A social club could close within months if a plan to put homes on its land is rejected, according to its manager.

Andy Frost, 33, manager of BAE Systems Sports And Social Club, in Bells Lane, Hoo, has called for councillors to pass the 97-home application at a meeting on Wednesday.

It has been recommended for refusal by the planning officer.

BAE Systems still owns the 16.5 acres of land on which the club, its football pitch, three bars, swimming pool and bowls

green are based, but stopped funding the club with a £150,000 donation per year about eight years ago.

The plans, which were first submitted to the council about two years ago, could mean the club receiving a welcome £3.4 million windfall – money Mr Frost claims could save it from closure.

Mr Frost said the club, which was built in 1964 by BP who had a refinery on the Isle of Grain, has about 3,000 members.

The club is also used as a base and conference centre for more than 40 different clubs and it was a police base during the Climate Camp last year.

Membership fees range from £75 to £120 per year but Mr Frost said continued problems with the building and car park mean the club could not be sustained for much longer.

He said: “We have struggled to meet the expenditures, it’s been a major struggle keeping the existing building and land.”

The manager, who lives a walk away from the club, has written to all his club members and to councillors, but denied he was using emotional blackmail.

He said: “It is not blackmail, it is more of an understanding of what this club means to people in Hoo and the surrounding areas.

“It’s much bigger than a club or pub, the implications on the community would be drastic.”

The plans would mean moving the football pitch and bowls green to the 10.5 acres on which the main building is based, and building the new homes on the remaining six acres.

Officers recommend that councillors refuse the application as the development would encroach on open space.

In a report they say: “It is considered that given the strength of the objection, the scale of development proposed, and the fact that the justification put forward is lacking in some aspects, the community benefits are insufficient to outweigh the objection.”

The development control committee meeting is at 7pm on Wednesday, meeting room 2, Gun Wharf, Dock Road, Chatham.