Controversial plans to develop a seafront site with homes and a new swimming pool may end up getting scrapped if a new party takes control after next month's elections.

The Princes Parade scheme in Hythe in its current form began in 2019, when planning permission for 150 homes and a new leisure centre was granted – but millions have been spent and the project has now stalled.

The development on a former landfill site has been blighted by delays – an attempt to overturn the planning decision by judicial review failed in 2020 and costs doubled during 2022, from £2.56 million to almost £5m.

However, in February, a private developer made an offer to Folkestone and Hythe District Council (FHDC) to purchase the site after the authority announced its intention to dispose of the development.

Council leader David Monk (Con) said at the time: “I would have loved to have delivered it, at the moment I can’t. This offer gives hope of it being delivered sooner rather than later”.

But at the last pre-election meeting of FHDC full council on March 29, a petition signed by 361 people calling for the development to be scrapped and for the site to be rewilded was heard.

Campaigner Chris Farrell presented the petition, telling councillors that “the community of Hythe overwhelmingly voted in 2019 to save Princes Parade”.

At the 2019 council elections all five Hythe seats saw Green Party councillors voted in, who are opposed to the development.

Ms Farrell singled out Cllr Monk, calling his leadership “autocratic” and saying he “must take the blame for this colossal debt”.

She said: “His councillors have constantly voted for million after million of local people’s money to be wasted on Princes Parade.

“Whatever happens in the May elections I hope that we will be able to stop the development at Princes Parade once and for all.”

Cllr Monk defended himself and the scheme, saying: “The last thing I am is a dictator, I always go along with my group.

“I believe we’re doing something really marvellous for Hythe in placemaking, and when it is done it will be magnificent.

“I do appreciate there are people that have other views, I just wish they would be a little more polite in the way they address them.”

Cabinet member and Hythe representative Cllr Lesley Whybrow (Green) backed the petition, calling the site as it stands now “a muddy mess” and an “eyesore”.

She proposed a motion that the possibility of scrapping the development and rewilding the area near the Royal Military Canal should be referred to the council’s overview and scrutiny committee.

The motion was passed with 26 votes in favour, two abstentions, and none against.

However, the overview and scrutiny committee will not discuss it until after the May 4 local elections, where it is possible the composition of the local authority will change.

KentOnline can reveal it is likely the whole development will be scrapped if the Conservative Party loses control of the council in the elections, as the three other major parties plan on doing away with the scheme.

The Conservatives are currently the majority of the cabinet, but local Green Party leader Cllr Whybrow – who is not standing in May’s elections – and Liberal Democrats leader Tim Prater are also in the cabinet.

A spokesman for Shepway Green Party said the party would “consider a coalition but right now we are focused on getting as many Green councillors elected as we possibly can”.

They added: “On Princes Parade, we will continue to oppose any development and would like to see the site rewilded.”

Labour group leader Cllr Connor McConville said under “a Labour-controlled administration, or it’s probably safe to say under any non-Tory administration, I’m sure Princes Parade will be as best as it can rewilded”.

He added: “You can’t just leave it as it is because they’ve disturbed so much already.

“We would definitely be supportive of returning it to its natural state.”

Labour has five councillors on FHDC - in 2019 six Labour councillors were elected to the council, but Cllr Ray Field (Independent) was expelled from the Labour group for joining the cabinet at the invitation of Cllr Monk.

Cllr McConville said: “If we could get eight or nine [seats] and, if the Greens manage to retain Hythe, which I hope they will, then hopefully we’ll have the numbers, but obviously until it happens we can’t really say.

“We’re very open to working with people who’ve got like-minded views to us and we’re very clear on Princes Parade, we definitely want it to go back to the sort of state it was.”

Liberal Democrat leader Tim Prater said: “If I’m involved in any administration after May one of the first priorities would be to stop the existing Princes Parade development.”

He criticised the project, saying it “was always hugely risky and hugely expensive”, and that “we can’t afford it and we shouldn’t afford it”.

Cllr Prater said he and Cllr Whybrow have opposed the Princes Parade development from within the cabinet.

He said: “We have been involved in the process, although we have throughout opposed Princes Parade and continue to try to oppose Princes Parade, put motions to cabinet and council to stop the Princes Parade development, but their majority has allowed them to continue it.”

He also said that a new leisure centre and swimming pool - a major part of the Princes Parade plans - could instead be built elsewhere.

“There is a site at Martello Lakes [off Dymchurch Road in Hythe] which is available to the council to buy for £1; that was negotiated by the Tory district council more than 10 years ago.

“It’s a serviced site, ready to go with enough space for a swimming pool.”

Cllr Prater said he believes that “there’s a pretty solid task of the Tories losing control”.

“If the Conservatives lose their majority after May 4 then I’d hope that any other administration would stop Princes Parade,” he said.

“I’m really confident that the three of us together [Labour, Lib Dem, and Greens] would vote to stop Princes Parade.”

Voters will go to the polls to elect members of FHDC on Thursday, May 4.