A former care home could be home to Surbiton’s new free school after complaints that the current proposed site in central Kingston is “completely inappropriate”.

Newent House, in Brown’s Road, is one of “three or four” options in Surbiton being looked at as a potential school site, according to council leader Kevin Davis.

Surbiton councillor Malcolm Self proposed the building as a potential school site at Kingston Council’s growth committee on Wednesday after officers said the building should be deemed “surplus to requirements” and sold off.

Cllr Davis said: “Discussions have taken place about three or four sites of which [Newent House] is one.

“We are still trying to work out how much it is worth and whether we hand it over for a school for which we get very little money.”

The Education Funding Authority (EFA) has bought Swan House, in High Street, to be Surbiton’s new free school.

But parents, councillors and residents have complained the building has no playing fields or parking, is on a main road and in Kingston town centre and not Surbiton.

Cllr Davis added: “You are not going to get me to say anything nice about the EFA. I think they are the most incompetent agency I have ever worked with. They don’t pay [a lot of money] to buy buildings from other public bodies such as councils.

“South West London and Saint George’s also own part of the site so this would have to be looked into.”

Councillors voted to overrule residents’ concerns about parking in 2014 to bring adult education services to Newent House.

While councillors all agreed that the former care home would be far more suitable than Swan House they also agreed that parking would be a significant issue for residents.

Cllr Self said: “We have a site here that is on the face of it a 100-million-times better than Swan House.

“This surely has to be kept open as a possibility. I know that there will be concerns about parking, like there was over Lime Tree, and those concerns are valid.

“But we need school places and Newent House would be a better site than Swan House.”