Parents have expressed their frustration that their children have not been allowed on their school’s playing field four years after it was laid.

Pupils at Eastchurch Primary, St Clement’s site, are prevented from playing on the grass area due to holes and undulations making it unsafe, restricting them to the hard play area at break and lunch times.

The £4.3m building in Leysdown Road, Leysdown, opened in November 2011.

It is understood the delay stem from a dispute between Kent County Council (KCC) and the contractors over which is responsible for paying to put it right and the two parties have been in negotiations since the problems were discovered.

The local authority says it now intends to fund the repairs but there are fears over how long the work will take.

Rita Simpson, of Cliff Drive, Warden Bay, has two children who go to the site – Amelia, eight, and Belle, six, – and says she does not want them to go through primary school without having ever experienced playing on the field.

But she is beginning to accept this may be the case.

She added her two-year-old daughter Jemima is also likely to go to the school.

The 33-year-old, who has been pursuing the issue for the last couple of years, said: “It’s really disappointing the council have taken almost four years now to make a decision.

“They agreed to pay, which is fantastic, really pleased with that, but we may have to wait until April 2016, another year, before it actually gets fixed. I have a feeling that the school they’re building at Thistle Hill will be up and running with a field before we get ours because the council have been dragging their heels.”

She said sports days at the St Clement’s site have been on the playground or, as planned this year, at Warden Bay village hall.

The mother-of-three is now calling on KCC and the school to provide parents with a timeline of when the relaying will be carried out.

A KCC spokesman said: “We understand how difficult it has been for the school, pupils and parents to have not been able to use their school field for so long and really do sympathise with them. We are exploring various options with the school to bring the playing field back into use as soon as possible.”

The local authority was unable to provide a figure for how much the work will cost.