Maidstone Borough Council has opened a formal process asking anyone with an interest in land across the borough to suggest sites for housing, employment, green space or community use — with submissions open until 23 August 2026.
Own land in Maidstone? Run a community group? Think that field on the edge of town should stay a field? The council wants to hear from you. Maidstone Borough Council launched its Call for Sites 2026 on 15 June, starting the early evidence-gathering stage of a brand new Local Plan — the document that will decide where homes, workplaces, shops and open spaces get built or protected across the borough for years to come.
Anyone can propose a site. The council is explicitly inviting landowners, developers, community organisations and members of the public to put forward land for a wide range of uses: ordinary housing, affordable homes, specialist housing, Gypsy and Traveller pitches, Travelling Showpeople plots, employment and commercial space, retail and leisure, community facilities, and green spaces that could support biodiversity net gain — land that would leave nature in better shape than before any development touched it.
One thing worth knowing if you’ve been through this before. Past submissions don’t carry over automatically. If you put a site forward in a previous Call for Sites exercise, you’ll need to submit again within the current window or it won’t be considered. No exceptions.
Submitting a site doesn’t mean it immediately becomes a planning allocation — not by a long stretch. The council will assess each one against a consistent set of criteria, pulling the results into a Strategic Land Availability Assessment, which is essentially a structured evidence document recording what’s been put forward and how it performs. Sites that get through that stage then face a full public consultation before anything is confirmed in the new Local Plan.
On privacy: Call for Sites forms can contain sensitive personal information, so the council won’t publish them in full, in line with GDPR rules. But some details will appear on the council’s Consultation Portal — the respondent’s name, the landowner’s name, the site name and its boundary.
Guidance notes and FAQs are available on the council’s consultation system. Queries can go to ldf@maidstone.gov.uk.
Key information
- Submission window: 15 June 2026 to 11:59pm on 23 August 2026
- Who can submit: Landowners, developers, community organisations and members of the public
- Previous submissions: Must be resubmitted — earlier entries are not carried forward automatically
- Questions: Email ldf@maidstone.gov.uk
Sites that progress through assessment will go to a full public consultation before any allocations are confirmed in the new Local Plan.
Maidstone Council asks residents and landowners to put forward sites for its new borough plan Quiz
5 questions