Work has started on seven new homes at the site of the former Sportsman pub and car park in Cliffsend.
East Kent developer Future Homes will deliver the project after planning permission for a revised scheme was granted in February this year. An initial application had been rejected in 2019 with a number of objections including concerns about building height and traffic increases.
The amended plan comprises of a new three-storey building with three apartments on the upper floors and commercial space for a cycle café on the ground floor. There will also be four semi-detached, three-bedroom houses. The Government’s Help to Buy Scheme will be available to first-time buyers of the apartments.
Future Homes’ Managing Director Martin Sturge said: “We are a Thanet-based development company and our team has lived and worked in the area for over 40 years. We are really looking forward to getting to know our neighbours and becoming part of the Cliffsend community.”
Work began on June 28 with a target completion date of July 2022.
The Sportsman closed on April 2, 2017, with landlords Teresa Kirk and Ronnie Mark, calling last orders for good after the site was put on the market by Shepherd Neame with a guide price of £250,000 plus VAT.
The restaurant shut the previous month. Parts of the Sandwich Road pub’s original building dated back to 1750.
If you’d like to find out more about the development visit futurehomes.co.uk or call 01843 604504.
This area is high risk from all flooding situations. Check government website. I’m all in favour of building homes on brownfield sites but not when there is a high risk of flooding. Purchasers will find getting insurance cost prohibitive. at best.
I dont think there’s any greater flood risk at the Sportsman pub than anywhere else along there. It’s six m above mean high water.
Absolutely appalling. Why on earth can’t they do something with that beautiful and historic old building instead?
Its a redundant pub! No one was using it so where there is no demand, like Manston airport, the laws of capitalism step in and they got closed down! Building domestic dwellings there is a better option, and if there had been a pub there since 1750, there should be no need to worry about flooding!
It is not always as simple as that. I know of several popular pubs in Kent that have been bought by unscrupulous landlords, who then on purposely let them get run down so that they have the excuse of closing/selling them for housing.
If pubs can thrive in quiet East Kent villages like Worth, Ripple and Finglesham, then one certainly could in Cliffsend… with the right landlord.
It was a business that dates back around 270 years. Why wasn’t it a listed building? Another part of Thanet gone forever and developer making a mint from a cheap outlay. The modernist architecture look is out of place in this area of Pegwell but what does TDC care.
There are plenty of 20th-century houses near the Sportsman site. Do you (Kent Resident) think they are out of place as well? What sort of buildings would not be out of place, in your opinion?
totally agree with you , the brown envelope wins again
There already is a cycle cafe: it’s called the Viking Ship Cafe. The owner is a keen cyclist.
They should make it a Motor Cyclist cafe especially as there is a peddle cyclist cafe just up the road. Plenty of parking opposite for the motor bikes and on a quiet vehicle road. Motor Cyclist do a lot of charity work so this could be an ideal starting place.
Or better still, a cafe that makes everyone feel welcome.
Then maybe they should run more regular hours rather than unpredictable intermittent hours like present
The pub was ruined when they added cement render and replaced the windows with pvc ones.
What an absolute eyesore, who in their right mind decided to give that the go ahead 🤷🏼♂️ hardly in keeping with the area.
Not in keeping with the area ? Looks better than the petrol station opposite
How can you compare living accommodation with a petrol station 🤷🏼♂️
You said it’s not in keeping with the area , so what would be in keeping with a petrol station ?
Personally I think they look nice clean and modern. Just like the other houses when they were built in the day , I guess in the 60’s. I bet people said the same about them !
I think there has been some great new builds in the area, the one up by ramsgate boating pool looks great, out of the people of ramsgate wage bracket, but still looks good.
Ok, agree to disagree but the pic leads me to think there’s a lot of accommodation in not such a big space, the quality of the facias, glass balconies with stainless frame will soon deteriorate so close to the sea front.
Another lovely old building going,like the orb pub thats gone to make way for flats,am shocked,but am not suprised at all.
Cyclist cafe, more idiots who think they are Bradley Wiggins why can’t they go for a pedal rather than a speed race. I can see more pedestrians being injured by these selfish boy racers, it’s bad on the sea wall to Reculver will be worse along Pegwell to Sandwich,make bells a requirement.
Why not plant 4000 trees on the land where they wanted to build 450 houses between Hartsdown rd and Shottendane.