A £2,000 reward is being offered after another suspicious blaze in the town.

The CPM Group has put up the cash after the former Milton Precast Pipes building in Cooks Lane, which it owns, was set on fire on Sunday night.

Four fire engines were sent to the blaze, which broke out in the stores and canteen block just before 10.55pm.

Three teams of firefighters wearing breathing apparatus were sent in with hose reels to tackle the flames.

It was brought under control by 12.44am the following day but crews remained at the scene damping down and checking for hotspots until 3.30am.

Police have launched an investigation.

The two-storey building is empty due to being shut last summer after restructuring efforts to make it profitable failed.

While there is no financial loss to the firm as it is set to be demolished and the land redeveloped, it is the sixth suspicious incident it has had to deal with in less than 12 months.

The others were:

An excavator worth £40,000 was burnt out while contractor Hague Civil Engineering worked at the Gas Road site sometime overnight March 28-29.

A skip filled with construction waste underneath the bridge in the same location was also set alight the same day.

On September 6 last year, six drums containing bitumen rubber were set on fire next to a building in the yard of the Cooks Lane site.

In the same month a piece of machinery belonging to Sweeep Kuusakoski stored on the Milton Pipes site in Gas Road was damaged by fire

A Kalmar forklift truck worth £80,000 was damaged by fire at the same site on July 1, 2014.

Deputy managing director Nick Gainsford said: “We are frustrated by these fires.

“It worries us in that we want to continue to invest in Sittingbourne but we’re wondering if we’ve got to put in 24-hour security guards now because it seems to be happening far too frequently and the police don’t seem to want to do anything. It’s not good for us in the long term because it makes our insurance company nervous about covering our assets in Sittingbourne.

“We’re a national company. We have to ask why it happens at Sittingbourne as we have no issues like this in the rest of the UK.”

A police spokesman said: “Kent Police works closely with Kent Fire and Rescue Service (KFRS) following a report of a possibly suspicious fire to establish the circumstances.

“If a fire is deemed to be suspicious, officers carry out a thorough investigation and follow through all available lines of inquiry.

“It is important to carry out some simple steps to safeguard property, including making your premises secure using gates, fencing and locks.

“Regularly check there are no breaches to your premises.

“Lighting and CCTV deters would-be thieves and can assist in the detection of crime, and check it regularly to make sure it’s still working.

“Don’t leave tools or machinery accessible, which could be used by thieves to gain access to business premises.”