ENDING plans for a controversial £120m town centre transformation could bankrupt a council, its leader has warned.

Gravesham Council is being urged to walk away from its agreement with developer Edinburgh House for the regeneration of the Heritage Quarter in Gravesend.

Protest group Urban Gravesham wants the council to turn its back on the developer’s scheme, which it says is “massively overscaled and will be utterly destructive of the historic character of the town”.

But council leader Councillor Mike Snelling says the financial penalties for terminating the agreement, which the previous administration signed in 2007, could bankrupt the council.

He said: “If the council were to renege on (the agreement) now it would be open to a legal action to recover damages and costs which, I have said, could potentially bankrupt the authority.

“To put this in perspective, I understand that Edinburgh House has already incurred costs of around £4m - more than the council’s reserves, which continue to be rebuilt.”

However, Cllr Snelling says there is no pressure on the council’s regulatory board to approve Edinburgh House’s plans when it makes its decision at a public meeting on September 20.

He said: “The council’s regulatory board is totally independent and will determine the Heritage Quarter planning application on purely planning grounds.

“There is no political, financial or any other pressure on members of that board to make any particular decision.”

He added: “If members next month were to refuse the application, the developer has the right to appeal that decision.”