A town centre car park looks set to be redeveloped for housing.

Swale Rainbow Homes, the social housing enterprise set up by Swale council, has applied for planning permission to build three blocks of flats on the Cockleshell Walk car park off St Michael’s Road in Sittingbourne.

The proposal would provide 51 homes for affordable rent, in a mix of one, two and three-bed properties, spread over one five-storey apartment block and two four-storey blocks.

The site, which has a bus stop outside and is close to the train station, is considered to be highly sustainable, and for that reason, the plan is to provide only 28 parking spaces for the 51 households.

Each flat will, however, have a dedicated cycle space in one of two blocks of secure cycle racks.

Those parking spaces that are provided will each be fitted with an EV charging point and located in undercrofts to the buildings. There is no available on-street parking, as St Michael’s Road, which forms part of the A2, has double yellow lines at this point.

The development will inevitably mean some over-looking for residents in Frederick Street behind, where the properties are conventional two-storey homes.

The principle of development on the site has already been established when the Government approved the council’s Spirit of Sittingbourne project to revitalise six key areas in the town centre back in 2017.

This car park is one of those six areas.

Some other parts of the scheme have already been completed including the new nearby Light cinema complex, including restaurants, and a Travelodge hotel.

Also completed in September 2019, was a multi-storey car park in Bourne Place to hold 317 cars, which is the reason Swale now feels it can do without the 65 parking spaces at the Cockleshell Walk car park.

Details of the application can be viewed here. Application number 23/503228.

Swale Rainbow Homes is planning further housing development at East Street bus depot and at Fountain Street.