A former care home will house unaccompanied asylum-seeking (UAS) children after plans fell through elsewhere in the county, it has been revealed.

Kent County Council (KCC) has written to residents in the area to inform them of its proposals for Edward Moore House, in Gravesend.

The letter, dated April 5, stated that in July the High Court ruled the authority needed to take “every possible step” to increase its capacity to be able to house and look after UAS children.

It added: “KCC must comply with the court ruling. As a result, KCC is required to identify accommodation which can be utilised to support UAS children at pace.

“KCC used the central government funding, agreed specifically for the acquisition of property to accommodate UAS children, to acquire Edward Moore.”

It has done so as the space is already laid out to provide “homely and appropriate” housing for children and is similar to the existing reception centres already being used as temporary accommodation.

It said it is also in an area where the youngsters will be able to “develop early skills in acclimatising to their local community and socialising”.

The letter, from the UASC reception centre inquiries team, said the site, in Trinity Road, will only be used for children under the age of 16 until they can move to a permanent home elsewhere.

The former care home, which closed down in 2022, will provide up to 36 places for UAS children.

Work is expected to start on the site soon and expected to last until September when the facility will be open.

In a statement, the leader of KCC, Cllr Roger Gough, said: “The number of UAS children coming into the limited capacity of KCC significantly increased immediately and will continue to do so now the warmer weather has begun and crossings escalate.

“New suitable accommodations are needed at speed to meet the needs of predicted new arrivals.

“The council must demonstrate to the High Court it is doing everything it can to meet the requirement.

“We identified seven suitable buildings across the county, with internal spaces configured to meet Ofsted requirements, to become new reception centres set up and managed in the same way as our two existing, well-established and successful sites.

“I can reassure residents all KCC UAS Children Reception Centres in the county are wholly funded by the government and do not represent any financial burden on Kent taxpayers.

“During this time, we are continuing to challenge the government through our own legal proceedings to get the National Transfer Scheme working appropriately to ensure all local authorities in the UK take on their responsibility for the care of UAS children now.

“The court made clear the Home Office must quickly implement an effective and successfully managed NTS.

“This will ensure Kent’s Children’s Services will never again have to announce the position of being so overwhelmed it can no longer take any new referrals of children into its care, and Kent’s services unfairly burdened simply because of our geography in relation to the shortest crossing route.”

However, the leader of Gravesham council, Cllr John Burden, has criticised the proposals stating Edward Moore House is “the wrong choice and in the wrong place”.

He said: “As a council, we have every sympathy for those fleeing war and persecution, particularly young, vulnerable people separated from their wider families and travelling alone, in challenging circumstances, to foreign countries in search of a safer life.

“Indeed, as a council and a community, Gravesham has welcomed Ukrainians, Afghans and Syrians fleeing conflict zones.

“We have done so willingly and enthusiastically and in a spirit of cooperation with the relevant authorities.

“We also recognise the challenges faced by KCC in complying with last year’s High Court ruling.

“But we are firmly of the opinion that the use of Edward Moore House to accommodate UAS children is the wrong choice, in the wrong place, and we have expressed this view to KCC in the strongest possible terms.

“The pressure on our local services is already intense.

“We continue to have historically high numbers of Gravesham families in temporary accommodation and almost 1,000 households on our housing register who have an identified need for homes.

“Local GP and healthcare services remain extremely stretched and these additional potential patients will only add to those particular pressures, to the disadvantage of the existing community and the new arrivals alike.

“We remain a priority one area for government levelling-up support based on data which shows Gravesham as having some of the most deprived wards and widest health inequalities in the entire country.

“Should KCC go ahead with these plans, we will of course work with them to support these vulnerable young people.

“But let them be in no doubt of the considerable additional pressures this will place on our over-stretched services, and the impact it will have on our local community.”

It comes after the owners of Ocean Heights Residential Home, in Minster, pulled out of a deal to sell it to KCC to house UAS children.

A protest also took place with around 80 people campaigning against the controversial plans to temporarily house 50 people aged 16 and 17 in the care home.