A campaign group has taken steps to have the importance of a closure-threatened port officially recognised.

A development of up to 3,625 homes and commercial space could feature on the land at Chatham Docks if efforts by landowners Peel L&P to close the site by 2025 are successful.

Medway Council's draft Local Plan which was published last month indicated the authority's wish to re-designated the land from employment to mixed-use.

The plan is still being worked on after a decision was made not to go ahead with a vote to begin the public consultation process.

The authority has since written to docks-based companies offering them support packages worth up to £500,000 and to suggest relocation options.

The sites suggested were Innovation Park Medway at Rochester Airport or MedwayOne, an industrial estate on the site of the former Kingsnorth Power Station.

Now those behind the campaign to keep the docks open have made an application with Medway Council to register the land as an Asset of Community Value (ACV).

This is a provision under the Localism Act 2011 which empowers communities to nominate land or buildings which further social wellbeing or the interests of the community.

The designation means if the asset comes up for sale, the interested party will be given a fair chance to bid for it.

They can choose to use the Community Right to Bid, which gives them six months to see if they can raise enough funds to make the purchase.

Elsewhere in the Towns, campaigners successfully registered the former Deangate Ridge sports complex in Hoo as an ACV after the golf club closed in 2018 and residents feared the land could be turned over for housing.

Medway Council now has eight weeks to decide whether to add the docks to its list of registered ACVs.

Phil Taylor, chief executive of ArcelorMittal Kent Wire and spokesman for the Save Chatham Docks campaign, said: "That status would continue to reinforce the message that we're putting forward that Chatham Docks is such a valuable asset for the Medway Towns, and it would be criminal to lose it as a significant valuable employment hub for skilled workers that are well paid."

Medway Labour group leader Cllr Vince Maple said: "There is no silver bullet to protect these nearly 1,500 jobs which are linked to the site, but I think it's right that the Save Chatham Docks campaign is using all the available tools that they have.

"Registering Chatham Docks as an ACV and putting it on the register for Medway is another tool which I'm pleased to see that they're using and I think it's absolutely right for them to do so.

"I hope the council comes to, in my view, the right decision which is to put it on the register."

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