Plans to reintroduce white-tailed sea eagles to west Norfolk for the first time in 200 years have been "reluctantly" put on hold by estate managers.

The project at Wild Ken Hill, near Snettisham, was given the go-ahead by Natural England in May.

That gave conservationists a long-awaited chance to establish a local breeding population of the eagles, which were persecuted to extinction in England by the early 19th century.

But an apologetic statement on the estate's website says it has now "reluctantly decided that we will not reintroduce white-tailed eagles at Wild Ken Hill in 2022 as planned".

Instead, it says the estate is focusing on its other rewilding and nature projects, and that all crowdfunding contributors will be offered a full refund.

"We continue to believe that the restoration of white-tailed eagles to eastern England is an important and inevitable conservation goal," it says.

"We have, however, taken the difficult decision to focus on other aspects of our nationally-significant nature and regenerative farming project."

The statement offers apologies to project partners the Roy Dennis Wildlife Foundation and supporters: "Particularly the 91pc of the general public that offered their support and the many land managers and conservation organisations that did the same."

Despite speculation among conservationists on the reasons for the decision, the estate said it had "nothing to add" to its statement.

During the consultation period, some farmers aired concerns over the impact of large aerial predators on free-range lambs and poultry, as well as other protected wildlife and game birds - although the project team said there had been no predation of livestock in similar reintroductions on the Isle of Wight and in the Netherlands.

One of the nature organisations which supported the reintroduction bid was WildEast, whose founding trustee Hugh Somerleyton, of the Somerleyton estate near Lowestoft, said: "While we are sad to read this statement, we recognise there are a lot of different views out there.

"It clearly has been divisive in that part of Norfolk, and I understand that some people see it is a danger to their economic reality, whether that is farming or tourism - but it seems sad that something so iconic for our region has hit the buffers for the moment."

Wild Ken Hill hosted the Springwatch nature show this year, and the BBC will return there for its Autumnwatch programme later this month.