By Suz Elvey

THE new owner of Sittingbourne's old paper mill plans to knock it down and build houses on the site, the Gazette can exclusively reveal.

London-based property consultants Essential Land told us on Monday that it had bought the land from Finnish paper company M-real. Partner Scott Hammond said: "I can confirm we have acquired the site. We will be carrying out a full consultation with the local authority and residents before we put forward any proposals.

"The local authority has indicated in its local plan that the land is suitable for housing, therefore we will look to do some housing and other uses, probably commercial mixed uses."

He said it was too early to say how many houses or other buildings were likely to be put on the site and was unable to comment on whether the company planned to preserve any part of the iconic old mill in the new development.

Member of the Kent Historical Buildings Committee Michael Peters was far from impressed with Essential Land's intentions.

He said: "It could be said that Sittingbourne had just two iconic buildings. The town hall was pulled down 40 years ago, the remaining one is Sittingbourne paper mill. We should remember that at one time about a third of the working population of the town was employed there.

"Pulling down that building could be said to be akin to the vandalism of the burning down of the barge museum. It would destroy a vital piece of Sittingbourne's history, of which it has precious little."

Work began to demolish buildings on the land off Milton Road at 8am on Monday and could continue for up to 24 weeks, according to the company carrying out the work, Surrey-based Wooldridge Haulage and Demolition.

A spokesman for Swale Council confirmed discussions with the landowner about a "mixed use development" had taken place, adding : "It is normal for us to speak to landowners ahead of them submitting plans."

Mr Peters said that criteria for listing a building were "architectural or historic interest" adding: "There is no doubt that it fulfils the historical criteria." He said he would be surprised if the new owners wanted to pull down the office and if English Heritage "didn't care".

A spokesman for English Heritage said the group had no record of Sittingbourne Mill, indicating no formal application has ever been made to get it listed. She added that anyone could apply to have a building listed, not just its owners, and details of how to do so could be found on the English Heritage website.

Essential Land has also bought land used by Sittingbourne and Kemsley Light Railway. Mr Hammond said: "The future of the SKLR is still to be decided. We are in discussions with them."

The English Heritage website is www.english-heritage.org.uk