Two rival football clubs have started massive projects to dig up their pitches in a bid to open up their facilities to hundreds of people.

Bosses from Whitstable Town and Herne Bay have revealed they are into the second month of £600,000 projects to lay their fields with state-of-the-art artificial grass.

They stress the new surfaces will allow them to open their grounds to more teams to play and train on – as it will put an end to concerns of churning up the playing areas.

But Whitstable Town chairman Steve Clayton says the scheme at his side’s Belmont Road base will not be completed until August 19 – days into the new season.

“That’s when the pitch officially gets handed over to us and we can start playing on it,” he told KentOnline.

“We have an arrangement with the league that the first two or three games of the season will be away fixtures.

“It’s an inconvenience because we’ll lose on the spend through the gate, but this is one of the sacrifices we’ve had to make because the timeframe between the seasons isn’t long enough to get these pitches built.

“It’ll be a top-quality pitch – we haven’t gone for a cheap one. This will attract local people to come and play for us.

“It’s been there since 1885, and it has been a grass pitch all that time – it’s bringing the club into modern times.”

The popular venue is used by a number of other teams, including The Charitable Football Club, Tankerton FC and sides from the Canterbury and District League.

Mr Clayton says several others previously had to travel as far as Sittingbourne to train as the town only had one 3G pitch at The Whitstable School.

“Until now, we were only able to allow our academy, reserves and first team play at our ground,” he continued.

“Their games will still be played at the grounds they played at before, but for their training we were having to use facilities in Faversham, Canterbury, Sittingbourne, Whitstable and Herne Bay.

“But by putting in the 3G pitch it allows all our Kent Youth League teams as well as the second academy team and our nearly 30 youth teams to train there.

“It will improve the quality of the football and the coaching we’re able to provide.”

In the 2018/19 season, Whitstable Town FC cancelled 18 fixtures due to poor surface conditions.

Meanwhile, Herne Bay chairman Stuart Fitchie says the development at Winch’s Field is about 10 days behind the club’s Whitstable counterparts.

“We have informed the league of the work. They’re happy to reverse the first few fixtures if it isn’t finished by the beginning of the season, which starts on August 13,” he said.

“The benefits directly and indirectly for the club and the town are enormous.

“One thing the club struggled with was facilities for the first team, women’s teams, youth teams, vets teams – everyone struggled to find venues to train.

“It’ll allow more and more people to access top-quality facilities.”

Both chairmen insist they are not in a race with the other to finish their projects first – with the two pitches said to be almost “identical”.

Herne Bay officials describe their scheme as “the biggest development and transformation of the club’s facilities in recent times”.

And Mr Fitchie – who has been nicknamed “Abramofitch” by supporters – says the new surface will help the side to capitalise on its promotion success last season.

“Towards the latter part of the season – when our men’s team was promoted – it was amazing to see the high attendances,” he added.

“People wanted to get involved with the club, there were sponsorship opportunities.

“Herne Bay’s a big footballing town, and the work at the ground will extend it to more people.”