A developer has been given the go-ahead to transform a former Royal British Legion club into homes.

A question mark has hung over the former Margate base after the building went under the hammer for £400k in 2020.

The district council would approve proposals in September the same year for the Grade-II listed building to provide shelter for rough sleepers.

But the three-year permission expired last autumn, paving the way for the now-building owner Paramount Independent Property Services to create seven flats.

Set up in 1993, the once-thriving Legion base shut in 2018, before the former townhouse in St John’s Road was used for seven emergency bed spaces and rooms for the homeless, alongside a community space for charity Rise.

Thanet District Council this week approved bids for the change of use and listed building consent.

Now, official papers show the new flats will spread across four floors, including the basement.

Two will be created on both the ground, first and second storeys, with one of these having three bedrooms and all the others having one.

Another home will be on the third floor, and the basement will be a plant room and cycle storage space.

Builders also plan to gut the property, including the removal of a bar left over from when it held the army veterans’ club.

It is an early nineteenth-century brown-brick building in the heart of Margate and was originally a residential townhouse.

Developers want to enhance the historic aspects of the shelter.

Planning documents lodged by Evolution Town Planning, said: “At present, the building on the street scene demonstrates a lack of investment over the years and provides opportunities for enhancement.

“The conversion will continue to deliver the following heritage gains, which will improve the appreciation of the heritage asset and will enhance and conserve it for the long term.”

This will include restoring the original steps and renovating the whole top floor, as well as removing metal bars on windows.

When the plan to change the veterans’ club into supported housing for the homeless was announced, it was faced with fierce opposition.

The lack of a garden or outside space was pointed out, with the Margate Conservation Area Advisory Group saying the property was “unsuited to the proposed use and not capable of providing the type of accommodation this vulnerable community deserves.”

“The temporary community of people living in a seven-bedroom hostel deserve a level of dignity and privacy which this building cannot accommodate,” it added.

One local business owner said: “Given consent, the scheme will push away owner occupiers and longer-term tenants in the area, who are already exasperated by the street drinking, drug dealing, rubbish and general neglect.

“Yet more rental properties will be created if properties don’t sell. This will put off newcomers.”

On approving the flats scheme, planning officers at Thanet District Council said: “It is considered the proposed alterations would be sympathetic to the building, enhancing its appearance and making a positive contribution to the Margate Conservation Area.

“The sub-division of the building to provide flats has worked within the restrictions of this heritage asset and provides an acceptable standard of living accommodation for future occupiers.”