Kent County Council is remaining tight-lipped on what it will do with land it is buying at the Royal Victoria Hospital in Folkestone.

The hospital’s future remains up in the air as the council continues to negotiate a deal with the East Kent Hospitals University NHS Foundation Trust (EKHUFT) to buy the disused part of the hospital site in Radnor Park Avenue.

The sale to KCC was due to be completed in March but is not yet completed.

The Express has contacted the council several times since early March requesting an interview to ask about its intentions and plans for the site.

But KCC spokesman Murray Evans said: “We are still looking at various options.”

The county council has not explained the reasons for the delay and had not replied to a request for an update on the discussions as the Express went to press.

The NHS in east Kent has already published plans to integrate more health services with adult social care services, run by KCC.

KCC was awarded £26 million for social care services in the county. It expects to receive around £50 million in total from the government’s £2 billion injection during a three-year period.

The government announced the injection for authorities to cope with a growing ageing population and social demographic pressures.

But KCC outlined savings of around £13 million from the social care services budget when its spending plans were passed in February.

The council also introduced a special 2% council tax charge this year to raise an estimated extra £10 million.

EKHUFT has confirmed talks for the council to buy the land from the NHS started in April 2016 and have been ongoing throughout that period.

The trust said the former hospital, which has been derelict for several years, has been “declared surplus” by EKHUFT because it has been “redundant for more than five years”.

It has also said it is required by the government to “ensure assets are sold to release capital for health service investment”.

The Express submitted a Freedom of Information request to EKHUFT, asking it to release documents relating to decisions and reviews about the use of the site.

But the trust’s response said “no review into the best use of the RVH” had been carried out, and that no “health use review been undertaken as part of the process” in deciding to sell off the land.