Construction has started on a long-awaited £2.5 million new home for a town’s rugby club.

Sittingbourne RUFC aim to move to the state-of-the-art facilities off Wises Lane, Borden, next year.

The club, which turns 50 in 2026, currently plays its home matches at The Grove, off Key Street, and shares a clubhouse with cricketers from Gore Court CC.

But by next autumn the rugby players will have their own two-storey clubhouse overlooking two pitches.

They have been leased to the club, which has 350 members aged from five upwards, for 125 years. It comes after a deal was struck with developer Quinn Estates which, along with the rugby facilities, also secured planning permission for up to 595 homes, a primary school and retail space off Wises Lane, despite fierce opposition.

Club president Roger Down said: “It has been eight-and-a-half years in the making so it’s a truly defining moment for the club and for the local community.

“It’s been a long wait to get to this point and we’re grateful to Quinn Estates for the support it has shown in supporting our dream of securing a new permanent home.

“The lease provides us with long-term security and the new facilities will be excellent for all our teams.

“In 2026 we will be celebrating our 50th anniversary so it will be amazing if the facilities opening coincide with that.

“This is the start of an exciting new chapter for us and for the local community too. They will have the use of both clubhouse and pitches, including being able to come and support our home games.

“We can’t wait to welcome them along.”

MP for Sittingbourne and Sheppey Kevin McKenna also visited the groundbreaking event on Friday, October 11.

He said: “It was great to meet with the club at Sittingbourne RUFC last Friday. Their excitement was contagious, and I felt their eagerness to start delivering rugby training and matches for people across Sittingbourne and Sheppey.

“This project clearly demonstrates that when local groups work closely with developers, like Quinn Builders, assets of real community value can be achieved. It will improve our local community’s health and cohesion.

“I want to wish the team the best of luck, both during the build, and once the club opens. And I really look forward to watching a match at Sittingbourne RUFU as soon as their first season starts”.

The new clubhouse will feature six changing rooms and a physiotherapy area.

There will also be a kitchen and bar that opens out onto a balcony looking out to the two grass pitches, which will meet both Sports England and Rugby Football Union standards and have the latest drainage technology to allow for play all year round.

The plans, first unveiled in 2016, were embroiled in the controversy surrounding the wider Wises Lane development known as Applegate Park.

From the outset, the proposals put the club at loggerheads with people living in the area, who formed Borden Residents Against Development (BRAD) , to fight the plans.

In August 2021, Housing Secretary Robert Jenrick agreed to the plans in principle, following an appeal after Swale council turned down permission.

Approval for the detailed plans for the rugby part of the scheme was secured last November after a decision was delayed by the council’s planning committee, concerned about the number of car parking spaces and toilets, access and the lighting and its impact on the nearby Borden Nature Reserve.

In response to concerns, the club clarified the times for matches and said junior training would be during daylight hours so no floodlighting would be needed.

The number of parking spaces was also increased from 11 to 76.

A revised design of the clubhouse was accepted by Borden Parish Council, which originally opposed the plans.

Quinn Estates, which provided the funding alongside The William Barrow's Charity, A.Hinge & Sons and Barratts PLC, is in charge of the construction of the clubhouse.