PLANS for a massive expansion of the Ramsbury Sports Club were unveiled to the public for the first time on Saturday in the Memorial Hall.

The £500,000 scheme, which has been dubbed Project 2005, will be outlined to invited guests at a presentation in The Bell on Saturday.

Chairman Ian Smith said the club was planning to make use of land it owns next to its premises.

He said: "Some years ago we bought a piece of land adjacent to the sports field and that land has lain dormant until now.

"We have been thinking about what to do with it and have been taking counsel from the various sports clubs in the village."

Mr Smith said the intention was to level and re-grade the existing land to take in the new piece and take the opportunity of laying new drains.

Eventually, it is hoped to provide a new cricket wicket, create a third soccer pitch, a fifth tennis court and a multi-sports cage.

Mr Smith said: "It will cost between £500,000 to £600,000, which we will largely have to raise in the village and from some district and county funding because Lottery funding has largely dried up at the moment.

"The work will be phased to what we can afford and the first part will be the levelling of the land."

Other phases will include extending the pavilion and adding a storage facility and later building a new pavilion to serve the tennis and cricket clubs.

Mr Smith said: "It is a very ambitious scheme but we feel we can raise the money to do the landscaping work, which should cost about £150,000.

"Having started the work it should become easier to ask people to put their hands in their pockets."

Mr Smith said the club had already received the promises of some large donations from local benefactors.

The sports club scheme has been called Project 2005 because it is hoped the first phase will be finished by the time that year comes round.

One of the planned fundraising events will be the annual Ramsbury Ball at the sports ground, which this year will be held on September 6.