Officials at Kent County Council have reinforced their promise that the former Ladesfield care home will only be used to house asylum seekers on a temporary basis.

The site, in Vulcan Close, Whitstable, was earmarked as a temporary reception centre for 40 teenage migrants in July.

But the authority has today announced it is to use facilities at the Swattenden Centre in Cranbrook for up to 40 young refugees, as the migrant crisis takes hold across Europe.

The site, next to Joy Lane Primary School and Whitstable Day Nursery, is due to be occupied soon by 40 teenage boys, aged 16 and 17, once building work is complete.

But it will not be used on a permanent basis as the building is due to be demolished within six months to help with the expansion of the primary school.

Peter Oakford, KCC’s cabinet member for children’s services, said: "I told a meeting of Joy Lane parents that nothing was going to hold up our plans for the school expansion, and that is still our promise.

"We need extra capacity as it is not possible to predict the number of unaccompanied asylum seeking children who will arrive at the border in need of our care.

"Since June this year there has been an unprecedented increase in the number of arrivals. We have accommodated as many as is possible in our existing provision at Ashford, but it reached full capacity several weeks ago.

“We therefore carried out an appraisal of all KCC properties to identify suitable buildings that could be used as a reception centre. Ladesfield was vacant and available, and was the first property to be identified."

The Swattenden Centre was used by KCC to house young asylum seekers until 2012 and up until recently, the council has relied primarily on capacity at the Milbank centre in Ashford.

"We always knew it was a short-term solution, so the search for other properties continued and Appledore was identified..." - Peter Oakford

But the migrant crisis across Europe has seen a surge in arrivals of young asylum seekers and KCC says it needs more capacity.

It comes as figures show the number of migrant children entering Britain has continued to surge. In Kent, 100 youngsters were taken into care in Kent in just one month alone.

Mr Oakford added: “We always knew it was a short-term solution, so the search for other properties continued and Appledore was identified.

"Plans were put in place to make it suitable, and it should be ready in the next two weeks.

“Although the legal responsibility for these children rests with KCC, because Kent is where they first enter the country, we have also succeeded in working in co-operation with other authorities who have agreed to take some of our UASC.

“We are confident that, with the additional capacity at Appledore, the co-operation of other local authorities and support from the government in identifying other options, we will be able to cope with the number of UASC without the continued need for Ladesfield, beyond the original time-scale.”