Kent Police are to get a new office in the heart of one of a town’s most troubled areas.

Maidstone council has granted itself planning permission to allow a change of use of the former public toilets in Brenchley Gardens to allow the provision of a police office for local beat Bobbies, as well as a store and mess room for the borough’s street cleansing team.

The 1960s toilet block has been closed for three years as a result of continual vandalism and anti-social behaviour at the park. In October 2021, two girls aged 12 and 13 were attacked in the park by a gang of 25 youths.

The gardens themselves, which were created in 1871 and named after the local explorer Julius Brenchley, have been a hot spot for anti-social behaviour which the council has in recent times tried to reduce by introducing CCTV and installing gates to the park.

Cllr Tony Harwood (Lib Dem) regretted that the park had ever been allowed to get in such a state.

He said: “This is the only example of a park or garden designed by Alexander McKenzie outside of a capital city.

“It used to be a beautiful place, but currently it is menacing, grim and dystopian.”

He blamed part of that on the council itself for not looking after the park well enough.

He said: ”It is the way the gardens have been treated (by us) that has led to the way other people treat them.”

Cllr Ashleigh Kimmance (Lib Dem) was also in a nostalgic mood.

Regretting the loss of the public toilets, he said: “I can remember the day when there used to be public toilets all over the place.”

Cllr Stuart Jeffery pointed out that the council paid Wetherspoons in Week Street to open its toilets to the general public, but there was no sign in Brenchey Gardens telling people this.

The toilet block is within the Chillington House Conservation Area and close to several listed features including the cenotaph.

The borough’s head of planning, Rob Jarman, acknowledged that the installation of roller shutters to the windows of the proposed conversion would detract from the heritage assets, but that this was outweighed by the perceived public benefit of having a police presence in the gardens.

The committee voted unanimously to approve the conversion, provided solar panels were installed on the roof to provide renewable energy, and an information sign directing the public to the nearest toilets was provided.

Details of the application can be viewed here.

Application number 23/501688 refers.