The new home for Dartford Cricket Club will open next month, it has been announced.

The community pavilion at Hesketh Park will open its doors for the first time on Wednesday, March 25.

Council leader Jeremy Kite announced the pavilion is set to open a month before the start of the cricket season at Monday's budget meeting.

Dartford Cricket Club chairman Jim Lowrie said he was stumped that cricketers will pad up in new changing rooms this summer.

He said: "A community and a club is about more than just the surroundings. It’s about the people and what they bring.

"However, having ‘made do’ for the whole of my 35 years at the Club, it’s beyond belief to be moving to a state of the art facility and I appreciate how lucky we are.

"We will forever be indebted to the Leader and staff of Dartford Borough Council for supporting our vision and to the building team for making the dream a reality."

Cllr Kite also revealed new family facilities will be built at Central Park this summer and improvements to Fairfield Pool would be completed by spring 2016.

He said: "Over the years we have delivered more community facilities than most Councils do in a lifetime and more than that, we have then breathed new life into all the activities that take place in them.

"Whilst other Councils are cutting back, closing facilities and putting pressure on communities, we are committed to a continuing programme of investment.

"I’ve seen with my own eyes how much pleasure and benefit our investment in places like Princes Park and the Central Park renovation have brought to local people.

"For us, delivering arts, sports and community facilities are core activities and not something to be cut or abandoned.”

Building work started in September 2014 after the club were awarded a grant from the council.

Construction will take place over three phases with club officials confident the pavilion will be the best amateur facilities in the country.

Plans also remain in place to build an indoor cricket school away from Hesketh Park.