An £8.5 million sports village project has been launched.

Ashford Town Football Club owners Don Crosbie and Tony Betteridge are behind the state-of-the-art stadium near the town.

The project aims to develop a community-orientated sports village at the Homelands Stadium site just outside Ashford.

It will provide a new stadium for the football club with offices, banqueting and conference facities and a gymnasium along with all-weather training pitches and an indoor tennis facitity.

Part of the plan is also a budget hotel with the aim of establishing a self-sustaining revenue stream for Ashford football club in the drive for Conference football.

The new plans are due to go before Ashford Council and, if approved, the new complex could be operational inside two years.

The scheme will be financed by Ashford Town's owners with support from a couple of major sponsors.

See our video report on the launch of the Nuts and Bolts' ambitious project on the right hand side of the page.