by Trevor Sturgess

tsturgess@thekmgroup.co.uk

A £7 million revamp of the Kent Showground is to press ahead after plans for a £27 million Olympic equine centre were scaled down.
Kent County Agricultural Society, organiser of this week’s Kent County Show, had hoped to attract showjumping teams in 2012.
However, the plan was fiercely opposed by members who thought it too ambitious and financially risky. There were also planning concerns over a major project in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Economic reality has also forced the society to re-think its strategy and adopt a more modest proposal to refurbish the Kent Pavilion.
But it will still create one of the largest exhibition spaces in the county. Hadlow College has teamed up with the society to add a Centre of Rural Excellence to the pavilion.
KCAS chairman George Jessel, picture right, said: “In 2009 I can’t quite pull off a big multi-million pound scheme but what I can pull off is a scaled-down version that gives us a jump-off to build something bigger in the future. This is the first phase of a possibly grander project.”
He added that the showground buildings were “creaking” and had to be upgraded if the showground was not to fall behind competitors.
KCAS hopes to raise £1m from members towards the project that could begin work after next year’s Kent Show, with the enlarged Pavilion opened shortly after the 2011 show.
Kent Showground could still play a part in the Olympic Games, though, as a quarantine area for horses.
Mr said: “I still feel the society can play a part in the equine side of the Olympics as a quarantine area for overseas horses.”
Scores of horses are likely to be flown into Kent International Airport at Manston or come across the Channel by ferry or through the tunnel.
They will need a holding area where they can recuperate from the journey and be checked over by vets.
Eurotunnel is close to securing official approval to bring horses through the Channel Tunnel. They would be transported in special wagons on the operator’s passenger shuttles.