A German firm will build Sittingbourne’s new multi-storey car park.

Huber was selected by Swale council as the preferred bidder for the £3 million contract.

The 308 spaces over five levels are due to be built on part of Station Street at the back of the Forum shopping centre, with access for vehicles via St Michael’s Road.

Pete Raine, the council’s director of regeneration, said: “They are a specialist car park constructor and have been going for 20 years.

“They won because they were the best and the cheapest, so they won on quality and price.”

Mr Raine, who retires next week, said the new parking was a crucial part of the multi-million-pound plans for the town centre, where a cinema, restaurants and new homes are planned.

“The cinema, residential and all the restaurants that go with the cinema are being built on Cockleshell Walk, Spring Street, all council-owned land,” he added.

“We’re taking surface car parking, which is a relatively inefficient use of land, and releasing the land for development, then honey potting or squashing car parking in a five-level multi-storey.

“The design was agreed as part of the planning application for the 308 spaces - which is slightly more than will be lost in the town centre.”

The car park is due to consist of 32 spaces on the ground floor - seven for disabled drivers, seven for parents with children, eight where electric cars can be re-charged and 10 others. Each of the other four floors will have 69 spaces.

A new access is to be created linking the multi-storey with the Forum.

The deal with Huber would be confirmed, said Mr Raine, once a cinema operator had signed a lease with the Spirit of Sittingbourne consortium on the proposed seven-screen facility.

Huber, whose website boasts: “People enjoy parking in our car parks”, was responsible for multi-storey parking in towns such as Slough, Stratford-upon-Avon and Wolverhampton.