Villagers have been left dismayed by a prestigious private school’s decision to u-turn on plans to restore a historic pub to its former glory.

The Swan Inn in Sturry High Street, near Canterbury, called last orders for the final time in 2011 and has been empty ever since.

It had been hoped the site would once again host a traditional boozer after new owner Junior King’s unveiled plans to restore the inn as a pub with bed and breakfast.

But fresh proposals from the £14,000-a-term school – which is based about 200 yards away in Milner Court – reveal the project has now been dropped.

Documents show the private co-ed instead wants to provide a 61-place newly built nursery, an after-school club, new staff accommodation and a private hire community space where alcohol will be prohibited.

It means Sturry will continue to remain without a single pub, with the last of the village’s six taverns – the Middle of the Road – shutting in 2021.

Peta Boucher, chair of the Sturry and Broad Oak Residents' Association, says the decision is a “shame” and a “huge missed opportunity”.

“It is very disingenuous. Although some residents believed the pub would reopen as a pub, I never thought they would go through with it as they kept putting it off,” she said.

“The King’s School has never been part of the community here, and they want to use their land for the benefit of King’s School. The community never come into it at all.

“I think they should just admit that it's not going to be used by the community. They say they have a commitment to supporting young people in our community, but how are they going to do that?

“It’s not going to be something that many local parents will be able to afford anyway. If they were to say they would offer some free places to locals then that would be a community asset, but not as it stands.

“We don’t have a single pub in Sturry. The Swan, because it's such a large central space, would serve the community much better than serving just the school.

“There is no pretence that this is about the community, this is all about what benefits them.

“It’s a huge missed opportunity at a time when most of us are finding things really difficult in these challenging financial times and it would be wonderful to have something that lifts and supports the community rather than just for the elite that use the school. It’s a shame.”

The boarded-up tavern had deteriorated over the years and been targeted by vandals before undergoing considerable renovations in 2021.

The same year, Junior King's applied for permission to reopen the Swan Inn's ground floor into a pub, with rooms to rent upstairs.

But new documents show the plans have been ditched, with the focus now largely on expanding the provision of its nursery, which currently costs parents £4,300 a term.

The papers also reveal the proposal is merely phase one of a “masterplan” that would eventually see the Junior King’s School double in size.

But despite the school saying its “intent is to retain and celebrate the building’s significance in the locality and the opportunity for community access”, residents feel the proposals will fail to serve the village’s needs.

Hiring the communal space will be restricted to school hours during term time, will not accept bookings for adult parties, music volume will be limited, and alcohol will not be permitted on site.

Neighbours fear an increased capacity will worsen the “horrendous” traffic that snarls up the village during pick-up and drop-off.

They are concerned that a lack of parking to the rear of the former pub will encourage parents to stop dangerously in the area to collect their children.

Louise Harvey-Quirke, a former Sturry councillor and now Conservative parliamentary candidate for Canterbury, said: “As a local person, who worked and socialised in the Swan in my youth, it would have been a huge asset to the community to have the pub reopened.

“However, I am aware there were concerns about parking and late-night use and the impact on residents.

“I'll be watching with interest to see how the plans develop going forward.”

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A spokesperson for Junior King’s said: “The building has not operated as a pub for many years and we are keen to bring it back into use for the community.

“We have therefore applied for planning consent for the building to become a year-round nursery, open to all children in the area.”