Construction work for a town centre regeneration project has been officially kicked off during a groundbreaking ceremony.

The development of The Charter in Gravesend was marked by the mayor, contractors and council leaders this week.

The flagship redevelopment is part of Gravesham council's overhaul plan for the town and includes a new multi-storey car park as well as 242 apartments.

A fifth of the new homes will be available through the discounted market rent scheme.

Work on the development, which has been more than a decade in the making, started back in March with ground preparations being carried out.

But with that work now complete, building is now ready to get under way.

The project is being led by Reef Group for Rosherville Ltd – the council's commercial trading company formed last year.

Market Square and Horn Yarn car parks are now closed which will see the new homes put up in their place.

The site and plans, formerly known as the Gravesend Heritage Quarter, has proved controversial during the planning phase with opponents saying the new buildings would dwarf existing buildings and historic sites in the area.

The Mayor of Gravesham, Cllr Lyn Milner, said: "The redevelopment of this area of Gravesend town centre has been a long-held ambition of Gravesham Borough Council for many years. Plans have come and gone, raising expectations and then dashing them.

“To be here today to mark the start of work on this site, as we look forward with hope to leaving Covid behind us, it feels like a fresh new start for the town centre.

"The people who come to live here will help breathe new life into a new look Gravesend."

Cllr Lenny Rolles (Lab), cabinet member for commercial services and chairman of Rosherville, said: "If there was any doubt before, lockdown has brought into sharp focus the fact that our town centres will never again be as people remember them.

"We have to bring fresh thinking to how we use them, how we bring people to them, and what today’s modern generations want from them.

“The first step has to be increasing footfall, bringing people to the town who will support the businesses already here and encourage others to open.

"The Charter will be part of that, bringing people to live, work and socialise in the town."

He added the next step would be to develop plans for leisure, retail and entertainment attractions which are hoped to be submitted in early 2022.

Council leader John Burden (Lab) pointed towards the crucial contribution the new homes would make towards the council's housing targets set by Westminster.

A new local plan to set out the borough's development and housing blueprint is set to be published in 2023.

"We have to bring fresh thinking to how we use town centres, how we bring people to them, and what today’s modern generations want from them..."

But the council is struggling to show it has enough land in the next five years to meet the targets set by government to produce 1,965 by 2024.

Cllr Burden said: “We have no choice but to make every effort to identify sites on which to build the new homes the Government requires of us.

"Brownfield sites such as the one The Charter is being developed on are crucial to that.

“I have seen numerous comments about who will be moving into these apartments when they are complete and where they will come from.

“They will be available on the open market and while that means we cannot dictate who occupies them, many of them will be available at rents that are entirely affordable for those on our housing register and we will be encouraging those on the register to move here.

“The Charter is a vital development for Gravesend and the wider Borough. It is hugely positive project that will bring benefits for many years.

“We need to be looking forward to the world as it is now and as it will be in future, not backwards to what it once was but will never be again."

Peter Langly-Smith, development director at Reef Group added: “We look forward to delivering high-quality homes.

“We have been working in partnership with Gravesham Borough Council for a number of years and it’s fantastic to see the start of the development build.

“We will continue to work with the council and, later this year with the public, in developing the leisure and retail proposals as part of our ongoing regeneration of the town centre.”

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