THE Medway Snowbowl at Chatham's Historic Dockyard is to close after just seven months in business. The ski slope was hailed as an innovative use of an historic naval building when it first opened its doors at Slip Seven last September.

But SnowTime UK, the operating company, is expected to go into liquidation and cease trading immediately. It is struggling to make ends meet on the sole income of the ski slope, which closes in the summer months, after ambitious plans to extend the site into an extreme sports venue, including a 8,000 sq ft skateboard park, stalled.

Phil Jinks, a spokesman for SnowTime UK, said they could not get the necessary consent required by English Heritage to transform the building into an extreme sports centre.

He said: "We're looking to put it into liquidation and will be doing the paperwork this afternoon. Inevitably Snowbowl will be wound up and we will not be re-opening at the dockyard. The ski-slope on its own is not commercially viable as we have no income during the summer.

"Further development needs a large investment and this is not possible at the dockyard so we have no choice but to move to new premises. It is bad news and we are very disappointed."

Mr Jinks added that they were already looking at new homes for Snowbowl, including one large site they were "very interested in" in Medway.