“Monstrous” hoardings put up around a now-cancelled housing scheme have made a seafront look like Belfast during The Troubles, it has been claimed.

Hythe town councillor Ed Curran made the comments during a recent meeting where he called for the “scar on the landscape” along Princes Parade to be torn down.

The barriers were first put up a year ago around the site of the controversial project, which would have seen 150 homes and a leisure centre built.

As a former waste disposal facility, just metres from the seafront, there have been fears that the land could be hazardous due to contamination.

Plans to use the plot for a luxury development featuring a pool and a hotel were backed by Folkestone and Hythe District Council’s (FHDC) former Conservative administration.

But they were unpopular locally and costs ballooned to almost £5 million before the authority’s new Green-led cabinet said it would axe the scheme following the May elections.

At the town council meeting, Cllr Curran, who moved to Kent from Belfast two years ago, said: “The enormous white hoarding stretching along and around the seafront of Hythe is an unacceptable scar on the landscape – one that must be removed.

“That is the reason so many people voted for the Green Party and other councillors.

“As a newcomer to the council and as someone who spent his working life in Belfast, I am sadly reminded of similar barriers constructed to divide communities in that city – or, worse still, the huge perimeter fence which once surrounded the notorious Maze prison where terrorist suspects were held.

“Hythe does not need such an awful image as that huge hoarding, but many questions remain to be answered as to how and when it can be gone, and at what cost?”

The barriers Cllr Curran refers to are the series of so-called “peace walls” built in Northern Ireland to separate predominantly Irish Catholic neighbourhoods from predominantly Protestant communities.

Their stated purpose was to try and minimise violence between the groups.

The issue of what is to be done about the hoardings will be discussed at FHDC’s cabinet meeting this coming Wednesday.

At the meeting, it is expected that the council will discuss allocating funds previously set aside for the development to remove the barriers.

In December a quotation for removing the fencing was obtained, which was estimated to be £100,000.

Installing the hoarding originally cost more than £300,000 and it requires annual maintenance costs of £30,000.

Following the planned removal, the council is considering running a public consultation on the future of the site.

The Princes Parade plans became increasingly unpopular as the project was blighted by delays and spiralling costs, even becoming the subject of protests.

So strong were some residents’ feelings, they even became district councillors in a final bid to stop the development – and it worked.

An attempt to overturn the planning bid by judicial review failed in 2020 and costs doubled during 2022, from £2.56 million to almost £5m.

In February, a private developer made an offer to FHDC to purchase the site after the authority announced its intention to dispose of the development. But following the May elections, the plans were called off.

Speaking to KentOnline after the town council meeting, Cllr Curran said: “My wife and I moved here two years ago from Belfast and I was just comparing the monstrosity of the hoardings on such a beautiful coastline as similar to the peace walls that you’ll see if you visit Belfast or the old prison where a lot of terrorist suspects were held.

“It was just to simply try and underline what a terrible monstrosity it is on such a beautiful coastline.

“It might be extreme to people here because they may not have seen the walls in Belfast.

“But it looks to me like a fabricated prison wall and I can’t for the life of me understand how a council could have put that up over such a long stretch of road, right on the seafront, before they’d even laid a single brick.”

The hoardings have been targeted by vandals who branded the Princes Parade site a “Tory crime scene”.

Drivers have also complained the boards produce a “strobe-effect” glare which could lead to an accident.

FHDC leader Jim Martin (Green) said: “Cabinet will be discussing this matter on Wednesday – an important step in assessing the implications, required actions, costs and budget available to remove the hoardings.

“They remain in place to ensure ongoing site security and public safety from the contaminated land.

“I do understand how people could feel that the very imposing hoardings are a barrier to a long-term solution but we are hopeful they will be removed shortly.”