Official plans have been submitted to build a 300-home estate and a secondary school on farmland.

Parker Strategic Land is hoping to develop Bodkin Farm in Chestfield, near Whitstable, and has now lodged a planning application with Canterbury City Council.

Ambitions for the site were first unveiled almost a decade ago by Eton College, but they were dashed by the district authority, with Parker Strategic taking the 59-acre site on three years later.

Currently, the plot, just off the Old Thanet Way, is comprised of farmland, with an abandoned house and outbuildings.

It is envisaged a secondary school will take up a sizeable chunk of the east of the site – almost 20 acres – and will have indoor and outdoor sports facilities.

If approved by CCC, it will be eight-form entry and have a sixth form.

Planning documents say the school will offer more choices away from Canterbury.

The papers read: “The delivery of a new secondary school therefore not only provides for parental choice and much-needed capacity in the vicinity, but also sustainability benefits by avoiding the need for additional journeys to Canterbury.”

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The 300 homes will be to the west of the site, while there will also be a retail centre and an 80-bed care home to the north.

Two new access points will be created, both of which will serve the Old Thanet Way, and a cycle and walkway will allow access to the nearby railway station.

The developer says: “This proposal will deliver up to 300 dwellings of varying types and sizes, including (with the final quantum subject to viability) affordable housing.

“It is well established that there is a national housing shortage, with the government committed to significantly boosting the supply of housing.

“The council itself has identified - through the emerging Local Plan - a need for additional housing delivery in the area and proposed to allocate sites to meet that need.

“The delivery of housing as part of this scheme should be afforded substantial weight.

The documents add: “In the applicant’s view, the proposed development provides a clear opportunity to address the current state of this part of the site, which is frequently subject to occurrences of antisocial behaviour.”

Eton College had previously been the driving force behind developing the land, but both the council and national government shut down the proposals.

First announcing the ambitious scheme in May 2014, the prestigious private school had hoped to erect 300 homes alongside a care home, primary school, hotel, restaurant, health centre and gym.

The city council went on to reject the proposals later that year, with the government’s planning inspectorate killing the project completely following an appeal in 2015.

Parker Strategic Land took over the site from the college in June 2017 and has been in talks with both the city council and KCC about the scheme.

The area was included in the district’s draft Local Plan in October 2022 but only for 250 homes. It was earmarked to host the first of two new coastal secondary schools.

Of the draft plan - a blueprint for building in the Canterbury district – the authority said: "There is currently an imbalance in the location of secondary school provision across the district, with many pupils from the coastal area travelling to schools in Canterbury."

Since the collapse of the previous scheme, buildings on the site have been left to rack and ruin, with the government taking the unusual step of removing the farmhouse’s Grade II-listed status in 2018.