The first set of works as part of Sittingbourne’s £57 million regeneration have been completed.

St Michael’s Road reopened last week following the finishing of the first phase of roadworks to transform the street’s layout and prepare it for a multi-storey car park. They started in August.

The work to give the road a new layout was completed ahead of an embargo to ensure they did not interfere with the Christmas shopping period.

The second tranche will start next month and will see the train station roundabout replaced by traffic lights.

Construction is also due to begin on a 308-space multi-storey car park in St Michael’s Road at the same time, although developers say residents may not see work being carried out on site from the outset.

A spokesman for Spirit of Sittingbourne, the consortium overseeing the regeneration project, said: “It will be partly assembled off site so people won’t necessarily see anything straight away but it will be shipped over and put together.”

He added further details of the phase two roadworks will be shared after the new year.

In other news, the name for what will be the first shopping area to be completed as part of the regeneration scheme will be revealed at a Swale council meeting today (Wednesday).

A public vote on a choice of three names ended last month. A straw poll by Kent Online revealed Princes Street Retail Park to be the favourite choice of its readers, followed by Donald Dean Place in second place and Spring Retail Park in last position.

Costa Coffee, Home Bargains and Food Warehouse from Iceland are expected to go into the retail park by the end of March.

A similar method for picking a name is being planned for the leisure quarter, where construction of an eight-screen cinema and six new restaurants will be built on The Forum car park is expected to start in May.