Plans to build a new 900-pupil school in Thanet have been scrapped for a second time.

Less than four months ago, permission was granted to demolish the Royal School for Deaf Children in Victoria Road, Margate, where the Park Crescent Academy was set to be built.

But Kent County Council has today confirmed the scheme has been dropped, following discussions between the authority and the Department for Education over the forecast number of secondary pupils in the district in 2023.

KCC says this follows a "change in the demographics" which has resulted in "for the first time in many years more children leaving the area than coming in to it".

The number of Year 7 pupils in the current academic year 2021/2022 is at least 200 lower than the predictions when the competition to identify an academy trust for the school was first run in 2015.

A KCC spokesman said: “Kent County Council has a duty to ensure high quality education provision is available for every child and young person in Kent.

“We believed that the Park Crescent Academy would have given families in Thanet more choice and a further opportunity to attend a school provided by an academy trust with an excellent reputation.

“It is our duty to anticipate future demand for places and the new academy was intended to address that demand for secondary school places in the area, which was expected to come about as a result of additional housing.

“However, that has not materialised so a new school is no longer required.

“KCC will continue to work in close alliance with schools and academy trusts to ensure parents and children have a choice of good secondary educational provision in Thanet.”

It is the second time plans for the school have been scrapped - with KCC first dropping the scheme in October 2019.

But in August this year it was revealed that the proposals had been revived.

The Howard Academy Trust, which is already responsible for six academies, had been identified to run Park Crescent Academy.

It was set to cater for 900 pupils and open in September 2023.

But again the plans have been axed, with the latest decision agreed by KCC and Baroness Barran, the Minister for the School System.

Goody Demolition's application to knock down the 223-year-old former Royal School for Deaf Children was granted in August.

Site clearance had already started, with demolition set to be complete in February.

The old school was founded in 1792 as the first public institution to provide a free education for the hearing-impaired.

It opened a branch in Margate in 1876 and moved entirely from London to the Kent coast in 1905, so pupils could benefit from the sea air.

The existing campus replaced a former large Victorian building which had a prominent tower, with the majority of the current buildings constructed in the 1960s and 1970s.

Willmott Dixon had been awarded the contract to build the new school, comprising a three-storey teaching block and a sports hall on the upper plateau of the land.

There were also plans for hard play areas, sports pitches and a multi-use games area on the lower level of the site, which would have been open for community use outside of school hours.