A sauna for Herne Bay seafront, a wet fish stall at Whitstable Harbour and a youth hub: the 40 town centre projects Cabinet backed on 5 October, with dates.
Updated 17 October: applications to join the three place panels are now open, closing on Monday 2 November. Who can apply and how.
Canterbury City Council has published a list of 40 things it says it can realistically get done for Canterbury, Herne Bay and Whitstable before it is replaced by a new council. Each comes with a deadline, and the latest is April 2028.
Cabinet agreed the approach on 5 October by seven votes to none. It also set up three place panels, one for each town, and residents will be invited to apply to sit on them. The published decision went up on 9 October.
Why now
The city and town centre strategies were adopted in February. The Cabinet report says the council will likely have “limited time, capacity and statutory life remaining” once the timetable for local government reorganisation is confirmed. The government paused the reorganisation on 7 September. The report records the Director for Place telling councillors that, despite the pause, it “will still happen”.
So the action plan is deliberately short. The report says it should “be realistic about available resource”. The longer wish lists sit in separate project directories for each town, which Cabinet noted but did not commit to.
The plan breaks down like this:
- Canterbury: 15 actions
- Herne Bay: 13 actions
- Whitstable: 9 actions
- Herne Bay and Whitstable together: a coastal events forum
- Across the district: the place panels and support for a new digital business hub
The first deadlines
Several are due within months. These are the dates the council has set itself:
| Action | Town | Due |
|---|---|---|
| Choose an operator for a hydrothermal bathing concession on the eastern esplanade, expected to include a sauna | Herne Bay | October 2026 |
| Toolkit to tackle empty shops, centred on Mortimer Street and William Street | Herne Bay | November 2026 |
| First refresh of the Mortimer Street retail market | Herne Bay | November 2026 |
| Extend and upgrade the play area at Memorial Park into an inclusive one | Herne Bay | December 2026 |
| Wet fish concession at the harbour, focused on local catch | Whitstable | December 2026 |
| Secure the long-term future of the Sidney Cooper Gallery as a working gallery | Canterbury | December 2026 |
| Find a temporary banking hub, if the permanent one will not open by November 2027 | Herne Bay | December 2026 |
| Repairs to bring the Central Bandstand back into full use, including the stage | Herne Bay | January 2027 |
| Report on this summer’s land train pilot | Herne Bay | January 2027 |
| Start a programme towards a UNESCO City of Literature bid | Canterbury | January 2027 |
| Free GPS sound walk around the harbour and coast | Whitstable | January 2027 |
Source: Canterbury City Council, City and Town Centre Action Plan 2026 to 2028, Cabinet 5 October 2026.
What else is on the list
In Canterbury, the bigger items are about buildings and transport:
- working with the owners to bring the former Debenhams store and the former Nasons site, to be called Bigglestone Yard, back into use, with updates due to April 2028
- a development brief for Wincheap, by April 2028
- expanding Wincheap park and ride onto the Canenco site by January 2028, to make up for spaces due to be lost to the A2 slip road
- a frequent hopper bus linking the stations, park and ride sites and university campuses, by April 2028
- phases 2 and 3 of the riverside walking and cycling route, from Asda to Vauxhall Road with a new river bridge
- a youth hub with the DWP for 16 to 24 year olds, and new use for the Poor Priests’ Hospital as a home for the Marlowe Theatre’s learning work
The hopper bus idea is also in the council’s travel choices survey, which closes on 26 October.
In Herne Bay, besides the dates above, the plan lists the King’s Hall refurbishment by September 2027 and a creative skills hub there with East Kent Colleges Group. It also includes a full upgrade of the seafront play area and health hubs in community venues. The banking hub target is a permanent hub by November 2027, working with LINK and the banks.
In Whitstable, the list leans on the harbour. It includes a bid for Heritage Harbour status, a community classroom in the EdShed, new signs at the harbour’s southern entrance and a development brief for the harbour area. Outside the harbour, it covers new fingerposts across the town centre and Tankerton by April 2027, the next stage of the Crab and Winkle Way from the station towards the harbour, and a tree planting pilot for Gorrell ward, where canopy cover is below the district average.
Some entries are firm projects. Others are softer: “work with the building owners”, “explore”, “review”. The Debenhams and Nasons items, for instance, only commit the council to updates.
The place panels
Each panel will meet twice a year, with one joint meeting of all three a year. They are advisory and cannot make council decisions or set budgets, according to the terms of reference.
Each panel will have:
- a chair chosen from the members who are not councillors
- the relevant Cabinet member as vice-chair
- two city councillors
- an elected representative, if Kent County Council takes up its invitation to nominate one
- senior people from local institutions and businesses, charities, culture, education, health and transport
- members of the public appointed after an open, advertised call
Panels could have as many as 15 to 20 people, according to one councillor’s comment recorded in the report. The open call was added after the council’s Overview Committee pushed for it. The report says this matters most in Herne Bay, which “lacks anchor institution coverage and business representative groups”. If town councils are created through the community governance review, each will get a seat. The action plan gives April 2027 as the date to have the panels running. The report says the work will be done within existing staff resource.
What it means for you
- If you want a say, the open call for place panel members opened on 15 October and closes on Monday 2 November. How to apply.
- If you run a business in Herne Bay, the empty shops toolkit and market refresh are due first, by November.
- If you use Herne Bay’s banks, the plan’s target for a permanent banking hub is November 2027. The council aims to find a temporary site by December if that looks unlikely.
- Most of this is not new money. The plan sets out what the council will try to do with what it has. Larger schemes depend on owners, partners and funding bids.
The decision follows 311 responses to the council’s 2025 survey, plus drop-in events in all three towns.
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