A huge former Saga offices building could be turned into new housing - designed by an award-winning architect.

Plans have been submitted to convert the four-storey Cheriton Parc site on the outskirts of Folkestone into flats and erect houses on the adjacent car park.

The travel and insurance firm, which has its headquarters a short distance away in Sandgate, has drastically reduced its office space after the pandemic saw it shed jobs and switch to working from home.

Cheriton Parc, just past Tesco in Cheriton High Street, was put up for sale by property agents Sibley Pares along with Saga's Middelburg Square offices in Folkestone town centre and its call centre at the Eurokent Business Park in Ramsgate.

A planning application submitted to Folkestone and Hythe District Council (FHDC) proposes the office building - which was originally constructed for the Channel Tunnel - becoming 31 one and two-bedroom flats.

The land currently occupied by the car park would accommodate 43 three- and four-bedroom houses. Along with the flats, they would be designed by Hythe-based architects Hollaway Studio - the team behind Rocksalt in Folkestone harbour and the F51 skate park.

Kent County Council (KCC) highways and transportation department has told FHDC that "there are currently a number of highway issues with the planning application as currently submitted" for the 1.72 hectare site.

Part of the designs drawn up by the architects show parking spaces concentrated in 'parking courts' at the corners of the development, rather than in front of the properties.

While this would, in the eyes of the developers, improve the landscape in the centre of the scheme, KCC is concerned people will nonetheless park closer to front doors.

Their comment on the plans states: "The proposed rear parking courts are not acceptable as they will lead to parking on the highway or on the footway, as rear parking courts are seldom used due to the distance from the residential properties that they serve."

Saga was hit hard by the Covid pandemic, which saw its cruise ship operations suspended as the world went into lockdown.

Plans to dispose of office space were driven by the order to work from home and a reduction in staff numbers.

"It is no longer necessary for us to maintain as much office space..."

In June 2020, it was announced that around 300 jobs would be cut as a result of the impact of Covid on the business.

A Saga spokesman previously said: "Following the successful transition to at-home working ushered in by the pandemic, Saga is moving to a predominately home-based working model.

"This permanently flexible approach means it is no longer necessary for us to maintain as much office space as we previously held within our portfolio."