A CLUSTER of rusting towers in Britain that were once a key line of defense against Nazi Germany could be about to get an unlikely new lease on life — as a luxury hotel.

    Plans have been drawn up to transform the stark structures seven miles (11.27 km) off the Kent coast, near the fashionable resort of Whitstable, into a luxurious complex resembling the lair of Bond villain Stromberg in “The Spy Who Loved Me.”

    The towers, part of a series of forts built in the Thames Estuary, were designed to shoot down German planes. The Whitstable towers were abandoned in the 1950s and at one stage became the base for a pirate radio station.

    The hotel project is the idea of businessman David Marriot Cooper, who fears the rusting relics from Britain’s wartime past could crumble into the sea unless decisive action is taken to save them.

    He envisages a 40-room hotel — including executive apartments, a spa and leisure centre, sun decks, and a “Control Tower Restaurant” offering fabulous sea views. Each tower would be linked by walkways, with the central tower being extended into a doughnut-like hub.

    A helicopter pad would allow guests to be flown in, while others could be ferried by catamaran to a new jetty at the base of the central tower. Guests could depart from London Docklands, Southend- on-Sea or Whitstable.

    “When you get up close, the forts are spellbinding and awesome. To think that they have been in the sea for 72 years, battered by wind, rain and huge seas... it is inspiring. This is an engineering feat of which we Brits can be truly proud,” Cooper said.

    The fort off Whitstable, called Red Sands, is made up of seven towers and was one of seven so-called Maunsell forts built in and around the Thames Estuary.

    (SD-Agencies)