The boss of the firm that owns the former Buckland Hospital site says it has been regularly struck by vandals.

But, he said, all of its buildings are to be knocked down by December for housing.

Jimmy Digges, director of Yellowstone Homes, spoke to the Mercury after Monday’s suspected arson attack on the site at Coombe Valley Road, Dover.

He said: “It has been regularly targeted. It was completely trashed when we bought it.

“We have caught people stealing scrap metal there and while we have 24-hour security these people come during the day when the buildings are being demolished.”

Yellowstone Homes, whose parent company is Blackstone Estates in Sidcup, London, bought the site at an auction last December for £1.45 million.

It began demolition in the spring and Mr Digges believes that all of the old hospital will be flattened in four to five months.

It plans to replace it with 200 apartments consisting of one, two and three bedrooms.

There will be landscaping, open space and off-street parking.

Yellowstone removed all asbestos from the site before it was auctioned off.

The presence of the material had been highlighted by the Mercury last year.

It will make an application to Dover District Council’s planning department once architects submit their final designs in four to six weeks’ time.

Mr Digges also described the vandals as “mindless” and added: “It might be sad for some to see the old hospital go but the new development will greatly improve the area, providing homes and jobs .

“At the moment all it creates is vermin and anti-social behaviour.”

The fire had struck at about 8.40pm on Monday, ravaging 120 sq m of the first floor and reaching the ground one.

More than 30 firefighters, with seven pumps, were needed to tackle the blaze and crews were there for six hours.

Police said they were treating the incident was suspicious and Kent Fire and Rescue Service said it was sure that this had been deliberate ignition.

Both councillors from the ward the old hospital is on, St Radigund's, say that the area has had a spate of suspected arson attacks on empty buildings in recent months.

Two derelict houses in neighbouring Randolph Road were torched in March and April.

Cllr Sue Jones said a disused factory at Barwick Road had been torched two or three times.

Cllr Kevin Mills told the Mercury “There is an issue of arson in the area.

"Only in May members of the fire brigade came to talk young people at the Triangles community centre (Coombe Valley Road) about the dangers.

“A point made was that while the fire brigade had to put out fires in empty buildings that endangered the lives of people in other callouts really needing help.”

The original Buckland Hospital opened as a workhouse in 1836, providing jobs and homes for the poor, and became a hospital in 1948.

It was replaced by the present £24 million Buckland Hospital, on neighbouring land, on June 15, 2015.

The old site was a first sold by East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust to Kent County Hospital before it was put on auction.