Folkestone & Hythe District Council (FHDC) has called time on plans to develop a 77-home site.

The authority has sold 10 acres of derelict land behind Biggins Wood Road to a private developer, after buying it for £1.5m in 2016.

The Folkestone land, which once housed a brickworks site, has been earmarked for 77 homes since 2014, when outline planning permission was given.

The council agreed two years later that 23 homes would be affordable, and 5,600sq m used for commercial space.

In January this year, the project seemed to be progressing, as work began on a new access road, with fly-tipped rubbish and overgrown foliage removed beforehand.

However, at a cabinet meeting last week, councillors voted unanimously to sell the site to an unknown commercial developer. The amount was not disclosed due to commercial sensitivity.

It’s understood the decision was made as the scheme was no longer affordable for the council to develop the site.

During a brief 15 minute meeting on Thursday, July 27, in which the sale was nodded through, Cllr Tom Prater said the move “seems like the logical approach at this stage.”

He went on: “It's an entire cash up front sale effectively so it would be done in one go and it would mean that there would be a capital receipt to the council, and we can get on and go and do other things and try to get more affordable rent and council house units out of other places.”

One offer was made to the council, with 100% affordable homes, but this was refused.

Cllr Prater said that in reality the offer equated to 20 units of affordable rent and 57 of shared ownership.

He argued that while that’s deemed affordable in government terms, “it’s not necessarily actually affordable to people.”

In 2019 FHDC received a £1.15m government grant to help with the construction of the development.

However, the council never drew on the money as it was unable to fulfil the conditions of the grant.