Budgens comes (back) to Medway
Plus Medway figures get gongs, the elephant in the garden, news in brief, and more
Does a mid-level grocery store herald the regeneration of Chatham? Perhaps, but as ever, things may not be quite so simple given a wildly optimistic licensing application. Further down, we have news of Medway figures being recognised on the King’s Birthday Honours list, the sad tale of the Strand Lido elephant, news in brief, and more.
Budgens comes (back) to Medway
When plans were first put forward for the redevelopment of Chatham waterfront, there were grand ambitions of exactly what that might look like.
Elaborate CGI from developers and aspirational plans talked about a thriving mixed-use space of trendy new apartments alongside leisure and hospitality spaces like bars and restaurants in a town that is desperate lacking them.
Now, with the buildings reaching completion, we can start to get a sense of the kind of businesses that are set to move in, with the first one being revealed this week.
Welcome to Chatham, Budgens.
There isn’t anything inherently wrong with Budgens, even if it is the UK’s largest grocery chain with no clear identity. Somehow both too expensive to be a handy local shop to get a few bits and not trendy enough to have interesting items, Budgens is set to open it’s first Medway store in a few years1 next to the bus station in Chatham at the base of Pioneer Wharf, a shiny new block of flats where one-bedroom flats start at £1,235pcm.
Whether or not Budgens will even get to open is still something of a live question, though. Based on the licensing application for the establishment, Budgens want to sell alcohol from 6am to 1am seven days a week, which feels optimistic for a location like Chatham town centre, but that’s on them. Interestingly, following the recent debacle of Tesco being unable to open in Rochester due to their site being within a Cumulative Impact Policy area which attempts to limit alcohol sales in areas with alcohol related crime, Budgens may not face similar issues as they are just about outside of the zone. We’re not exaggerating when we say just outside either, as if they were on the opposite side of the street, they would likely be deemed too problematic to open, but happily, because people will have to cross a street to reach this store, there should be no problem at all. As ever though, the decision will likely come down to Medway Council’s wildly inconsistent licensing committee.
Have a Medway story you think we might be interested in? Get in touch via hello(at)localauthority(dot)news - We’re always happy to talk off the record in the first instance…
Medway figures receive gongs
The honours system in this country is an inherently silly institution, but we would be remiss if we didn’t highlight the Medway names that appeared on the 2025 Birthday Honours List. This time around, five Medway figures are being awarded an honour for activities in our communities.
Shaun Spiers, Executive Director of the Green Alliance, is being given an OBE for services to Environmental Policy and Sustainability.
Paul Dennington, fundraiser for Prostate Cancer UK, is being given an MBE for services to Fundraising for Prostate Cancer.
Gary Hackwell, Volunteer, Duke of Edinburgh Award and Treasurer, Medway Open Award Centre, is being given an MBE for services to Young People and the community in Medway.
Charles Hubbard is being given a BEM for services to St John Ambulance.
Anne Thorpe, Member and Advisor, Heathrow Access Advisory Group is being given a BEM for services to Accessibility at Airports for Disabled Travellers.
Yes, Gary Hackwell is the same Cllr Gary Hackwell who has represented Rainham South East as a Conservative councillor since 2019, though the award is entirely for his volunteering efforts.
This is the second big award for Paul Dennington this year after he was awarded the top Pride in Medway award earlier this year for his relentless fundraising activities while fighting cancer. We spoke to him earlier this year about his work.
Shaun Spiers is the Executive Director of the Green Alliance think tank, pushing for stronger environmental policies, and was a former Labour MEP for the southeast.
Congratulations to all on their recognition. You can read the complete list of everyone honoured, including some names that bafflingly don’t live in Medway, on the government’s website.
The elephant in the garden
We try to avoid sourcing stories from local Facebook groups (we leave that to our friends at the KM), but every now and again, you spot something so wonderfully ridiculous that we would be remiss if we didn’t follow it up.
Take this post on a local community group that raised several questions:
Seasoned Medway residents will recognise the elephant as the iconic slide from the Strand Lido for over three decades. Apparently, he does have a name following a public competition in 2021, but it’s impossible to find online, so we’re going to assume he was Elephanty McElephantface.
Anyway, the post above appeared, which said that the elephant (sans trunk slide) was now living in a front garden in Twydall following his retirement as a slide, but that the mean people at Medway Council or Medway Norse had tracked him down and were going to take him away to have him put down.
Within hours of the post going up, news surfaced that the elephant had indeed been taken away and has not been heard from since.
Inevitably, we went straight to Medway Council’s press team to find out how the elephant had ended up in Twydall and why they wanted him back.
They told us that the elephant slide was found to be unsafe following a health and safety audit at the Lido, so a decision was taken to remove him. Medway Norse arranged for him to be removed, but somehow, he ended up on a Twydall driveway instead. Medway Council claims that they discovered this after nearby residents complained, which is when they leapt into action to kidnap pick him up to be destroyed. He is survived by his son, Elephanty McElephantface Jnr.
In brief
🍔 Burger King at Hempstead Valley has requested Medway Council allow them to operate from 5am to 11pm seven days a week, with the drive-through running 24 hours. Not sure who needs a Burger King at 5am on a Wednesday, but they claim that as McDonald’s down the road are allowed to, they should be able to as well.
🚫 Plans to convert a former St John Fisher school building on Maidstone Road in Chatham into flats with new houses alongside have been rejected by Medway Council.
🎙️ Former Rochester councillor Stuart Tranter has appeared on the Kent Politics Podcast to tell them almost the exact same things he told us in an interview two weeks ago.
⚫ The BBC has looked back at the Chatham bus disaster of 1951, where 24 marine cadets were killed after they were hit by a double-decker bus. At the time, it was the most deadly incident ever recorded on Britain’s roads.
🐬 A dolphin has been spotted in the River Medway around Rochester this week.
✍️ Medway poet and author Maria C McCarthy has written about the Strand and her personal reflections on it ahead of the iconic gasholder at the entrance being demolished.
More Authority
Stel Pavlou went from working in a Rochester off-licence, where he set up a fake production company, to making a film with Samuel L Jackson. He talked to us about that journey and what he's been up to since.
“My 15 minutes of fame were really uncomfortable for me”
As part of our ongoing series checking in on Medway-related people in the United States, Steven caught up with Medway-born Stel Pavlou via Zoom, with Stel at his home in Colorado. They discussed Stel going to Cannes, making a feature film starring Samuel L Jackson, making a TV show about Atlantis, and how he ended up volunteering to join the Greek army.
Over on our sister Kent Current title, we sat down with Kent Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Scott. We discuss crime rates across Kent, the recent election results for the Conservatives, and whether he is eyeing the job of Mayor of Kent…
Footnotes
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Music that soundtracked the creation of this edition: Salon des Refusés by George Pringle, Peanut Butter by Joanna Gruesome, and We Are Beautiful, We Are Doomed by Los Campesinos!
Budgens took over the former Somerfield in Gillingham some years ago but that didn’t last long.
Two minutes silence for the Elephant. X
Still waiting for that Waitrose...