A council has bought a former sorting office for £2.5m with plans to turn it into homes.

It has been revealed that Maidstone Borough Council (MBC) has purchased the former Royal Mail sorting office site, in Sandling Road, Maidstone.

Previously the four-storey building, near Maidstone East railway station, was earmarked for a new council headquarters for the borough and county council.

The two authorities jointly bought the site in 2016.

They planned to build a new £50m HQ, which would have included a public plaza, gym, green roof and terrace, along with a 443-space car park.

MBC would have inhabited about a third of the office space and so would have spent around £15m on the project.

KCC planned to pay the remaining £35m, and was potentially thinking of moving out of Sessions House in County Hall.

CGI images were revealed in June 2020 of what the office space would look like.

At the time, MBC’s current premises in King Street cost £670,000 per year in rent – with the authority paying out a further £300,000 in business rates and £260,000 for utilities.

Rental costs were expected to be similar at the new site.

In September last year the plan was scrapped amid pandemic pressures.

A Maidstone council spokesman said: “Among the several options previously considered was the possibility of new office accommodation for us and KCC, although no decisions were ever taken.

“However, this idea has now been completely discounted, given the changes to working practices brought about by the pandemic.”

Although current plans remain unknown, it has been confirmed that MBC has bought the building in March for £2.5m and says it will be used for “residential development”.

A spokesman said: “Maidstone Borough Council intends to redevelop the Maidstone East sites for residential-led mixed-use development.

“It has appointed a professional team and intends to submit a planning application for its proposals by the end of the current financial year.”

Shops including John Lewis and Asda had both eyed up the former Royal Mail building but plans never materialised.

The sorting office was closed in 2013 with 250 redundancies as part of a £70m revamp which saw operations moved to Medway. It was one of four Kent sites to shut, along with Dartford, Canterbury and Tonbridge.