Exclusive: Homes England Secures Hillhurst Farm Land for Otterpool Homes

The next Otterpool Park housing move appears to sit in a very specific triangle of land at Hillhurst Farm, just south of the railway, east of Westenhanger station and around the A20/Stone Street gateway into Newingreen.

The Shepway Vox Team understands this is the land where Homes England is now looking at up to 250 homes — and possibly more, with the ceiling on the wider evidence appearing to sit nearer 350. The old Phase 1 parcel plan shows Parcel 1 at 52 houses and about 150 flats, while Parcel 9 is shown at 349 houses and about four flats. The land is in orange below

What we don’t know is the price. The supplied title deed for Hillhurst Farm, Stone Street, Westenhanger, says “last sold for: No price recorded” as of today 9 June 2026, and we’ve not seen a public figure showing how much Homes England has paid, or agreed to pay, for the land.

That matters. Public land, public infrastructure and public planning promises all meet in this field. Yet, at the time of writing, the price of the present Homes England land move remains missing from the public picture.

The timing makes the clue louder. On 23 March 2026, Folkestone & Hythe District Council and Homes England announced a renewed collaboration agreement “aimed at supporting and accelerating” Otterpool Park, with the agreement focused on securing planning permission for the current scheme and time-limited until December 2026. Homes England’s own director described it as a milestone intended to help deliver homes, infrastructure and community benefits “at pace”.

Then came the ecology work. A public contract award notice, published on 8 June 2026, is titled “Land at Hillhurst Green – Ecology”. The buyer is Homes England, the award is listed at £19,800, and the work is for ecological surveys at Hillhurst Green, Otterpool Park.

Ecology surveys don’t build houses. But they often tell you where someone is preparing to build.

The land in question is the orange triangle shown on the map above: bounded by the railway to the north, the A20/Ashford Road gateway and Stone Street/Newingreen approach, with Westenhanger station a short walk away. It sits in Saltwood Parish Council’s area, not in some abstract “garden town” nowhere-land. It is real countryside, beside real homes, real roads and real footpaths. The entrance to Hillhurst farm sits on the A20

We understand the land is owned by the Hardy family, who own Sandling Park. What the title paperwork adds is another important point: the Hillhurst Farm title summary records a unilateral notice in respect of a 2016 option agreement, and in March 2020 the beneficiary is recorded as the District Council of Folkestone and Hythe. In plain English, this looks like land the council had a registered interest in before Homes England’s latest move.

That absence of a public price should ring bells. The old Otterpool Park financial material made clear the business model: the master developer would sell parcels of land to housebuilders, with land receipts helping pay for infrastructure. In the redacted Phase 1 cashflow pack, Phase 1 is described as land east and west of Westenhanger Castle, clustered around the castle parkland and designed to encourage use of Westenhanger station.

The same pack shows housing parcels with numbers attached. Parcel 1 is shown with about 202 homes, alongside employment and community/retail space. Parcel 8 is shown with 183 houses. Parcel 9 is shown with 349 houses and about four flats. That is why the “up to 250 homes” figure needs careful watching. The old Otterpool paperwork shows how quickly a station-side parcel can move from “manageable” to a new village by spreadsheet.

There are two further reasons residents should pay attention.

First, Kent County Council’s public rights of way map records the legal position of public rights of way in Kent, and the Otterpool planning material identifies Public Footpaths HE221A and HE281 within the wider site. According to the KCC public-rights-of-way mapping, both HE221A and HE281 run across this Hillhurst Green land. These aren’t decorative dotted lines. They are public routes through the landscape.

Second, the land sits in the boundary of Saltwood Parish Council. Saltwood Parish Council has already been deeply concerned about Otterpool’s impact. In the outline planning process, the parish raised objections over lack of clarity on services and amenities, water supply in an area of water stress, and highway-management issues — including the risk of traffic using local roads as rat-runs.

Hillhurst Green is not just another field on another glossy masterplan. It is part of the eastern front door to Otterpool Park. The existing Otterpool documents described Hillhurst Farm and Hillhurst Green as a gateway area, with employment, green space, movement routes, landscape buffers and sensitivity to the surrounding countryside.

Now Homes England is commissioning ecology work there, months after renewing its delivery partnership with the council.

The public question is no longer whether the Hillhurst Farm triangle is in play. It is. Homes England has commissioned ecology work for “Land at Hillhurst Green”, months after renewing its collaboration agreement with Folkestone & Hythe District Council to accelerate Otterpool Park and secure planning permission for the current scheme. The title paperwork also shows the council as the beneficiary of a registered option interest over Hillhurst Farm. The questions now are sharper: how much public money is involved, how many homes are actually intended — 250, closer to 350, or something else — and what happens to public footpaths HE221A and HE281 running across the land?

Otterpool has always been sold as a planned garden town. Hillhurst Farm now looks like one of the first real tests of that promise: whether residents get proper garden-town transparency before the diggers arrive, or whether another field on the edge of Westenhanger quietly changes hands, changes purpose and changes the landscape before the public is told the price.

The Shepway Vox Team

Dissent is NOT a Crime