The sight of precariously balanced rusting wrecks of cars and vans at the entrance to Sheerness could soon be a thing of the past.

David Leaton, who owns Monkey Farm Breakers, has been given outline planning permission to raze it to the ground and replace the eyesore with industrial units.

Swale council planning officers have agreed the outline plans subject to conditions.

Mr Leaton, 55, was this week sitting down with his planning agent John Burke to make amendments before the finished scheme can be signed off.

He must start work on the £750,000 project within three years otherwise permission will lapse.

He said: “Getting the green light can be quite scary. Now I have to make sure all the money is in place.”

There are still hurdles to overcome. The site will have to be decontaminated and it will need connecting to sewers and an industrial-sized three-phase electricity supply. The current supply stops at the other side of the canal.

Mr Leaton’s battle to redevelop the 1.3-acre site has taken more than two years.

He said: “I thought the council would bite my hand off to tidy this area but all I had at first were hurdles. I admit the permission has finally come as a bit of a surprise.

“It will be an incredible improvement to what is already there. It will clean up the area and provide space for start-up businesses or those needing to move from the Klondyke Industrial Estate in Rushenden, which is being pulled down to make way for houses.”

Mr Leaton is proposing 10 brown or green business units. An existing bungalow will be demolished and replaced by a showroom.

He said: “Peel Ports has tidied up the other entrance to Sheerness at Blue Town so I thought it was time to do the same here.”

He currently employs three to four staff but says the new development could create up to 100 jobs on the Island.

His original application was submitted in October 2015.

His agent Mr Burke said: "During the past 25 months Mr Leaton has had to commission a large number of expensive reports and assessments required by the planners such as a ground contamination survey, flood risk assessment, soil tests, utility and highway assessments, a detailed Heritage Assessment and design of layout costing in excess of £25,000."

History

The canal – part of the Queenborough Lines fortification - was dug in 1859 to protect the Royal Naval Dockyard from attacking French following the Napoleonic Wars. It was one of a series of 70 forts and batteries known as Palmerstone’s Follies after Prime Minister Lord Palmerston.

Monkey Farm has been on ordnance survey maps since 1864. There are a number of theories how it got its name.

One is that it is where the Navy’s “powder monkeys” were billeted when manning the defences. Others believe it took its name from a zoo which had cages of monkeys on the site.