An ambitious £22 million project designed to boost a city’s infrastructure and draw in the crowds is set to start within months.

The money from the government’s Levelling Up Fund will see a raft of changes in Canterbury, including a pedestrian-friendly square by the Westgate Towers.

A revamped Canterbury Castle alongside road and footpath improvements are also in the pipeline.

It is hoped some of the minor work will start in May and June, with spades in the ground for the major heritage projects as early as September.

Canterbury Castle

The foreboding ruins off Gas Street, closed to the public, have languished for some time and are currently enveloped in scaffolding to prepare for Levelling Up works.

City councillor Charlotte Cornell (Lab), cabinet member for heritage and open space, said: “The castle is a Grade I-listed monument, a slightly post-Norman castle that we want to reopen to the public.

“It’s been closed for a long long time. It’s been in a terrible state of repair and yet it is this iconic quasi-Norman tower.”

She says the space behind the structure will become “a new public park that will present excellent views of the city, somewhere to sit, hopefully somewhere to host new events like performances with the castle as a backdrop”.

Cllr Cornell added: “The public will be able to go in the castle, hopefully, go up a level in the castle, look out from the castle into the city and the other way out of the city and learn a lot more about the heritage that was there.”

She says the plans will show “respect for the old but not in a pastiche way”.

The authority hopes to build a memorial paying homage to victims of religious persecution in Canterbury.

They include the 13th-century pogrom - or violent expulsion - of the city's Jewish community and the persecution of Protestants and Catholics under different monarchs.

A stone-by-stone survey is currently underway on the structure.

Cllr Cornell said: “I imagine it will be a 2025 end to the castle project. Some of the public space outside might be ready before some of the inside more intricate Norman infrastructure is decorated with modern access.”

Westgate Towers

The area around the Westgate Towers is also set for a revamp “to create a new small city square”.

Nearby Pound Lane will be permanently closed to cars, but the Westgate medieval gatehouse will remain open.

“We’re not closing the Westgate to traffic though I’m sure there will be some temporary closures during the works,” Cllr Cornell said.

“It’s to create a more adaptable space so that if temporary day-long closures were needed for a fantastic event in the city it might be possible.”

The pavements in the area at the bottom of the high street facing the towers will be completely overhauled, with redundant infrastructure like some bollards and phone boxes removed to create more space.

St George’s Tower at the opposite end of the high street near Fenwicks could be revamped to host events.

The area around the clocktower will receive new seating and, given the space available, potentially a statue of playwright Christopher Marlowe, Cllr Cornell says.

Walking routes

Existing cycle routes are set to be improved and a host of new walking routes will be built.

“We want both our residents and our visitors to be able to explore the city in lots of different ways,” Cllr Cornell explained.

A route known as The Pilgrim’s Mile will follow the journey Henry II took barefoot to atone for the murder of St Thomas Becket - from St Dunstan’s Church to the Cathedral.

The Castle Mile will connect the town centre to the castle, while another route will follow the historic city wall.

With signage and some routes passing through key shopping areas, Cllr Cornell said: “We’re hoping this is an economic boost for the city as much as an aesthetic one.”

‘Pocket Parks’

Several parks around the cathedral city are also set for a revamp.

The Dane John Gardens are set for new tree and wildflower planting throughout, as well as resurfacing of paths around the distinctive fountain.

The area which hosts the Don Juan Cafe - a mainstay of the leafy thoroughfare - is set to be expanded, with extra seating for customers and visitors, and the green shipping containers removed.

The Bandstand in the centre of the park will receive new railings, and the slopes of grass all around the park’s green space are set to host tiered seating - for which the council is seeking permission.

Elsewhere, some smaller parks will receive work as part of the Levelling Up project.

St Mary de Castro Gardens - just off Castle Street - will receive new lighting and flowers will be planted.

Three Cities Garden, right next to Olive Garden off the high street, will be made more open with its fences removed and the area around it getting new seats to turn the site into a small public square.

Poor Priests Hospital - a storied building on Stour Street - is also set to have new tiles installed on its roof, with work set to start in May or June.

When will the works begin and end?

The government has set a deadline for the £19.9 million it has given the city council for the project to be spent by March 2025.

However, Cllr Cornell explained: “Some of the money involved in the improvements is our match funding to government funds - and, of course, there’s no time limit expiration on the match funding element.”

The match funding is £2.7 million of the council’s own money which it is investing in the scheme.

“So if there is work that needs to be done it’s the match funding that will go beyond March 2025. We’d rather spend the government money with the expiration date upfront,” she added.

Some other councils which have received Levelling Up money have received extensions to the deadline for their spending.

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“It's our expectation that if we needed to go beyond Spring 2025 the government would also give us, as they have everywhere else, a slight extension,” Cllr Cornell said.

“We haven’t asked for it yet because at the moment we don’t predict needing it.”

Work on the raft of city improvements is underway - with surveys, architect designs and plans having been drawn up for some time.

“We will be going out to commission the landscape works imminently – I think that will be in three or four different packages that businesses will be able to bid for,” the councillor added.

She added that works involving highways - such as that around Westgate Towers - may be slower to start, as they have to time work around the county council’s preferred timetable, as KCC manages most roads in the county.