Sittingbourne Rugby Club have rejected the chance to join forces with Swale rivals Sheppey.

Bourne received an approach from the Islanders proposing an amalgamation as part of £540,000 plans to build a new complex at their Stupple Field home.

Sittingbourne chairman Des Ellis said: “We’re on the up and if people thought we were amalgamating, we’d lose a lot of our members and it would damage us quite badly.

“I don’t know what’s going to happen in 15 years’ time but all the time I’m chairman, we won’t be merging with Sheppey.

“We received an approach but a merger offers us absolutely nothing we haven’t already got. It came totally out of the blue about three months ago when their president, Gerry Lawson, phoned me.

“In that time we met twice and they came up with proposals. I received another call three weeks ago asking if we’d considered the merger.

“We did but there’s no way anyone from our club wants to travel to Sheppey on a Saturday and we feel Sittingbourne is a big enough town to warrant its own club.

“We run a development committee which looks at all options that come our way and it was a unanimous decision that we wouldn’t be going to Sheppey."