Can Medway become a construction skills leader?
Plus scratch building Medway landmarks, Man or Bear workshop, Medway gardener eager to share advice, we review Cheers Pizza, our weekly events guide, news in brief, and more
The UK needs more construction workers, but a shortage of teachers is making it difficult to provide them. Gillingham and Rainham MP Naushabah Khan recently raised the issue in parliament, so we’ve been finding out more about the efforts to make Medway a construction skills leader. Further down, we meet an artist who has made a tiny Medway landmark, learn about a Man or Bear workshop, a Medway gardener eager to share advice. If that wasn’t enough, we review Cheers Pizza, have our weekly events guide, and of course, news in brief.
Can Medway become a construction skills leader?
Last year, following Gillingham and Rainham MP Naushabah Khan's visit to the Construction course at MidKent College, principal Simon Cook called on the Government to invest in bricklaying teachers. In a week when it was reported that Labour’s housebuilding pledge was at risk due to a shortage of bricklayers, is it possible that Medway could become a skills leader for the construction industry?
Last month, Naushabah raised the issue in parliament during Prime Minister’s Questions. She asked him to set up a meeting with the Skills Minister to discuss the recruitment challenges that colleges like MidKent are facing.
Speaking to us following the question, the MP first described how the question came about following her visit to the college. She describes the colleges as “a really important part of Medway, and where I got to try a bit of bricklaying. It was good fun, and I met some great students.” One concern that was raised at the time of the visit is that while there are lots of Medway residents who want to participate in the course, the college does not always have the capacity of teaching staff to meet the demand.
“I'm very aware that the government's got a massive agenda around house building and I think it's really important”, the MP says. Naturally, a lack of workers with construction skills would put that agenda at risk. She is also keen to see a revival in Gillingham’s local economy, and thinks these things can go hand in hand. “How do we make sure that young people are getting the opportunities they need in terms of what the future of this country looks like?” Part of her vision for the area is to build a workforce that will be building the homes of the future. “It would be great to say, look over there, that was built by Tom or Jennifer who grew up in Gillingham, went to college here, got construction skills here and now part of the future drive for this country.”
The Prime Minister responded positively to Naushbah’s question on the day and agreed that a meeting with the Skills Minister would occur to discuss the situation in more detail. For the politics geeks, this was Naushbah’s first PMQ question, and it’s clear that she is still excited by the moment. “I think maybe if it helps some of the politics geeks amongst the readers, because I am one, to know it is really hard sometimes to get called in the chamber because you have to sort of put a bid in. From that you get balloted. Some weeks you might get picked and other weeks you won't. I put in a couple of times because I've been wanting to ask this question for a while.”
MidKent College Chief Executive Simon Cook supports the issue being raised. “For our government to deliver its house building ambitions, we need a skilled workforce. Naushabah has rightly raised the question of how our government is investing in skills to help ensure we have enough skilled teachers to train this workforce. MidKent College is proud of its Construction skills training and delivers training to thousands of students every year. However, recruitment of good teachers in these areas is a significant challenge across the UK.”
Three weeks after that PMQs, a meeting was held with the Skills Minister Jacqui Smith MP where Naushbah, Simon, and Strategic Director Kent Further Education Jonathan Shaw got to make their case directly. “It was a really helpful conversation”, says Naushbah. “MidKent, in fairness to them, have already been doing quite a lot of work in terms of speaking to the government about the skills agenda. This was an additional layer. I think they've got some really good ideas around how they model this and how they deliver more corporate style contracts, like they already do with the Royal Engineers.”
The Skills Minister was interested in discussing this way of working, as well as the college’s general teaching programme. “There is a roundtable that's been set up to take this discussion a bit further, as well as a conversation around what the challenges are in recruitment and I know the government are taking it quite seriously in terms of trying to address some of those challenges.” Naushbah explains how it is quite easy to find people who've worked in construction for a number of years, but whether they then want to go into a teaching career and the challenges that come with that is a different matter.
Jonathan Shaw spoke to us following the meeting with the Skills Minister, “we really appreciate the ongoing support for the College and our work to promote skills training opportunities for young people. We had an excellent meeting with the minister, Jacqui Smith, and it was encouraging to hear her positive outlook. We’re looking forward to the release of the new post-16 skills strategy later this year. We expect the issues raised by Naushabah to have made a real impact, and we’re hopeful that we’ll see the changes needed to equip young people with the skills to help drive growth in Kent and Medway.”
