Developers are cashing in on an old seafront cafe site after a council offloaded the plot “for a song”.

Thanet District Council (TDC) has been accused of underselling the former greasy spoon at Western Undercliff, Ramsgate, for £100,000 in 2018.

Current owners Custom Build Developments recently floated the land on the open market for £1.2 million and this week appear to have snapped up a buyer.

The company bought it for £600,000 from the original developer - half a million pounds more than TDC sold it for.

Derelict since 2014, the land was advertised with planning permission for a swanky block of 13 luxury flats.

It is the latest twist in a long-running saga over the eyesore site which has now seen two developers bag handsome profits, without laying a brick.

But questions are being asked over why the district council did not realise a better price for the site when it sold the land in 2018.

Cllr John Worrow, who represents Thanet Independents on TDC, told KentOnline: “It looks like the council of the day let it go for a song and developers have cashed in.

“It was always likely to be a residential development, which the council twice granted, causing the site value to rocket.

“We have a duty to get the best value for taxpayers and clearly that hasn’t been the case here, with developers enjoying the proceeds instead.”

Chairman of the Ramsgate Society John Walker agrees, concluding the council had missed an opportunity.

“It looks like the developers, or speculators, are doing very nicely when it would have been handy for the council to have achieved a better price, given the site’s potential,” Mr Walker said.

“They should have taken some independent advice and perhaps given themselves planning permission for redevelopment before putting it on the market.”

Mr Walker says there is no shortage of projects in Ramsgate where better proceeds of such a sale could be spent.

“There is the restoration of the Festival of Britain fountain, the East Cliff bandstand and the seafront lifts, for starters,” he said.

“Perhaps it is a lesson for the future when the council is selling off any assets that it should take specialist advice, especially as in this case where the granting of planning permission has hugely increased the value of the site.”

Despite a community campaign to save, restore and re-open the cafe, the council sold the site at auction in 2018.

Plans were then submitted in September 2020 by the new owners of the building, Western Undercliff Ltd, to rebuild the cafe and add eight flats as well as a roof-top restaurant.

The development was given the green light later that year but disputes between the proposed developer and the council saw the scheme abandoned within two months of it being approved.

In 2021, the company then sold the site for £600,000, to Custom Build Developments..

A new eye-catching scheme for a six-storey building, with 13 flats, public toilets and a ground floor cafe was subsequently granted planning permission by the council in December last year,

But instead of pressing ahead with the redevelopment, the site remains derelict and vandalised.

The property was up for sale for £1.2 million on Rightmove this week but the listing was then removed on Wednesday afternoon, with the site now believed to be under offer.

Find out about planning applications that affect you by visiting the Public Notice Portal

It was being marketed by Kallars, who said: “The site is ideally located at the foot of the Royal Esplanade and directly on the seafront, with each end unit having uninterrupted views of the English Channel.”

A TDC spokesman said: “In 2018, following a competitive process, Thanet District Council sold the Western Undercliff site to Independent Design House Limited. The agreed sale price of £100,000 reflected the value of the site at that time.

”In 2019, the council sold a small parcel of unused land adjoining the original plot to the same developer for £13,675.

”The development scheme will require further consent from Thanet District Council. This consent will have an additional value, which is currently being negotiated.”