A PLANNING application for a new town centre ground for Maidstone United should be before the borough bouncil by the end of November.

Club chairman Paul Bowden-Brown is still confident the club will be playing at a new home at James Whatman Way during next season and plans have been drawn up.

The club were due to have submitted the plans to the council during the summer but there has been a delay in agreeing a purchase price for land on the side of the site which will be leased to the club by the Ministry of Defence.

Bowden-Brown was initially quoted a fee of £10,000 which he rejected. The chairman is also waiting for final drawings from floodlight contractors and for portable buildings which will be installed to enable the club to return from exile in Sittingbourne.

“Once everything is settled we will meet the MoD to get their approval and then with the council’s planning department to get their guidance before making a formal application,” he said. “I still hope to be playing in Maidstone next season, hopefully in the Dr Martens League.”