A private developer has offered to take over a long-standing controversial seafront development from a cash-strapped council.

Folkestone and Hythe District Council (FHDC) has spent millions trying to build homes and a new leisure centre at Princes Parade in Hythe.

But the authority is now set to consider selling the land to an as-yet unnamed developer after the project's cost almost doubled last year from £2.56 million to almost £5m.

Council leader David Monk (Con) revealed the council has “had an offer from someone to buy the whole kit and caboodle and deliver it", including the leisure centre.

“So the actual project isn’t dead,” he told the authority’s overview and scrutiny committee during an update on the Princes Parade project.

Speaking after the meeting he said he’s “very, very pleased" the offer has been submitted.

He said it would be “prudent” for the cabinet to explore other offers if the project is to be sold for private development, but he hopes the members will recommend officers look into it.

He stressed “just because an offer comes in doesn’t mean to say that it will be accepted, we then have to do a lot of due diligence behind it”.

“I would have loved to have delivered it, at the moment I can’t,” he added.

“This offer gives hope of it being delivered sooner rather than later.

“I’m very, very pleased the offer has come in, it’s a bit of light in the darkness.”

Agenda papers for next week’s cabinet meeting detail a developer has approached the council offering to purchase the whole site for an undisclosed amount.

The developer told the local authority they plan “to secure the future of the development and the delivery of the leisure centre and to bring forward both the residential and commercial consents at Princes Parade”.

The proposal also says: “We believe that with some degree of re-planning and simple re-engineering we can make the scheme more viable and less costly to deliver.”

The offer states the developer would seek “to reimburse the council its costs to deliver the pre-commencement planning conditions”, which are set to be completed in the summer.

The cabinet is to decide on whether or not to ask officers to consider the matter - which would mean preparing a report on the possibility for selling the development off.

But cabinet member Lesley Whybrow (Green), who has consistently opposed the development, has said that a report on selling it off is “probably a waste of officers’ time”.

“If we can’t afford to do it as a council, I really don’t see how anyone else can afford to do it.

“So I would be worried that corners would be cut and so on.

“If you sell it to a private developer you’ve lost complete control over it.

“So you have no idea when or if they’re going to develop it, so it could just be an eyesore for years and years and years.

“My preference would still be to see [the land] rewilded.”

The Princes Parade development has been fraught since its inception - since 2002 the site has been proposed for various uses - such as a new primary school or housing.

However, the council preferred a new swimming pool for Hythe to replace the existing South Road facility.

In 2019, it approved plans for a development scheme on the site which would host 150 homes, a leisure centre, shops, and open spaces.

Since then, the scheme has been hit with a judicial review launched by activists to attempt to stop it, which was eventually dismissed, and ballooning costs.

Most recently, the council came under fire by a petition of more than 300 people calling for the reopening of a footpath closed for development, and another petition calling for it to be completely scrapped.

On November 1 last year, Cllr Monk decided to halt all spending on the project, after inflation and “a number of additional unforeseen costs” of between £900,000 to £1.4m casting doubt on the scheme’s viability.

In January 2022, £2.56 million had been spent - by the time spending was stopped in November, the figure stood at between £4 and £5 million.

FHDC’s overview and scrutiny committee discussed reports into the increase in costs at a meeting on Tuesday.

The committee voted to recommend that the council be updated on large projects at least quarterly and that cabinet members be trained on the risks surrounding developments, as well as other recommendations intended to prevent similar issues happening to other developments.