CONTROVERSIAL plans for a £120m town centre transformation will be decided on at a special council meeting - but the final judgment could be out of the council’s hands.

Gravesham Council’s regulatory board will decide on developer Edinburgh House’s application for Gravesend’s Heritage Quarter at a public meeting at Woodville Halls on September 20.

However, if the board approves the plans, Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Eric Pickles could call in the application to decide on it himself.

This is because protest group Urban Gravesham, which was set up to fight the plans, has written to him to suggest the application contradicts government development guidelines for the area.

If the board rejects the application, Edinburgh House is expected to appeal to the Secretary of State, and one of his inspectors would then decide on the plans.

An Urban Gravesham spokesman said: “We hope this whole episode ends with a rejection of the scheme by the board. We have, however, taken the precaution of writing to the Secretary of State.

“It may well be that he will wish to make a decision on the scheme himself. If so, Urban Gravesham is ready to put its case forward.”

Edinburgh House and the council are tied into developing the Heritage Quarter by an agreement signed by the previous administration four years ago.

The developer’s first application for the site, which is divided into a western and eastern quarter, included a 33-storey tower which was removed from the plans after a public outcry.

Edinburgh House then submitted revised plans, but at a meeting attended by more than 300 people in April, the regulatory board deferred a decision and asked the developer to amend the scheme.

This followed criticism of proposed structures which would dwarf historic existing buildings, such as St George’s Church, and the number of studio and one-bedroom flats.

Edinburgh House submitted a revised application last month, with the buildings no longer higher than the church’s roof, and all studio flats removed from the scheme.

Managing director Tony Quayle said: “We have listened to the members’ concerns and taken steps to address all of the key issues head-on.

“Having already made significant reductions to the height and massing of the scheme, we have again dropped down a scale, thus preserving the town’s key sightlines.”

He added: “This latest round of amendments demonstrates we have been willing to listen to concerns and are committed to working with the local community to deliver a scheme that is viable on every level. ”

But an Urban Gravesham spokesman said the plans are still “massively overscaled and will be utterly destructive of the historic character of the town”.

He added: “We note that the proposals for the western quarter are in outline only. It’s huge, but no details are provided.

“There is no commitment by the developer to reducing it in scale, only a vague commitment to 'sorting it out later'. Urban Gravesham does not trust this process.

“We see no reason why Edinburgh House cannot come forward with a fully detailed scheme now, so we all know what we are talking about.”