KENT County Cricket Club have unveiled their 10-year vision for the development of their St Lawrence ground headquarters.

The scheme involves plans for a hotel and conference centre on the Old Dover Road side of the ground and a new access drive circling the entire 13-acre site.

The blueprint also includes a hospitality and media centre near the Nackington Road to replace the existing Leslie Ames stand and a redevelopment of the Ames Levett Sports Centre to fall in line with ECB Academy status.

The club have made the first move towards redevelopment by advertising in trade magazines for offers on a long-term leasehold and tenders to build a three to four star 90-bedroom hotel, the proceeds from which will help finance other schemes at the 155-year-old cricket ground.

Announcing the plan, Kent's chief executive Paul Millman said: "The three major projects are at an exploratory stage but detailed research has taken place. There is limited hotel capacity in the area and a dearth of sizeable conference facilities and a number of local businesses have expressed an interest in locating training programmes closer to home."

The third stage of the scheme, which may yet be the first to come to fruition, is a link with a leisure operator for a major overhaul of the Ames Levett Centre.

If the proposal gets the go ahead from members and planners, the existing building will be gutted and extended to include a new members' leisure club. The ground floor will include pool, spa and gym, while a new cricket school, with study rooms, physiotherapy centre and nets will be built on a mezzanine first floor.

To complete the plan, Kent intend to construct new style two-sided nets near the Old Dover Road turnstiles and an artificial soccer and hockey pitch with low-level floodlighting at the rear of the Ames Levett Centre.