Plans for two new schools in Maidstone have moved a step closer after the government released extra cash for the project.

Doubts over whether a primary and secondary school on the Kent Medical Campus site could be connected to drainage were threatening to further delay the plans, which were first revealed when chancellor Philip Hammond committed £320 million for 140 new free schools last year.

However, education minister Lord Agnew has now agreed to make the necessary investment in connecting the school to local utilities following lobbying from Faversham and Mid Kent MP Helen Whately.

The next steps are to secure a building contractor and put in a planning application.

Mrs Whately said: “Children in Maidstone desperately need a new primary school and a special needs school to open as soon as possible – or there’s a real risk some could have to travel miles across the county every day.

"There have been so many delays to the plans to get these schools open – problems with the drainage were the final hurdle.

"It was so frustrating that after everything – getting the funding, getting all the organisations involved to work together, getting over worries about the location – something as simple as connecting the schools to the drains threatened to derail things.

"I pushed the government hard to think about the needs of children in Maidstone and Bearsted, and I am so glad Lord Agnew agreed to make the extra money available.

"I’ll be working hard to get these schools through the planning process as smoothly as possible and get them open.”