Plans for a massive “new town” have been sent to the government to decide on, amid fears of “destruction of the countryside”. Highsted Park, with 8,400 homes to the south and east of Sittingbourne, has been in the works for years. Swale council’s planning committee was due to decide on the application tonight, but the local authority has had the decision “ripped out of its hands at the eleventh hour”, as it was called-in by the government at short notice. The proposals by Quinn Estates are split across two separate applications, covering land to the south and east of Sittingbourne, stretching …