Plans to expand the Joy Lane Primary School and demolish Whitstable’s asylum-seeker centre in the process have been revealed.

School leaders have submitted the plans to Kent County Council which, if approved, would see the Ladesfield centre knocked down.

The former care home, in Vulcan Close, opened in the summer as a temporary reception centre for refugees but would have to be demolished for the school to develop.

Adam Roake, who lives in Joy Lane, said: “This is a great opportunity to simultaneously solve a real irritant for local residents and provide for an enlarged school to accommodate the growing number of children in our community.

“Kent County Council has been reasonably good at consulting local residents and they have had a number of meetings that I have been to.

“Basically I think it’s fair to say that most of the local residents are happy for the school to expand. Children have all got to be educated somewhere and Joy Lane is a good school.”

If approved, the plans would add a two-storey extension, a temporary classroom and new access road at the primary school.

The car park would be re-configured to ease congestion and vehicles could access the school through the Ladesfield site.

Mr Roake, who works in development, added: “I think broadly that everybody is in favour of the school growing.

“But we would like the county to sort out the atrocious parking that occurs in Joy Lane.

“There’s a real opportunity for Kent to enlarge the school and solve the traffic problem.”

When KCC’s plans to open the refugee centre were revealed earlier this year, the move sparked anger among some parents and protesters, who argued the placement of the site could leave their children at risk.

It also caused concern that the Joy Lane Primary School would be unable to expand, but KCC officials promised parents the Ladesfield centre was only temporary.