The demolition of empty buildings has begun to make way for 319 flats.

The face of The Brook in Chatham is changing forever as the former Tesco building, latterly Go Outdoors, and the next door Market Hall are in the process of being torn down.

Work began in preparation for the destruction on February 21, boarding up the site, and now the first stages of tearing down the buildings are underway.

The work is being done as the beginning of a planning application for 319 flats and additional commercial spaces put forward by Arpenteur Nightingale Ltd.

The application was submitted in December and is still under consideration by Medway Council’s planning department.

If approved, the development would create 133 one-bedroom flats, 175 with two bedrooms, five with three bedrooms, and six studio flats on the 1.11 hectare site, along with 744 m² of commercial space.

These would be spread across five blocks of five to seven floors.

The complete demolition and clear up of the site is allotted to take 11 weeks - six of which involved the destruction of the buildings.

Work is expected to be done by May 16.

The Go Outdoors building has been empty since the retailer permanently closed the shop in August 2020 after only four years.

Before that it had been occupied by Tesco since the 1970s until it closed in 2015.

It is likely the Arpenteur Nightingale Ltd plans for the site will be decided upon by councillors, and a decision will be made at a later date.