KELTY HEARTS are prepared to spend £250,000 on redeveloping their ground with plans for a new stand, community cafe and offices.

The ambitious club, whose first team have started their first season in the Scottish Lowland Football League, want to carry out the work on an uncovered standing area at the south end of New Central Park.

In a planning application submitted to Fife Council, Hearts want to convert the area behind the goal nearest the entrances at Bath Street into a 750-capacity covered enclosure for spectators.

It would also include a cafe – accessible between 9am-9pm Monday to Friday, from 9am-6pm on Saturday, and 9am-5pm on Sunday – a corporate hospitality boardroom, new offices, toilets, a laundry room and additional storage bays.

The proposals come after the East of Scotland League champions unveiled a new, all-seated stand on the ‘school side’ of their ground ahead of their league opener with Dalbeattie Star on July 28.

Constructed by Stadium Solutions, who renovated the ground of English National League outfit Salford City, owned by ex-Manchester United stars Gary and Phil Neville, Paul Scholes, Ryan Giggs and Nicky Butt, it holds 350 people and features three disabled bays, a camera gantry and five press seats with tables.

Further down the line, Kelty have expressed their hope of carrying out further developments in the shape of a 300-seat grandstand – on the opposite side to the new seated structure – which would also house new changing rooms, managers and coaches offices, a 100-capacity sports and hospitality lounge, and a sensory room.

Dean McKenzie, the club’s general manager, said: “We have a clear vision on and off the pitch that will help keep us competitive on the park short-, medium- and long-term, but also providing befitting facilities for the community club to use, where hopefully our stars of the future can be reared and brought through the pathway into the senior squad.”

Last year, Kelty Hearts launched a ‘community club’, which includes girls and women’s teams, an over-35s side and the chance to opportunities for mini-kickers up to Soccer 7s, with the aim of providing an inclusive player pathway from the age of three upwards and become a “conveyor belt for developing talent locally”.