A garage that has been running in the centre of Herne Bay for almost 50 years is up for sale.

D&J Tyres has been put on the market after proposals to demolish the King’s Road site and replace it with a four-storey block of flats were granted by Canterbury City Council.

One of its partners, Joe Brownett, who is also the chairman of Whitstable Town FC, expects the planning permission to attract prospective buyers.

“We haven’t put a price on it, but we’re open to offers and we’d only be too pleased to listen to them,” he said.

“When you get planning permission on a building it carries more weight and so a prospective buyer might be more interested in it.

"They might even want to run it as a going concern because it’s a very successful business.”

The business submitted the bid to build nine flats on the King’s Road site last February after its original plans were refused by council officers.

They said the development would have provided a “poor standard of accommodation for future occupiers” and that the design was “unduly prominent”.

Mr Brownett, who set up D&J Tyres with his brother in 1968, says the business could be moved outside Herne Bay.

“It depends on the partners, but I think they want to downsize because it’s quite a big place and it does take a lot of staff,” he said.

“Nothing’s definite and we don’t intend to do anything in the near future.”

D&J Tyres first opened in Sturry but moved to William Street in 1972. The current site opened in 1987.