An ex-teacher is setting former pupils “homework” as he steps up his campaign to save a Sittingbourne landmark.

Peter Morgan, who taught at Westlands School for nearly 30 years, is battling to prevent the old magistrates’ court in Park Road from being demolished.

Plans have been submitted to knock it down and build a complex of eight houses and two flats.

But Mr Morgan, a former mayor of Swale and Kent County Council chairman, is tutoring ex-pupils to join his fight.

He said: “Whenever former students stop me in the street and ask how the campaign’s going, I set them homework, asking them to write a letter of no less than 150 words to the chief planning officer objecting to the demolition.”

Mr Morgan, 87, who lives in Park Road, explained why his is an old school protest.

“As a former borough and county councillor, I’ve come to realise petitions seldom achieve what they want. Individual letters from private persons carry more weight.”

His passionate defence of the courthouse has attracted support from 5,000 miles away. Iris Horne, from Texas, wrote to the News Extra after our report on Mr Morgan’s rescue bid.

She said: “As the daughter of the late chief inspector A.H. White, who served there in the 1940s and 1950s, I regret the decision to destroy this landmark.”

The old magistrates’ building was bought by Bailey Partners Investment in December, along with the car park used formerly by courthouse staff adjacent to the telephone exchange in Albany Road.

Having failed in his appeal to English Heritage for the building to be listed and turned into a community centre, Mr Morgan said he hoped to present his latest “do not destroy” plea to Swale Borough Council planners at a meeting in May.

“We’ve got St Michael’s Church at the east of the High Street, United Reformed Church in the middle, and the court house in the west end of it,” he said.

“The conservation area lasts between St Michael’s and the United Reformed Church, everything to the west isn’t covered.

“My first job will be to persuade councillors to extend the conservation area to at least as far as the magistrates’ court.”