A major project that will completely change the way a city looks is now expected to be finished by 2026, months later than originally anticipated.

Construction of a public square in Canterbury is set to be finished between April and November 2025, while a revamp of Dane John Gardens and the city’s castle will be finalised by January 2026, a new report says.

Canterbury City Council (CCC), the authority at the helm, previously said that all projects should be finished by next summer, but the permissions required for the works have contributed in the date being pushed back.

In January last year, CCC was awarded £19.9m from the government’s Levelling-Up Fund (LUF) for works in the cathedral city, adding in another £2.7m of its own money.

The area at the bottom of the high street around the historic Westgate Towers is set to become a new square, which will remain open to traffic.

A similar scheme next to the St George’s Clocktower is planned, as is the restoration of Canterbury Castle.

The castle, which dates back to Norman times, has been decked in scaffolding for several months but the areas around Westgate and the Clocktower, at opposing ends of the high street, are yet to see any physical work.

Originally, the deadline for spending all LUF money was the end of March 2025, however, the government extended the deadline for the local authority to October 2025.

Both the Westgate Towers and St George’s Clocktower are scheduled monuments listed by Historic England, meaning they are subject to additional restrictions on construction work in or around them.

A new timetable for the works was laid out in a CCC report for discussion at an overview & scrutiny committee meeting yesterday, September 11.

The papers read: “All sites are now programmed to be completed between April and November 2025 except for Dane John Gardens and the castle keep and grounds which is due to be completed in January 2026.”

The report also explains the various permission needed for the project, going on: “Ten of the 13 sites require scheduled monument consent from Historic England to carry out the proposed works and half of those require a two-stage consent process.”

Dane John is set to receive new landscaping, seating, lighting, signage and bike hire and storage.

Canterbury Castle, the Norman structure on the edge of the city’s ring road, will be reopened to the public, with the space behind it to be turned into a park and performance space.

So far, 12% of the total budget - or £2.7 million - has been spent, of which £1.07m has been on professional fees such as architects, surveys, marketing and consultants.

By the end of September a tender package for the roadworks needed to work on the area around Westgate Towers will be put out.

Contracts for the works to Dane John Gardens, the city wall, the castle and grounds, and Castle Row will be out to tender by the end of October, CCC’s report says.

All other contracts will be out to tender by “early 2025.”

When asked about the new timeframe, Cllr Charlotte Cornell, cabinet member for council services, culture and heritage, said: “Canterbury’s a very complicated historical city where we need lots of permissions to undertake some of these interventions. We have to liaise with Kent County Council because we’re not a one-tier authority here, we have to consult with Highways.

“There are a lots of partners where we have to seek permissions and often some of the interventions aren’t planned around that.

“So some of these permissions can take a lot of time to get. Permissions have held up a few of the key sites

“We’re very hopeful that all these projects will be delivered in the new timeframe.”