Pat Gallagher has urged the Maidstone United business community to follow his lead and invest in the scheme to provide Maidstone United with a new ground.

The Aylesford-based Gallagher Group chairman, pictured, has a relationship with the club which spans four decades and has agreed to plough £150,000 into the £1.6million scheme to create a new stadium with an artificial surface on land at Whatman Way in the town.

Mr Gallagher said: "I’m pleased to say we’re backing them with £150,000. The money we put in will be ringfenced for the stadium.

"Without the stadium I don’t see any future for Maidstone United as a football club, but it will be a fantastic facility for the whole community.

"This isn’t an investment just for this generation or even the next, who knows, it could be for great-great grandchildren, that’s the way I look at it.

"Terry Casey and Oliver Ash have come on board. Nobody knows how bad the financial state of the club was, but they have put a lot of their own money in. I feel as a local businessman I’m willing to step up to the line.

"It’s up to people like myself with a business in the town to say ‘We’ve got to help out here’."

Mr Gallagher also revealed his involvement would not necessarily mean his firm would be contracted to carry out work on the project.

He said: "Of course I’d love to be involved in it, but if there’s someone else in for it with a better price than we can do then that’s fair enough. The financial help we’re offering has no condition, other than to go for the stadium."