Council bosses are to crack down on ugly shopfront designs in Canterbury and take enforcement action against those harming the city’s rich heritage.

The authority says a number of stores have got away with using non-traditional materials and oversized signage in recent years.

Leader Ben Fitter-Harding says there will now be a greater emphasis on ensuring conservation guidelines are followed.

Investigations into stores deemed to be too overbearing are due to be carried out as the council tackles those deemed out-of-keeping with the area.

“The city centre is a conservation area and shops are supposed to get consent for anything that would be different to the general standard,” Cllr Fitter-Harding said.

“There are a lot of examples on the high street of various shop-fronts which have changed quite a lot over the years and are not really sympathetic to our heritage.

“It can be quite a lot of work to assess those and whether they are in breach of policies.

“But what we have now done through our corporate plan is invest a significant amount of money – I think between £100,000 and £200,000 – in more enforcement staff and more lawyers.

“We have a bigger legal team to deal with these sorts of problems and to essentially make sure policies are enforced.

“We all want the city to be beautiful and prosperous. And we’re aware of our Unesco World Heritage Status which needs protecting, so we need to make sure the high street is sympathetic towards that.

“We’re not going to be doing a blanket review of every shopfront. But people do make reports about unsympathetic shop-fronts, so we will be making sure they are properly scrutinised and the correct enforcement action is taken.”

A 300-page conservation area appraisal and management plan has been drawn up to consider how Canterbury’s aesthetics can be improved over the coming years.

New planning policies will not be introduced as a result, but the authority is set to use the management plan as a guide to follow when determining planning applications.

Shop-fronts considered to be out-of-keeping with the historic city centre include Nationwide, Northgate Newsagents, the now-shut Megafone mobile repair shop and The Works, next to The Beaney.

“Certain shop-fronts have been inappropriately altered over the years and others have been entirely replaced,” a council report reads.

“This incremental change has a negative impact on the special interest of the conservation area.

“Raising an awareness among shop owners about the importance of retaining historic shop-fronts and about the appropriate design of replacement features would be beneficial.

“Opportunities should be taken to restore more traditional shop-front designs, reinstating historic features and installing sensitively designed signage.”

Members sitting on the authority’s policy committee discussed the plans at a meeting last month, before unanimously agreeing to put the ideas out for public consultation.

Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Michael Dixey (Lib Dem) said: “Enforcement in recent years has been very patchy to say the least.

“Heritage is the city’s unique selling point and we must do everything we can to protect it.”

Fellow Lib Dem representative Cllr Nick Eden-Green, who questions how the bright Metro Bank signage in the high street secured planning approval, added: “This report highlights the failings over recent years.

“Can we please not just have a report, but can we actually pay attention to the backlog of points and get them right.

“If we do that, we will actually have a city we can again be proud of – whereas at the moment, frankly it’s a mess.”

Councillors agreed to put the plan out to public consultation.