A decision is set to be taken on whether to fund plans to replace a derelict department store plot with a “car-free village” and multiscreen cinema.

Dartford council is set to decide whether proposals put forward to transform the empty Co-op building, between Spital Street and Hythe Street in Dartford, should be given further funding.

The mixed-use housing regeneration project has been put forward by a council-appointed project team to be led by award-winning architecture firm Peter Barber.

Together they want to create a revitalised vision for the plot which includes the building of 24 houses with private gardens, 14 maisonettes and 31 apartments. Of these, 30 percent will be affordable rented.

Routes through the residential area, which will be named Westgate Village, will be “car-free” and there will be no access for vehicles, unless for disabled use.

A council report sets out a masterplan for the scheme. It reads: “The proximity of local shops, schools, facilities and transport options makes it more practical to encourage greener travel use in town centres than in almost any other development area.

“The council takes a practical, common-sense approach to car use across the borough but Westgate Village provides an opportunity for a step-change in thinking.”

There will also be space for a multiple screen community cinema (up to 100 persons per screen), independent businesses and a community space in the former Co-op building behind the retained front,

None of the buildings in the proposal will be more than four-storeys high.

If approved, the proposals would involve an extra £850,000 of council money to advance to the next stage of planning.

The report adds: “We have got to meet central housing targets but we are determined it will be attractive, well-designed and low-rise.

“The regeneration of the Westgate site is a key component for achieving new facilities in Dartford for visitors/residents for leisure and community uses to complement the nearby Orchard Theatre, as well as providing new accommodation and the renewal of redundant land.”

The former Co-op site has been empty since the closure of the store in 2008 and its part demolition in 2013.

It has most recently been used as a contractor’s site to facilitate the town centre improvement works and then late last year the temporary Orchard West Theatre that is due for demobilisation in early 2025.

The temporary structure was hastily built when the original Orchard Theatre, in Home Gardens, was forced to close after RAAC was discovered in its ceiling.

The original Co-op department store façade on Spital Street will be retained.

To see more planning applications and other public notices for your area, click here.

A £75m Westgate regeneration project was originally approved by councillors in 2020 which was to see the site transformed into hundreds of new homes, a multi-screen cinema, a health and wellbeing centre and a string of restaurants and bars.

Under the previous scheme, piloted by Muse Developments, the former Co-op building was to be given a facelift to become a new 85-bed hotel.

But the project was deemed unworkable after Brexit and Covid challenges forced changes to the scheme.

Muse had suggested a revised project brief but despite both parties' best efforts even the most appropriate proposal would still have required considerable investment.

This involved an increase to the “scale and density” of development which the council could not accept in keeping with the town’s “traditional market-town character”.

Instead, the council decided to acquire the Co-op site from the government's housing agency, Homes England, to create its own “housing-led scheme”.

A decision on whether to proceed with the direct development of the new Westgate development is set for consideration by Dartford council’s cabinet tomorrow (July 25).