Build over Medway’s golf courses

Plus Medway Tories bullying row continues, Rochester school delays, and the ongoing Gun Wharf solar panel debacle

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Now to lead with a story that will make me super popular..

Build over Medway’s golf courses

Discuss development in Medway (or anywhere really) and one argument you are likely to hear very quickly is that “there’s no room for more houses”. It’s the most common argument you hear from those opposed to building new homes near theirs. A slightly more nuanced version is that “we don’t have the infrastructure”. It’s slightly more compelling and less likely to make the person behind it sound like they just hate the idea of someone else having what they already have.

Both arguments are in the same realm though, and there’s a fair chance that if the resources were there to build the kind of infrastructure they think is required (usually a new hospital, GP surgeries, schools, and new roads), they would still likely argue there isn’t the room for both the infrastructure and the homes. Funnily enough, it’s interesting that those tangible on-the-ground benefits are the arguments they always lean into. It’s rarely sewer capacity or the state of the power network, which is so bad that chunks of West London are going to have to cease all major developments.

Anyway, I digress.

The argument that there’s no space in Medway for development has always felt questionable to me, so I started wondering just how short of land Medway actually is.