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Kent, Surrey and Sussex Air Ambulance Trust has been eyeing up a new base for around four years.

For the past 25 years the charity has been operating out of Marden and has a second site in Redhill in Surrey, but its helicopters often use satellite airfields, such as Rochester, in bad weather or to carry out maintenance.

In 2015, after scouring the region, bosses pinned their hopes on an airfield less than three miles away from Marden, in Paddock Wood.

The charity announced it wanted to bring its operations under one roof and close the sites in Pattenden Lane and Redhill, saying running from two locations would eventually push the charity to breaking point.

But the £7.5 million plans to relocate to the Old Hay Airfield off Willow Lane, Paddock Wood, faced a huge backlash.

Paddock Wood Town Council did a dramatic U-turn, voting to object to the plans after initially raising no objections. It came after hearing from disgruntled residents.

The CPRE said because the airstrip was rarely used, the application represented “a very substantial change of use of a greenfield site”, the highest class of farmland.

The planning application was withdrawn and in June 2016 the trust announced it would be expanding Redhill instead, after a hanger became available there.

The trust said the U-turn had nothing to do with concerns about helicopter noise and the effect on the countryside, but was the most cost-effective way forward.

Bosses said they would apply for planning permission to expand the Marden helipad, and that its headquarters and fundraising base would remain in the Weald.