A firm’s bid to move to a new Thanet base has been given the green light - despite concerns over the loss of prime farmland.

Construction company OFP Timber will relocate to the site off Manston Road, near Ramsgate, and erect two factories.

The development will also comprise two buildings, which will be occupied by All Access Scaffolding and an unnamed manufacturing firm employing 80 people.

During a recent Thanet District Council planning committee meeting, Cllr David Hart argued Thanet needs “to have more businesses in the countryside for people to work”.

“To refuse is just totally wrong,” the Conservative said.

“We’ve got to be educated about this because we keep agreeing we’ve got to build houses on land, but people have got to have a job to go to. If we haven’t got the jobs, we won’t have the houses.

“OK, we lose a bit of agricultural land – but we’ve got to be sensible about this.

“I think the economic benefits of it are very good. We should be looking at this positively.”

In papers lodged with Thanet District Council by the developer, The 1948 Group, it says “the relocation of OFP Timber will support its expansion and allow the consolidation of operations onto a single site”.

The firm, which employs 75 members of staff at its current base in Sandwich, is said to require an additional 20 employees “to grow production”.

Accounts show OFP turned over more than £12 million in 2020, and the firm believes it will almost double this figure in two years’ time.

Meanwhile, the unnamed company moving onto the plot has been searching for a new home since 2017, as its current Thanet base “provides dated, poor quality commercial space”.

Developers say their project “provides the opportunity to secure the future of this local business within the district”.

Despite this, St Peter’s councillor Mike Garner told the summit: “My main concern with this application is the continual loss of prime agricultural land in Thanet. We’re losing too much.

“We need to grow our own in this country and we can’t rely on imports of produce, so I think we need to consider that a lot more carefully.”

Local authority officials had urged councillors to snub the scheme ahead of the meeting, stating it would lead to the “irreversible loss of grade one agricultural land” and add to congestion at the nearby Spitfire junction.

But members ignored the planners’ recommendations, and instead decided to wave the scheme through.