Whitstable's largest car park could be fully reopened in time for next summer but only if repair work goes to plan.

The Gorrell Tank, in Westgate Terrace, was closed last April after some of the tank's supporting columns were found to have corroded.

It has remained only partially opened since July but owners Southern Water have said the best-case-scenario is that it will fully reopen by next summer.

The water company bosses have said they are in the process of allocating up to £650,000 to clean the remaining half of the tank - and will then employ a specialist contractor to inspect and plan a permanent repair which would require further funding.

But before the permanent repair work can begin on the tank, cleaning work needs to be completed and to avoid further disruption during the busy summer months, the cleaning is planned to start in September.

Once that is complete, the permanent repair work could begin and if there are no unforeseen issues the car park could be fully reopened by next summer.

Southern Water spokesman Sam Underwood said: "Our best-case-scenario, if everything goes to plan and there are no unforeseen issues, is that the car park could be fully reopened by next summer.

"However, this is wholly dependant on a number of things, including the challenges of cleaning this deepest part of the tank, the expected adverse weather we expect over the winter months and our ability to work around the tides.

"We hope you will appreciate that while we can say with some certainty when our work will start on the site, at this stage we can give no firm completion dates – although these will become clearer as the work progresses."