A fire-damaged pharmacy wants to bring in a temporary mobile office so it can continue serving its customers while the building is being repaired.

Paydens has applied to Ashford Borough Council (ABC) for permission to site the portable cabin close to the wrecked building it shared with Tesco in Mill Court, off Mace Lane, Ashford.

The convenience store and pharmacy were badly damaged after an arson attack in the early hours of Friday, March 31.

The fire melted the guttering and spread from the back of the supermarket into the
building’s roof, causing extensive damage to the steel structure.

Now an application has been submitted to ABC more than five weeks after the fire stating a “proposed change of use, involving placement of Portakabin on parking area to give temporary accomodation for pharmacy, for the duration of rebuilding shop unit following fire damage.”

Paydens spokesman John McConville said previously that it was estimated that it could take six months before the shop can reopen.

He said: “The shop will need to be gutted. The fire went through the roof space.

“The steel twisted, so the firefighters had to push the ceiling down into the shop, so it has had all the water and ash going through it.”

Kentish Express historian Steve Salter recently visited the fire-ravaged stores and took exclusive pictures of the aftermath.

He said: “The damage inside the chemist, in particular the dispensary and consultation room, is extensive.

“Shelves and shelves of prescription drugs sit seemingly untouched amid the destruction but, together with all the everyday items found in typical chemists, they will have to be written off due to smoke and water damage.

“One can’t imagine how pharmacist Paul Jordan felt when seeing his normally immaculate dispensary looking so damaged.

“It is even worse for Mr Jordan, a veteran in the world of dispensing of some 30 years, together with his wife, Tina, who is also a pharmacist, because the popular chemist
is like home from home for them.

“Many will be aware of Mr Jordan’s collection of vintage pharmaceutical apparatus and containers on display in the shop, which have all luckily survived the fire.”

Anyone with information on the fire can call the police on 01843 222289 and quote reference number ZY/12485/17.