Council bosses say they don't know when a town centre car park will reopen as they want to avoid a "sticking plaster" solution.

Ashford's Park Mall car park has been shut since August after repairs to remove stalactites from the ceiling failed.

Ashford Borough Council (ABC) leader Cllr Noel Ovenden says structural engineers are now assessing the next steps for the “tired” site but admits “money is tight”.

"We’re trying to find a pragmatic way forward to get it fully or partially reopened in the future," the Ashford Independents member said.

"We need to find the solution that’s going to last.

“The Park Mall buildings are getting near to the stage in their lives where they’re going to need a lot of tender loving care and the car park has shown that from the way the concrete is deteriorating."

ABC briefly reopened the car park in the summer but was forced to rethink when safety concerns were raised over the stalactites.

"We’ve seen at so many places in the past where we keep putting sticking plasters on things and that just costs money," Cllr Ovenden added.

"We need to be looking at a better solution to get better value for residents and, ultimately, a better solution for residents in the long term.

“The council is looking at all its assets to see what their status is, what the repair plan is for them and what we need to spend on them going forward.

“It’s very difficult because money is very tight but we aren’t afraid of a spend-to-earn attitude towards assets, so I’m very keen the council doesn’t just say ‘it’s had it, let’s dispose of it’ but looks very thoroughly at what we do to get the best value of it.”

Earlier this year, ABC said plans to convert Park Mall into homes could be fast-tracked after Wilko, which had occupied the shopping centre's largest unit, fell into administration.

The authority - which has owned the centre since 2015 - has long harboured ambitions to convert the site, with the centre’s independent traders potentially being shifted to Bank Street.

But Cllr Ovenden, who represents Wye, says there will be no movement on that project before 2025 “unless anything dramatically changes before then”.

"I think all leases are running until 2025 anyway on Park Mall,” he said.

“At the moment I don’t think there are any intentions of being able to move forward much earlier.

“I’d love to give every tenant at that site the confidence to know where they’re going.

"I completely understand and sympathise with the difficulties when you’re trying to run a business or you’re building a shop – it’s really hard to plan.

“If it eventually came that things changed, the council would be sure to work very hard to make sure we keep everybody informed and try and find solutions to anything that comes up along the way.

"But I can’t see this being a short-term thing but we don’t know what we don’t know and we have to react to that accordingly.”

Cllr Ovenden says although Park Mall car park remains closed, the neighbouring Edinburgh Road multi-storey “is still open and has lots of space within it”.

ABC, which has been run by the Ashford Independents and Green Party since May, closed the top floor of the Edinburgh Road facility in October amid “ongoing vandalism and anti-social behaviour”.