Businesses have closed down or moved ahead of plans to demolish a row of shops to make way for a block of flats featuring an oast-house-style tower.

A planning application has been submitted to Medway Council to knock down numbers 13 to 17 Church Street, in Chatham town centre, and create a block of 21 flats with a large shop at ground level.

The triangular site has been home to a dry cleaners, a cafe, a shop, a tattoo studio and a car-repair yard.

But some of those businesses have already shut or gone elsewhere.

The cafe is closed and the owners of Dave’s Lucky 12 Tattoo Studio have found new premises in Canterbury Street, Gillingham.

Tracey Wood, who runs the firm with partner Dave, said: “We found out about the plans about 18 months ago.

“But we couldn’t find out what was happening. They wouldn’t talk to us. We moved about four months ago.

“It was a big upheaval for us, we had been there for 14 and 15 years. It has been sad. But we are in a better position now.”

It is not known what will happen to long-established dry-cleaning business Cherubs.

Sevenoaks-based developer Fastgrow Investments wants to create a five and six-storey building containing one and two-bedroom flats.

The plans do not contain any parking provision, but the application states residents will not need to have cars because they will be located in the town centre within walking distance of shops and the railway station.

The blueprints do include a small green space at the back of the flats.

According to the developers, the design and appearance of the building are “proposed to reflect images of Kent with the oast tower, with its bulk and size, mimicking the warehouse-scale buildings of the docks and prominent municipal buildings.”

The drawings submitted to Medway Council show a triangular block with a tower on one corner, which features an oast house-style roof.

Inside there would be 10 one-bedroom flats and 11 two-bedroom flats.

Some 10% of the accommodation would be for people with “specific support needs”.

There would be one shop on the ground floor, measuring around 300m sq.

People have until November 21 to have their say on the plans, which can be viewed at www.medway.gov.uk