Residents have staged a protest over proposed guidelines for building nearly 20,000 new homes in Kingston over 15 years.

Kingston Council has agreed to move ahead with the final draft of its new Local Plan, to guide where housing and infrastructure will be built up to 2043, after years of delay.

The plan sets out the delivery of nearly 20,000 new homes in proposed sites across the borough – including Metropolitan Open Land (MOL) and the green belt – over the 15 years from its expected adoption in 2028.

Residents raised concerns about the plan at a special meeting of the Lib Dem-run council on Monday night (June 22), particularly over the suitability of sites allocated for development, those deemed appropriate for tall buildings and sites proposed to be released from the green belt or MOL.

They said the authority had not given locals or councillors enough time to scrutinise information supporting the plan by publishing thousands of pages at short notice.

Residents held a protest outside Kingston's Guildhall ahead of the meeting to stress their concerns.

Kingston's current Local Plan was adopted in 2012, despite the authority originally pledging to publish a new plan by late 2021 or early 2022.

Councils in England are legally required to review their Local Plan at least every five years, which should then be updated if it is no longer found to be effective in managing housing, infrastructure and environmental concerns.

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The delay means Kingston does not have an updated plan to meet housing needs, earmark sites suitable for development and set out infrastructure and environmental protections needed to support growth.

The borough faces a "presumption in favour of sustainable development" as a result, which makes it far harder to refuse planning applications.

James Stanton, from Kingston Labour, told the meeting the administration had left Kingston the "easy target" of developers.

He said: "Given there is clearly no excuse for blaming the GLA [Greater London Authority] or Government for this council's singular failure to do its job, as so many other London boroughs have achieved what Lib Dem Kingston has not, Kingston's residents deserve to know why its council has been asleep at the wheel and left it open to predatory and inappropriate development for so long."

Independent councillor James Giles said the borough had to provide housing, but that did not mean "we should accept any version of any Local Plan".

Councillor Giles said: "This administration quite likes blaming others. It's never their fault, it's always someone else's fault."

He added: "This is not a sound evidence base, it's not suitable for Kingston and we say no to this inappropriate Local Plan."

Conservative councillor Ian George also accused the administration of "hiding from scrutiny" by publishing information related to the plan at short notice.

Lib Dem councillor Andrew Wooldridge said the process had been delayed by national planning policy changes. He said the plan had been informed by "consultation, technical evidence, independent assessment and extensive officer work".

Councillor Wooldridge added: "Kingston has gone far too long without an up-to-date Local Plan.

"Whatever views members may hold on individual sites, individual policies or individual allocations, I think most of us would agree that continuing without a modern Local Plan is not in the interests of our residents.

"The reality is that growth will continue to come to Kingston. Housing need does not disappear because we choose not to plan for it."

The plan allocates potential sites for development and the number of homes each could provide, if proposals to redevelop them were to come forward in future. Many of the sites are privately owned.

Lib Dem council leader Andreas Kirsch said national policy changes were forcing the authority to reclassify some lower-quality green belt land as 'grey belt'.

He said: "What we see here tonight… is a positive vision for Kingston. A lot of valuable policies are in this Local Plan to protect our lovely town and give it the right development.

"We are preserving with these policies the character of our borough, the heritage of our borough.

"We are protecting and sometimes even enhancing our environment. We are protecting the green belt. We are supporting our high streets, our jobs, we are preserving the culture and our communities."

The council voted to proceed with publishing the final draft of the plan for public consultation, with 38 councillors voting in favour, three against and two abstaining.

The consultation will run from July 6 to September 4. The council will then submit the final draft to the Planning Inspectorate for examination and a decision on final approval. This would allow the plan to be adopted by 2028.