She is under no illusions that this will be a fast or simple process, but she feels confident that the right people are talking about it and that there is groundwork already in place. “I think the minister understood quite powerfully, and what was clear is that it wasn't the end of the conversation, it was the start.”
In brief
✍️ Confluence magazine is open for short stories, prose, creative non-fiction and poetry submissions until the end of March (or until they reach 200 submissions).
🥔 Subway is launching a new range of jacket potatoes, but the potentially inedible snack will not be coming to any Medway as part of the launch. Sorry, not sorry.
🥘 A planning application from Loungers has revealed that their new venue opening at Chatham Dockside will be called Sotto Lounge. Each of their locations has a unique name, but all seem to be Italian words that end with O.
🍷 St Margaret’s Church in Rainham has applied for a licence to screen films and sell alcohol. The move is part of the church's efforts to establish itself as a destination arts venue in Medway.
Scratch building Medway landmarks
Joe Earley is a Rochester-based crafts person who keeps himself very busy with scratch building. We talked to him to learn precisely what scratch building is and how Joe used it when recreating a mini-Medway landmark.
Joe is open about the fact that he has been off work for some time with mental health problems, but that hasn’t slowed him down when it comes to building or working on things. He’s built cars, mopeds, and terrariums. The latter “are plant enclosures. I started making weird ones.” Joe then shows me an intricately built home for a plant, with an elaborate slide for watering the plant. “That was my business for a while, but then covid hit, and mental health was an issue anyway. Confidence is the issue.”
Joe’s current focus is anything miniature based. His mum used to make doll’s houses and still works with miniatures herself. Joe started by making things at school, when he should have been doing other things. “I had a little pencil case, and some graph paper, and I’d make little washing machines and stuff. I made a drum kit.” Joe would hide behind a book and work away on the graph paper with scissors and pencil.
Joe’s mum gave him a dolls house, which he turned into a replica of an internet café. “I started doing more. There's a company called Metcalfe which make structures with a railway style.” Using a kit, Joe would then make his own designs and alterations around it. This is what led him on to scratch building.
“Scratch building is basically no kit”, Joe explains to me. “Some people, when making model railway pieces, buy the structure. Scratch building is basically building from scratch.” Which makes sense when you think about it. With the kit, people will still use various tools, to age and personalise the structures. Which leads us to the reason for today’s conversation: Joe has built a 1:48 model of the Candy Bar shop on Rochester High Street from scratch.
“I always look at the shop when I walk”, says Joe. “It is a store that looks possible. Sometimes things just look hard, and you question if you are able.” Joe got excited by the structure and the possibility. He went down and explained what he was doing to the Candy Bar team, took some photos and got to work. “I struggle in the winter as a lot of people do. Finding something to do inside with my time was important.” Joe got talking to others who scratch build and got advice on how to make the outside path, which he was struggling with. “This is actually air-dry clay, squashing it into little molds, and pushing down with sandpaper to give it texture”, he says, showing me the path. “Each paving slab is made separately, and then aged use pastels.”
“I knew the shop was going to look good small.” The project has taken him two months, working three to four hours a day. “I was having to look so closely, and keep my hands so steady that my wrists were starting to hurt. My vision was going blurry.” He has further work to do, including the delicious window display. “The plan is to make several prints of the same window and then I'm going to cut out the areas to give it a bit of depth.”
I ask Joe what will happen to the final piece. “I don't know. I usually just display them in my room. This has been the issue”. We talk about the issue of turning Joe’s skills into a business, with some scratch builders selling pieces for thousands of pounds. “It's finding that confidence to actually charge that money.” Joe wants to find a way to make this into a job, something he certainly has the skills to do. I suggest he needs to get his mum or partner in to handle the business side of things so that he can focus entirely on the build. He ponders this for a moment. “That’s not a bad shout actually.”
To see more of what Joe has built and is building, check him out on Instagram.
In For Lunch: Cheers Pizza
In which Steven Keevil assesses the lunch options available in our towns. This week, he’s ordered in from Cheers Pizza in Chatham…
I arbitrarily fancied pizza for lunch this week, and so the challenge was on to find a pizza that wasn’t made by one of the national chains that was worth ordering. I was recommended Cheers Pizza, which I believe is in the Luton area, and used one of the delivery apps to order.
