A councillor has hit out at the sudden wrecking of a 100-year-old timber community hall.

The former nursery building in Church Road, Murston, near Sittingbourne, has had its wooden cladding removed and mature trees ripped up from its garden.

The hall has been a long-term fixture in the lives of many residents and has been used as a nursery, party hall, wedding venue and home for after-school clubs like Brownies.

Cllr James Hall (Swale Independents Alliance, Murston) said: “I’m very concerned about this. I have seen a team of 12 men working on the hall but I have no idea what they are doing.”

He said a plan for it to reopen last year as a children’s nursery hit the buffers when Kent County Council announced that the walls contained asbestos and it would cost up to £20,000 to remove it safely.

Cllr Hall said: “Suddenly, two weeks ago the whole area was cleared.

“Trees which had been there for years were pulled down, old children’s toys were dumped in a field next door and the cladding has been ripped off.

“Sometimes the workmen were working into the night.

“I am very concerned about what they are doing with the asbestos. The men weren’t wearing hard hats, goggles or any personal protection equipment. I have reported what I saw to Health and Safety.”

The Health and Safety Executive has confirmed it is investigating.

Cllr Hall added: “As far as I know, nothing has been applied for. I don’t know why they chopped down the trees but there is obviously a reason as it has created more space around the building.”

Previously known as Murston Welfare Hall it was used for Murston Playschool, which in a recent Ofsted report in 2018 had the school down as requiring improvement in every area.

In January 2003 the hall was the target of an arson attack.

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