A village hall could be demolished to make way for eight new homes.

Iwade Parish Council has submitted a planning application for its base in Ferry Road, near Sittingbourne.

The building, which is also home to Tinkerbells nursery, the WI and a number of Scouting groups, was built in 1957 and has remained largely unaltered since then.

Proposals for a replacement hall to be built on the new Willow Bank development, off Grovehurst Road, are at an advanced stage.

Plans to demolish the 0.2-acre site in Ferry Road were submitted to Swale council last month.

The new terraced development would be made up of three three-bedroom and five two-bedroom homes. They would be two storeys high and in a traditional style with red bricks and white cladding, which would reflect the “architectural character” of the area.

The existing access on Ferry Road would be removed and a wider entrance created.

The plans include 18 parking spaces – two for each home along with two visitor spaces and eight for electric vehicles.

Cycle storage and landscaping would also be added.

It is a resubmitted application for a scheme which was approved in November 2020, but for which planning permission lapsed in 2023.

Conditions linked to the previous application stated that the construction of the eight properties could not begin until the replacement village hall had been built and was ready to use.

Outline permission for the new hall was not granted until July 2022.

It is part of a wider development by Bellway called Willow Bank, which will see 400 homes and a country park built on land east of Iwade next to the A249, off Grovehurst Road.

Detailed planning permission is currently pending for a number of the allocated land parcels, which include the plans for the new village hall.

In the planning statement, it said that representatives from the parish council had been “directly involved” in the design of the replacement purpose-built community facility.

It went on to say: “The hall is normally in everyday use and whilst it has undergone repairs and redecoration in its time, it has been subject to wear and tear over the years which has been costly to maintain.

“Additionally, it is becoming increasingly difficult to meet the demands of Ofsted in relation to providing the facilities and operating conditions for the daily nursery which is held within the building.

“For these reasons, the applicant wishes to relocate to a new, modern facility and to contribute to funding the construction of the new facility, the existing site is to be redeveloped.

“It has been agreed that the existing hall will not be redeveloped until the new facility is operational thereby ensuring there is continuity of community floorspace provision.”

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A spokesperson for Iwade parish council said: “This is a re-application of 20/502385 that was granted in 2020 and has now lapsed.”

The authority was asked the total expected cost for the project and if the development would be sold to a developer, but had not responded at the time of writing.