FRESH question marks have been raised over the fate of plans for Ashford’s multi-million pound Discovery Centre amid signs it will be scrapped altogether.

The project has already suffered from a string of delays and funding setbacks and it has emerged that both Kent County Council and Ashford Council are resigned to tearing up the original plans for what was hailed as a key landmark project for the town.

Council chiefs had anticipated that work on designing the centre, providing a state-of-the-art library and other community services, would resume "in the first half of the year".

But now the county councillor overseeing the project admitted it was in limbo and no designs had been drawn up because Ashford council was still negotiating with developers about incorporating the centre in the Elwick Road shopping development.

Cllr Mike Hill (Con), KCC cabinet member for community services, said: "We have not done any further work. We are still in discussions with Ashford council and it is actively pursuing the commercial possibilities on Elwick Road and until that has been resolved, we are keeping our options open. If it does not come to fruition, we retain the option of re-building the library on the existing site."

He accepted a decision was needed soon. "We are going to re-build the library in Ashford...quite what we are going to build is uncertain. I hope this will be resolved fairly soon. I do know that Ashford council has held discussions recently and that is encouraging."

Ashford council, meanwhile, offered confirmation that the original plans were now unlikely to go ahead.

In a statement, it said: "We share KCC’s view that the cost of delivery of such a project as a ‘standalone’ building, as originally conceived, is likely to prove prohibitive."

The Discovery Centre, which was initially estimated to cost around £13million, has been dogged by financial problems.

The government announced last year that it was not earmarking any grant money for the project but had placed it at the top of a list of "reserve" schemes that could qualify for cash.