It was 10 years ago this week that the Sittingbourne News first hit the shelves. But how has the town itself changed in that time? We take a look at the biggest, most enduring story of the decade - regeneration...

The first detailed visions to improve Sittingbourne town centre appeared on a drawing board back in 2008. But the real progress only began years later.

Proposals were put forward to stop shoppers leaving the high street and spending their money elsewhere.

The Discovery Centre, the light bulb-shaped creation was the first to be Sittingbourne's new dawn.

In 2012 Tesco, which owns the Forum shopping centre, spearheaded its own project with a futuristic-looking bridge linking land north of the railway station to The Forum which would be enlarged by 40%.

Outline planning permission was granted a week before the town's new local newspaper, the Sittingbourne News Extra, was first published. But the plan never came to fruition, mainly because of objections from the Highways Agency.

But in 2015 Swale council finally took the plunge and signed up The Light cinema company to headline the £57 million town centre regeneration led by the Spirit of Sittingbourne consortium.

Cllr Andrew Bowles (Con), leader of the council at the time, said: “Light Cinema offers something different from other chains. The decision to make this their first investment in Kent shows their faith in our plans."

It was the end of November 2018 that contractors began laying the foundations for the eight-screen cinema and entertainment complex on what is now known as Bourne Place coupled with a 63-bed Travelodge hotel and big-name restaurants.

For a while, it looked as if the project would stumble when the Tories lost control of the council and were replaced by a "rainbow coalition" in 2019. A new multi-storey car park had already suffered delays.

To add to the problems, the coronavirus pandemic hit, pushing back construction work. Creams dessert parlour and Pizza Express also walked away from the project as the leisure economy went into a nosedive.

But in May this year the cinema finally opened for business with a nine-lane bowling alley, retro arcade, diner and three bars. More than 2,500 film fans booked seats for the opening weekend.

Nando's and the Sentado Lounge also signed up for the regeneration project which is expected to attract up to 400,000 visitors a year.

Swale's new administration severed links with the Spirit of Sittingbourne consortium putting plans to regenerate other parts of the town on ice. But work to turn the council's former waste depot in Eurolink Way into Princes Street retail park went ahead.

The site opened in summer 2018 and is now home to a Costa Coffee drive-thru, an Iceland’s Food Warehouse and a Home Bargains store.

Sittingbourne's skyline changed forever in 2012 when the water tower of the town's paper mill in Milton Road was demolished and the site reduced to rubble. It has since been replaced by housing, a £10 million Morrisons supermarket and petrol station.

Even that wasn't all plain sailing. Replacing the roundabout which served Sittingbourne Retail Park, Milton Road, Mill Way and Eurolink Way, with traffic lights still regularly creates gridlock for motorists.

New housing estates have included Redrow's Regent Quay development off Eurolink Way and more than 300 homes off the A2 next to The Street and Foxhill in Bapchild.

It's safe to say that in 10 years, the heart of the town centre is unrecognisable from how it looked when that very first Sittingbourne News came off the printing presses.