The cost of a prominent former bingo hall has been revealed in council documents amid calls to turn it into a theatre.

Ashford Borough Council bosses paid £1.8m for the former Mecca Bingo building in the town centre, which was formerly an Odeon cinema, last year.

They have since considered knocking it down to make way for a new development, which could include homes, bars and restaurants.

Peter Wylde, of the Cinema Theatre Association, wrote a letter to the council in June, urging it to consider transforming the building into a performance space or theatre.

He said: "£1.8m is probably the standard price for the cinema, but we strongly believe that they should look to convert it for a performance space for public use.

"We understand the council has been looking seriously at costings and theatre use conversion and we are waiting for the report in December.

"It is ridiculous to just knock it down, the town would be losing a fine heritage asset.

"We will study the report carefully and if the report is obscured against a theatre use we will challenge this by sending a new letter."

In September, the authority took formal ownership of the site and commissioned "specialist cultural expertise" to look at the business case to turn it into a theatre.

The council appointed surveyors and architects to carry out a review of the site, including an analysis of asbestos believed to be present.

The fate of former bingo club is to be debated at a full council meeting in December.

Earlier this year, Peter Morris-Kelso set up a petition campaigning for the council to turn the building into a theatre.

It has gained more than 3,000 signatures since it was set up in July.

Mr Morris-Kelso, who lives in Aldington said: "£1.8m is small fry compared to a £75 million cinema.

"If the council have indeed decided to demolish the building, then yet again it shows a depressing lack of imagination on their part.

"It also confirms the fears of countless people who were of the mindset that the council knew exactly what they were going to with the building before they'd even signed the cheque.

"The recent Snowdogs event is a fantastic example of what having something unique and interesting can do for a town, with an increase in footfall reported last week.

"Once the dogs are gone, it'll be back to same old Ashford, with nothing new to bring the tourists to the town centre."