Planning permission has been granted for a former police station to be redeveloped as retirement flats.

Gravesham Council's planning committee voted unanimously to allow Churchill Retirement Living apartments to be built at the site of the former Gravesend police station in Windmill Street.

The firm was granted permission yesterday to build 75 retired living apartments at the site of the old station which become obsolete when the new £30 million North Kent Police headquarters opened at Northfleet in 2008. The station was closed for good in 2009.

Churchill Retirement Living revealed the new development is expected to bring more than £580,000 a year in extra spending to the high street as its residents will be able to shop locally, and it will support around 150 jobs during and after construction.

The new five-storey complex will include 48 one-bedroom flats, 27 two-bedroom flats, and additional communal facilities including an owners' lounge, a guest suite, and lodge manager and a 24-hour emergency call alarm service.

A Churchill spokesman said: “This is a very positive result and we will now look forward to starting work as soon as possible on this new development which will create a vibrant new community in the heart of Gravesend.

"Retirement housing is the most effective form of residential development for generating local economic growth, supporting local jobs, and increasing high street spend.

"The new apartments will also help improve the health and wellbeing of those who live there, and meet the housing needs of many older people in Gravesend and the surrounding area.”

The development will have parking for 24 cars and vehicle access via Woodville Place off the one-way system.

Churchill Retirement Living said the apartments will also free up under-occupied houses in the area for families by allowing older people to downsize.

The company estimates around 150 second-hand homes will be released onto the market and that this will help around 50 buyers purchase their first home.

It is also expected that the reduced health risks for residents living in a retirement property will save a total of more than £340,000 in health and social care per year.

The former police station was partly demolished in 2016 with only the outer walls left standing, and now that approval has gone ahead, the remaining walls will be demolished and the new apartments will be built.

The site has previously been the subject of successful planning applications that never came to fruition.

The station's demolition in 2016 followed the approval of a Kent and Sussex Properties (KSP) application to build 86 flats.

KSP applied to increase the number to 96, and then the site was sold to Elizaveta UK Property, which applied to increase the number to 99 flats in December 2016.

Gravesham council's planning regulatory board councillors unanimously voted to grant approval for 41 one-bedroom, 50 two-bedroom and eight three-bedroom flats, and a penthouse apartment.

However, this was never built, and the site was put back up for sale once again in 2020 for £2.5 million.