THE empty Ramsgate hospital has been sold for housing development. Kent builders Martin and Randle have bought the site at Westcliffe Road near the town centre from the East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust.

Ramsgate hospital was closed in 1998 when the new extension to the Queen Mother Hospital at Margate was opened. During the 1990s there was a public appeal to keep the hospital as campaigners felt that travelling to Margate from the Ramsgate area was too far for the sick and elderly.

It was built in the Great War and the original part of the building is a grade two listed structure.

The town’s war memorial is also on the Westcliff Road site and the NHS Trust has promised to ensure that “the original part will be carefully restored".

Cllr Mary Derrane, Thanet council cabinet member for housing, said: “We need homes in Thanet whether it is social or private housing. Whatever the development at the hospital, it will have to include affordable housing."

The formal plans will be considered by Thanet council early in the New Year.