THE future of Whitstable Harbour still hangs in the balance after three separate development proposals were recommended for rejection.

At a meeting on Friday, the town's Harbour Board unanimously decided the plans for the South Quay were unacceptable and asked Canterbury City Council to go back to the drawing board.

The proposals - put forward by Allied Land, Shepherd Neame and Olympian Homes - were met with fierce local opposition and 17,000 people signed a petition in protest.

The rejected schemes included plans for a supermarket, a restaurant and a 90-bedroom hotel on the harbour front.

Rita O'Brien, from the Whitstable Harbour Watch group, said: "We're delighted. It's a victory for the people of Whitstable because it's their voice that we have been ensuring was being heard by the Harbour Board and through them the city council.

"We accept that some bits of the South Quay have to be developed and also we accept that the harbour has to make money.

"But what we would like to do is to ensure that there's a much more open process and thinking about how the harbour should move forward."

A final decision will now be made by Canterbury City Council on Thursday, November 29.