infrastructure and damage the environment, Local Democracy Reporting Service reported.

But developer Quinn Estates says the proposals are “entirely appropriate” and would bring “significant benefits to the surrounding area as a whole”.

The council received a letter from the government just three hours before the meeting was due to start, explaining that Angela Rayner, secretary of state for Housing, Communities and Local Government, had called for a local inquiry into the plan.

The development is divided into two parts.

Up to 7,150 homes, a community space, a hotel, a new rubbish tip and primary and secondary schools are planned for the larger site surrounding Sittingbourne.

The smaller site, known as Teynham West, is expected to include up to 1,250 homes, including sheltered and special care accommodation, a primary school and the Bapchild section of a northern relief road, which is already in the local plan.

“The proposals are entirely suitable for the site in terms of land use, amount of development, access, layout and appearance,” a Quinn Estates spokesperson said.

However, the offer has received more than 700 letters of objection.

Carol Goatham, of Farm Fields & Fresh Air, said: “Our sewer works are already struggling, we know our GPs are already struggling.

“This proposal links seven outlying villages on the outskirts of Sittingbourne, between Sittingbourne and Teynham, and there is a rural way of life here.”

The Housing Secretary will have the final say on the plans and is expected to announce her decision in February.