Plans are in place for the formation of a new company to help kick-start the town’s regeneration.

Sittingbourne Town Centre Opportunities Fund will be a “smaller-scale” scheme ahead of the main redevelopment project.

The joint enterprise between Swale council and the Spirt of Sittingbourne consortium will see empty properties with potential bought and revamped.

An initial £500,000 investment from the council’s reserve funds is proposed to help get the operation up and running.

A decision on whether it gets the go ahead will be taken at a Swale planning committee meeting on Wednesday.

The plan was met with guarded optimism by Sittingbourne trader, Andrea Don, who runs Nickel Books in the High Street.

She said: “It’s good that they are trying to do something right now, but why wasn’t this proposal included in the original regeneration plan?

“It sounds like an innovation they’ve just thought of.”

The fund has earmarked a number of empty buildings in the High Street and town centre for possible investment.

It is proposed the council will buy properties and do “something new and exciting” with them to generate a return. Any profit will be shared between the two shareholders.

It is planned to seek further investment for the fund from Government initiatives such as TIGER – Thames Gateway Innovation, Growth and Enterprise.

Professional surveyors will advise and negotiate in the purchase of buildings with funding only handed over when a site has been agreed on.

In a report, Emma Wiggins, the council’s head of economic and cultural services, said: “It (the fund) would help draw investment into the town ahead of the main development.

"And it would become the step change that Sittingbourne needs by sending a clear message to residents and retailers that the long-awaited regeneration is finally underway.”