Thanet council has rejected plans for it to buy Manston airport, breaking a key election pledge from its ruling Ukip party.

The council's cabinet accepted a report from officers that recommended it pull the plug on proposals to use a compulsory purchase order (CPO) to take control of the site.

It said there was too much uncertainty over the finances of the US-based investment company RiverOak, which said it would underwrite the costs of the council buying the site.

The meeting, which ended at 9.10pm, saw council leader Chris Wells come under fire from several opposition councillors and the debate has been interrupted by jeers and heckling from protestors in the public gallery.

But Ukip leader Cllr Chris Wells said the council remained unconvinced that it had the necessary assurances from its potential partner RiverOak.

He said that the council remained committed to re-opening Manston airport but the proposed deal with RiverOak fell short of what was needed.

He opened the meeting by saying:"This is an uncomfortable decision but we have to find a way to move forward."

He said a key stumbling block had been the failure of its proposed indemnity partner RiverOak to provide a letter of credit having promised one.

He also revealed that four other companies had approached the council interested in the airport but would not name them until negotiations with RiverOak had been completed.

The decision could trigger more splits within the ruling Ukip group, which has already lost five of its members through defections and the likely loss of two more.

The meeting proved stormy and campaigners for Manston staged a protest outside the council's headquarters in Margate.

According to a report by council officers to tonight's extraordinary cabinet meeting, the authority says it remains concerned over RiverOak's finances.

It states that: "There is insufficient evidence available to the cabinet to be satisfied that a proposed CPO is likely to be successful which would justify its entering into an indemnity agreement."

"There is insufficient evidence available to the cabinet to be satisfied that a proposed CPO is likely to be successful..." - cabinet report on Manston

It adds: "Given the above... legal advisers and officers are not satisfied at this moment in time that the information or assurances provided to date by RiverOak justify the council deciding to make a CPO or as part of that process to support the appointment of RiverOak as the council's indemnity partner in advance of deciding whether to make a CPO."

But in a sign of RiverOak's determination to persuade councillors not to abandon the CPO, the firm took the unusual step of releasing a paper written by its own lawyers that challenges some of the council's assertions.

The five-page report says the cabinet paper is factually incorrect. It challenges the council's claim that it would require a bond to be put in place to cover the costs of buying the site from current owners Chris Musgrave and Trevor Cartner at the same time as a CPO.

"There is no justification for a bond to be provided now. Until the CPO is confirmed, there is no way in which the council could be required to acquire the site in circumstances where the funds were not there for it to do so."

The meeting is unlikely to be the end of the long-running saga.

RiverOak has already indicated that it could mount its own legal challenge if it believes councillors have been misdirected.

The owners of the 800-acre site have welcomed the report.

Spokesman for Stone Hill Park Ray Mallon said: "The proposal of a CPO has created great uncertainty over the site and this has had a detrimental effect upon the economy and social fabric of Thanet as a whole."