By Kevin Redsull

Deal manager Derek Hares has broadly welcomed a proposal by the Bulmers Cider Kent League to introduce promotion and relegation from a new county ‘feeder’ league for the 2010-11 season.

At the moment, the club who finish bottom of the Kent League – which is at Step 5 in the non-league pyramid – do not get relegated. This season it was Sporting Bengal, who did not win a single point.

However, the Kent League will lose another team next season, with champions VCD probably joining the Ryman League, and Hares, pictured above, said: "We must find more teams for the league because you need more home games in revenue terms and also having no relegation means that the season can be ‘dead’ in the last few months for everyone apart from the top four or five.

"However, letting in clubs who haven’t got floodlights can cause problems because it means lunchtime kick-offs and no midweek games and so they have got to look carefully at that side of it. But there’s no doubt the Kent League has got to change or else it will die."

The Kent County FA, in partnership with the Kent League, have been working toward forming a new Step 6 league which would provide a link between Saturday leagues in Kent such as the Vandanel Kent County League and the Kent League.

The idea to introduce a Step 6 league was approved by a meeting of clubs at Lordswood FC on Wednesday.