A £5 million development programme has been unveiled for Margate Football Club. It envisages a 6,000 seater stadium to meet the new Football League criteria which is required by season 2003-2004, new terraced and seated stands with banqueting and conference facilities, and a rebuild of the existing main stand.

In addition, two new full sized pitches would be built on part of the golf course that adjoins the stadium. One would be grass and the other an all-weather surface. The latter would be available for community use for all types of sports including soccer, rugby and American football.

Up to 400 seats would be built onto the rear of the new Tivoli Road stand so that they could look out over the two new pitches. The club also wants to build a 60-bedroom hotel, a new themed pub and restaurant, a bingo hall and car parking for 250 vehicles as part of its redevelopment, with these providing an income stream.

This would be on the council-owned nursery site at the rear of the club. Access would be onto Hartsdown Road. Discussions with leisure operators are underway and a high level of interest has been expressed, said club chairman Keith Piper.

Thanet council policy committee has ratified a decision made at its cabinet to grant Margate FC a new 125-year lease at Hartsdown Park. It means that, if planning approval is given and a viable business plan is provided and accepted, work could begin in May 2002 on a one-year building scheme.

The club would ground share during the building work and negotiations with suitable clubs are under way. Mr Piper said provisional meetings with both the Football Stadia and the Football Foundation have already taken place and formal applications for grant aid will follow.

He said club directors have worked closely with councillors and council officers to find a solution that will let Margate FC achieve its ambition of membership to the Football league. He said the council has been “fundamental in providing this opportunity and the club is indebted to the council for its support".

The close working relationship that now appears to be driving the project forward is a far cry from the fiasco last year when the long awaited Thanet Stadium plan for a new complex at Haine near Ramsgate was scrapped after the council withdrew its support.

Mr Piper stressed: "When that scheme was first put forward, we would have actually preferred to have developed Hartsdown Park but that was not viable at that time. Although that scheme fell through because the council withdrew its support, I am glad to say we are now working together towards making Hartsdown a stadium of which we can all be proud."