An MP is making a last stand in her battle to keep the High Weald Academy open in Cranbrook.

Helen Grant, who represents Maidstone and the Weald, has taken Kent County Council to task after it emerged 6,600 school places would be needed by 2026.

It came one week after the legal battle to save High Weald Academy (HWA) in Cranbrook 'effectively ended', with solicitors quashing a judicial review bid, saying there was no prospect of success.

It emerged that thousands of extra school places are needed in KCC's ‘Commissioning Plan for Education Provision in Kent 2022-26’.

Mrs Grant said: "The figures published by KCC do seem to fly in the face of previous forecasts, which suggested there was an over-provision of school places in this area."

"It was a fundamental reason why it supported the closure of the academy."

"I will therefore be writing to the KCC Cabinet Member for Education and Skills to ask serious questions over this issue."

"Among other things, the council must explain why it supported the HWA’s closure, and the ensuing mass movement of pupils to Mascalls Academy in Paddock Wood, when that school is in an area they believe will face a significant deficit in the forecast number of places available’.

Leigh Academies Trust which runs the academy put forward the closure of the school saying "very low pupil numbers and the financial pressures that brings have made it challenging to turn the school around".

High Weald Academy has received three requires improvement ratings from Ofsted since 2014, the most recent in 2019.

Before the announcement, only 276 of a possible 1500 pupils were on the roll of the school. Two months later, in November, that number more than halved to 128.

Mrs Grant said: "I have not given up on my firm belief that Cranbrook and the surrounding villages need a non-selective secondary school. I was pleased to convene another meeting with the HWA working group last Thursday to pick this over."

"The feeling was unanimous that we should pursue a new school and not give up, the fight for a good local school continues, for the children and families of Cranbrook and our rural Wealden villages".