60,000 segments for HS2 built in Medway
Plus Gillingham far-right demonstration fails to materialise, Reform gets first Medway councillor, news in brief, and more
HS2 is a project that divides opinion across the country, but did you know that significant elements of it are being built here in Medway? We didn’t until we saw a press release this week, so we’ve been discovering more. Further down, we have news of a far-right demonstration in Gillingham that failed to materialise, details of Reform getting their first councillor in Medway, our news in brief section, and more.
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60,000 segments for HS2 built in Medway
We try not to devote much writing to stories based on press releases, but this is something we didn’t know before, and it seemed too interesting not to include.
HS2 is one of the UK’s biggest infrastructure projects, even though the previous government chopped all of the useful bits off of it, and the current government has shown little sign of reattaching them.
Still, construction work for the main London to Birmingham leg of the line is well underway, and it turns out that one of the major tunnels for the project is being built here in Medway.
Pacadar, a company specialising in ‘precast concrete innovating solutions’ has a manufacturing facility on the Isle of Grain, which has been used to construct over 60,000 seven-tonne segments for the 5 mile Northolt Tunnel being constructed west of London.
Padacar began constructing the concrete segments in April 2022, with 130 being produced daily until the project was completed in June this year. They were then transported to the HS2 construction site by train, each journey removing 56 lorries from the road as part of the process.
You can find out more about the process from this swish promo video from HS2 themselves:
Despite the completion of the Northolt Tunnel production, Padacar continues to work on the project, including pre-casting segments for the Thame Valley Viaduct in Buckinghamshire and Edgcote Viaduct in Northamptonshire.
180 people work on the site daily, meaning HS2 has provided an additional benefit to our towns. Previously, Medway gained from HS2 after the government diverted money from the essential national infrastructure project to resurface Hempstead Valley Drive.
Gillingham far-right demonstration fails to materialise
Medway Council held their Love Gillingham Big Day Out event on Sunday in Gillingham High Street. The event is part of a programme of activity to bring footfall back to a high street that has been neglected over a long period.
The event seemed to go well, with a bustling street of stalls, activities, pro wrestling, and music. One group that appeared to be missing, though, were far-right demonstrators, who had been pushing an event to be held at the same time.
Around a month ago, at the height of the unrest sweeping the country, leaflets started being put through doors in Gillingham promoting a ‘Gillingham protest’ in the kind of bold, red font people use when they are Very Angry about something.
All in caps, it went on: ‘With the latest events in the world and the stabbling of a soldier in Gillingham by an immigrant we must make a stand.’ Punctuation was not a strong suit.
The leaflet rambled on some more with a flag awkwardly tacked onto the bottom, asking people to gather outside Gillingham Salvation Army on Green Street at 12pm, before marching to Brompton Barracks ‘in support of the solider (sic)’.
It is unclear who was behind the leaflet or how many doors it was put through, but several readers shared it with us. All were from the Gillingham area, so while it may not have spread across a huge area, it did reach quite a few people.
Naturally, this kind of leaflet caused some anxiety for people in the town, particularly those from minority groups who often find themselves being targeted when these kinds of thugs arrive in town. The Gillingham Salvation Army, in case anyone was unsure, felt obliged to make it clear they had nothing to do with it.
Of course, organisation isn’t a strong point for these kinds of groups and given that their demonstration was advertised a month in advance, a lot changed in the meantime. While unpleasant, the demonstration in Chatham last month didn’t turn into anything notable. The wave of demonstrations across the country started to fizzle out once anti-racism protestors started outnumbering the thugs, and the rate at which many participants started to find themselves in prison cells presumably didn’t exactly encourage turning up to ruin try to ruin a family fun day in Gillingham.
Reform gets first Medway councillor (and they didn’t even need to fight an election)
We don’t spend large amounts of time covering parish councils. Not because they aren’t interesting. They often feature slightly eccentric or even shouty agendas, a rotating cast of parish councillors, and a refreshing lack of political parties.
Usually, when a vacancy on a parish council occurs, it is not filled with a by-election, as these are a lot of work and it’s often difficult to find willing candidates anyway. Instead, they often use a process called co-option, where the sitting parish council members can appoint someone to fill the seat and see out the rest of the council term. This often happens in Medway, where vacancies often occur across our 11 parishes.
As such, it was slightly odd last month when a Notice of Election was posted for High Halstow parish council. This allowed anyone to put themselves forward to fight an election in the parish for the vacant position. Usually, the end result would be multiple candidates and an election to determine the winner.
That wasn’t quite what we got.
Only one candidate submitted paperwork for the election, meaning that they were automatically elected unopposed. In other words, the kind of farce the co-option process was designed to avoid.
So, who is High Halstow’s newest parish councillor?
Step forward, Harjinder Singh Khaktar, more commonly known as Bill Khatkar, also happens to be Reform’s first representative in Medway.
Khatkar has an interesting history. We ran as one of the few Reform candidates in last year’s local elections, receiving 49 votes and a fifth-place finish in All Saints ward. Ahead of the General Election, he was the owner of the shop in Strood High Street that was covered in Reform advertising. The shop was found to be used as a drugs factory and raided by the police, while Khatkar protested to the press that he had no idea what was going on inside.
No doubt his keen observational skills will be a boon to High Halstow parish council.
In brief
🗳️ The Hoo St Werburgh and Chattenden Neighbourhood Plan referendum will occur on 7 November. If approved, planning applications within the area would have to consider the local community's views.
🐀 HMP Rochester has been issued with an urgent improvement notice following a scathing inspection. Findings at the prison included self-harm, drug use, violence, and an infestation of rats and mice.
🔓 The section of Rochester Pier that didn’t fall into the river will reopen to the public next Monday (9 Sep).
🏠 The Daily Mail are very upset about a floating home for sale at Medway Marina in Borstal.
More Authority
Our Sunday interview this week was with Michael Colyer, a camera systems designer from Medway who won an Emmy for his work on the Super Bowl. He’s had quite a journey, and it’s a fascinating conversation set around the cross-section of technology and creativity.
We also published the first of our periodic columns from Medway’s new parliamentarians, as Gillingham and Rainham MP Naushabah Khan talked about efforts to revitalise Gillingham High Street.
Yesterday, we celebrated our third birthday, so we put out a roundup of our work over the past year, shared some numbers on our performance, highlighted some of our favourite work from the year, and talked about what’s next.
Coming up this week, we’ve got another packed week of content. I explored the Shorts Tunnels last weekend, so we’ll put out a photo essay on that in the coming days. With the new football season underway, our Gillingham columnist Ben Hopkins will tell us how everything is going at Priestfield. Over the weekend, our interview is with Vicky Robinson, an atomic archaeologist from Medway, which is one hell of a job description.
As always, while our briefing emails are free, other features, interviews, and long-reads are exclusive to our paid supporters. Our paid supporters ensure we can keep doing this. To celebrate our birthday, we’re offering 25% off an annual paid subscription for this week only.
Footnotes
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Music that soundtracked the creation of this edition: This House Is Too Big, This House Is Too Small by Brutalligators, Pessimistic Pizza by My Best Unbeaten Brother, and Your Friend, The Atom by We Are The Physics.
"22 times longer than Liz Truss managed as Prime Minister"
What an accolade. Well done guys!
May there be many more years and way more growth as your fame spreads :)