A villager is appealing to Swale council to clean up two eyesores in Newington.

Cleone Curtis feels the local authority should spend some of its £12 million reserves.

The 77-year-old wants the former working men’s club in the High Street tidied up and the village hall car park repaired as it is crumbling away into neighbouring land 20 feet below.

The Bull Lane resident said: “Surely they can do something about the two sites.

“I’ve lived here since 1963 and the village has never been like this. It used to be lovely.

“People don’t look after where they live nowadays. The club land has been left derelict for at least 10 years and is an eyesore.

“Someone brought it, but it’s now filled with rubbish and waste and is overgrown. It’s being used as a tip.

“I’d like the council to do something about it – whether it’s cleaning it up themselves, taking action against the landowner or compulsory purchasing the site.

“As for the car park, it’s disappearing on the right-hand side as you drive into it. They’ve put a temporary fence up over 16 of the spaces to stop people parking there because it’s not safe.

“It has been six months since the first subsidence following all the rain we had. The second was about a month ago. It’s owned by the council so it’s their responsibilty.

“It claims lack of funds to do anything, but it seems they have the reserves.

“May be the cost of free ice creams [recently handed out in return for completing a survey about regeneration plans] would cover the cost of sorting out Newington’s problems?”

A council spokesman: “We do own the car park, and there have been two landslips.

“We’ve cordoned off the area, are talking to the owner of the land [it has fallen into], and are in negotiations to move forward with repairs. Until then we can’t do anything without his permission.

“The working men’s club is on private land so we can’t clean it up, but we will make contact with the landlord and ask them to do something about it. There are no plans for a compulsory purchase order at the site.”