A rugby team has said plans for a new community centre could 'kill the club'.

Weavering Warriors play on Bicknor Road in Park Wood and have a clubhouse near Heather House community centre.

The club has had a lease on the building since the British Legion moved out in 2019.

However, a redevelopment to the Heather House community centre include plans to demolish the pavilion and build 12 houses in its place.

The club has been offered use of the new community centre but at a recent council meeting councillors accused the club of holding them to ransom with requests for a bar and four changing rooms.

This has been heavily disputed by members who say the club have made compromises and the facilities were needed for a growing rugby side.

Club chairman Dan Mason said in an ideal world the club would keep the current pavilion and update it.

He said: “If we were able to take the building on, we’d rip it to pieces but structurally the building is sound. It’s got 50-100 years left.

“One of the comments councillors have made is that it’ll be mostly for sport and it probably is, because they are the main stakeholders who will use the building.

“We’ve already approached the RFU and Sports England and said if we were to keep this building on a full lease would we get funding, and they’ve both said yes.

“We’ve probably got enough that if we needed to buy the building we could raise enough to get a deposit for a commercial mortgage.

“We’d happily buy it from Maidstone council on a long term repairing lease for, for example, 25 years which would safeguard our future.”

Joint captain Shaun Shoebridge said the building and bar had been pivotal to the club’s success: “Before we had this building we had no way of raising revenue.

“Since we’ve had this bar we’ve been able to start the kid’s youth section and pay for better training equipment which has allowed us to go up in the leagues.

“We actually get opposition teams wanting to come here now, whereas before when it was owned by the Legion everything was yellow and horrible.

“If we didn’t have this, we would probably still be struggling to field one team. We certainly wouldn’t have the youth section as I wouldn’t bring my child here before.

“What they were trying to propose would’ve taken away everything that helps us be who we are.

“There was no club space, there were two changing rooms. We are the fastest growing team in the area.

“If the council goes ahead with this plan it’ll kill our club. Who’s going to use that building?

“The ideal scenario would be to stay here, it suits our requirements. What they’re proposing over there, even the compromises we’ve had to make, are still less than we have here.”

One suggestion the club made was having a separate floor for a bar area, but the rugby club claim this wasn’t even considered by the council.

There are currently two pitches on the green, one for football and rugby, with the club hoping to turn both into rugby pitches in the near future.

However with the ability to play four teams on the land, club members admitted they were confused councillors wanted only two changing rooms.

The Warriors currently sit in the Shepherd Neame Kent 2 league but if they were to get promoted the Rugby Football Union (RFU) would set higher standards for the clubhouse and its facilities.

Club member Neil Cole said the club wouldn’t get funding from the RFU without meeting specific criteria: “We have to have a certain amount of showers and size of changing rooms and those plans have taken that into consideration.

“If we move out, we’re not going to be able to have the same facilities (table football and pool), we won’t be able to have shirts on the walls, a TV on the wall etc.

“Last weekend we had no games at home but we had the TVs on, opened the bar and people came into watch the Six Nations together and we took more money which helps the club. If it’s a community hall we can’t do that.”

In response to the allegations Maidstone Borough Council said: “Maidstone Borough Council is committed to providing a modern community centre, built to the latest accessibility and energy efficiency standards, which will contribute towards the regeneration of the area.”