MAIDSTONE United chiefs have kicked off a campaign to bring the former Football League club back home to a new £2 million ground close to the town centre.

Under the slogan "The Stones Mean Business", they have urged leading firms to invest in their ambitious plans and spark a renaissance in a club that was once the most successful in Kent but went bust in 1992.

Without a ground - its former London Road ground was sold off for retail stores in the late 1980s - hopes of a revival have been bleak.

But the club, now in the Bass Brewers Kent League and forced to play home games in Sittingbourne, has set a five-year goal to reach the Nationwide Conference and return to Maidstone.

The 105-year old club is working on proposals to develop a riverside ground close to Whatman International's paper mill at Springfield and The

White Rabbit pub.

It would be sited on 2.5 acres of land owned by the Ministry of Defence on the other side of the river from the Millennium Walk.

Plans envisage a stadium to Conference standards with a 6,000 capacity, corporate hospitality facilities, restaurant, and creche.

The car park would be open to fans on matchdays and to the public for the rest of the week, increasing Maidstone's over-stretched parking space.

Chairman Paul Bowden Brown and marketing director Ben McGannan have met council chiefs, ground experts and fundraising specialists to develop their plans.

They hope to submit a detailed plan for council consideration in the Spring. The first phase would cost between £500,000 and £2 million.

Mr McGannan said at least half the cost was likely to be covered by Lottery, Football Association and other grants.

He said: "Whatman Field is fantastic because it's kind of out of town but close enough to the centre and the railway station."

Business was the key to progress, he said. It was important to build commercial success that people wanted to be a part of.

He appealed to more local firms to sign up to sponsorship and advertising deals.

Leaders from prominent local firms met last week at The Wild Duck near Marden to discuss the best way forward.

"All the best things start in the back room of a pub," said Mr McGannan, owner of the Water for Work cooler firm.

He invited other local firms to share the dream of restoring the club's fortunes both on and off the field.

Mr McGannan still recalls a Boxing Day fixture when the Stones beat Gillingham 2-1 at Priestfield.

"We were then the biggest club in Kent," he said. "Now look at where they are and where we are."

He was confident the club could reach the Conference. "In terms of the structure of the club, I've no doubt that we will achieve it. We've got

too many good things going for us," he said.