A town has been offered a “last chance” opportunity to buy a disused community building after it was previously earmarked for private development.

The current owner of the former Age Concern centre in Norman Road, West Malling has offered the building to West Malling Parish Council.

It comes after a planning application to build four houses on the land was rejected.

The building, known as Rotary House, was originally put on the market by Kent County Council (KCC) in January 2021 and was eventually sold one year later, having stood empty for three years when the care providers were forced to move out due to financial difficulties.

At the time the parish council put a bid in for the building in the hope of preserving and refurbishing it for the community but KCC instead chose to sell in favour to the private developer at a higher price.

Now, more than a year later, the council has been given another chance to purchase the building.

West Malling Parish Council chairman, Cllr Trudy Dean (Lib Dem) said: “The owner applied for planning consent but was turned down by Tonbridge and Malling Council for a number of reasons but mainly because it would be ridding of a community centre.

“After his refusal, he phoned me up to see if we were interested and said yes we would be.

“It means now, magically we have another chance, perhaps the last chance to retain this site for public use.”

Any purchase of the site would be subject to price but work is currently being done by the council to get things in motion.

It has applied for government grants while gathering information about the centre and what facilities were previously offered.

The council has also filed for it to be an asset of the community meaning it would stand protected from bids outside of community interest groups for six months.

It says it would look to build a new community hub in replacement of the current building which has become rundown and has sat empty for five years.

We’re very hopeful we will reach an agreement with the current owner but it does fall subject to price

An application for government funding has a deadline of next Wednesday but in any event the council will not hear an answer for the next few months.

During that time the council wants to hold meetings with the community explaining its plans to purchase the land while surveying people asking what they would prefer it be used for.

Cllr Dean added: “People have a fondness for this site. We’re very hopeful we will reach an agreement with the current owner but it does fall subject to price.

“We have a two-part plan. The first part is seizing ownership of the land while the second part is to work out what would best suit the community.

“We did a survey a couple of years ago and there was a lot of pressure to provide some form of medical clinic after losing the GP in town.

“Others have also expressed a shortage of centres for young people and so these are all things we will be looking into but for now we just want to make sure this site remains serving the community.”