I ordered a thin BBQ base with pepperoni, mushrooms, red onion, a single helping of mozzarella, a side of coleslaw, and a can of drink. The order came to just under £30 with a second pizza and drink.
Let’s be honest. From the outset, the pizza was rubbish and badly cut, and could only be described as flavourless and depressing. It is without a doubt the worst lunch I have had since I began these reviews. The delivery driver kindly went to a local supermarket while delivering the order to get the side order of coleslaw as Cheers had sold out. I don’t want to be ungrateful, but I’d rather he hadn’t bothered as a tub of Morrisons coleslaw wasn’t precisely what I had in mind.
I will not be ordering from Cheers Pizza again, and I can’t recommend that you do either.
Man or Bear workshop seeks neither men nor bears
Award-winning Medway writer Sarah Hehir is looking for nine female identifying participants for an upcoming drama workshop…
Award-winning Medway writer Sarah Hehir is developing a new theatre show with Katie Hurley, a writer and actor from Croydon, who she first worked with ten years ago on Edinburgh Festival’s Zero Down. They have received Research and Development Funding from the Arts Council for their new play, Man or Bear?, which explores themes of violence against women and girls, looking at the past, present and envisioning a utopian future.
“Medway and Croydon are Arts Council priority places”, Sarah tells us, “ and also have a high level of violence against women and girls.” The drama workshop will facilitate drama-based activities and discussions which will feed into the making of the show, and due to the nature of the themes, a qualified counsellor will be present at all times. “We’re focusing on exploring ideas and stories with older generations”, says Sarah, as they have done other workshops connecting with Gen Z.
Participants will also have the opportunity to attend scratch performances of the show later in the year. Which is, oddly, our second mention of scratch in this edition after a year of it not coming up at all. “A scratch performance is an unfinished piece that comes from working with actors”, said Sarah. “It won’t be fully formed, but will give a flavour of our vision to generate feedback and discussion.”
Nine female identifying participants are being sought for the workshop. No theatre or drama experience is necessary to take part, and participants will be offered a £20 expenses payment. “We have had invaluable support from Wordsmithery and The Glassbox Theatre”, said Sarah, “a special thanks to Richard Cooper, who has invested in the development of the play, in memory of Rosemary McLeish, who wrote fiercely and beautifully about women.”
The workshop will take place at MidKent College on 15 March. Email kt_hurley AT icloud DOT com to register your interest in participating in the workshop.
Medway gardener eager to share advice
Rainham gardener Stuart Bourne has worked in prestigious horticulture roles for over a decade. He recently started his Substack newsletter on the subject and will write an occasional column for us here. We caught up with him to discuss his career, his newsletter, and what he’ll be sharing.
“It was a project that I've sort of always had on my mind, when I took time off to look after the kids”, explains Stuart when I ask him how his Bourne to Garden newsletter started. “I've obviously got all this gardening knowledge that I feel the need to share and expand.” During his period as a stay-at-home Dad, he would post on Facebook groups, sharing tips and advice. “I really enjoyed the act of writing it and then recently I've moved from Twitter onto BlueSky, and there's a really vibrant horticultural gardening community there.” Here, Stuart found similar newsletters on Substack and saw the platform's potential for what he had in mind.
Before we go any further, though, it was important to clarify what it means when Stuart said he has gardening knowledge. He spent 15 years working in horticulture, switching from his original career as an electrical engineer. Having reskilled, he has worked as a live-in gardener, worked for a landscape maintenance company, and for seven years, he worked at Buckingham Palace as a senior gardener in charge of the rose garden. “It was cutting edge”, he says with no puns intended. “The head gardener was very keen that we always paid attention to local practices and new practices”.
Recently, after being on the waiting list for over a year, Stuart was fortunate to get his own allotment in Medway, as a family project. “My wife was loving the idea of an allotment and we thought it'd be beneficial for the kids to explore how to grow fruit and veg. It's hard to juggle now with a full-time job that I've got now, but I've been promised by my wife that she'd be going to be spending some more time over there watering and doing the seeds as well.”
Stuart likes to share his knowledge, aware that people can feel a fear when it comes to approaching gardening. “Once you know the basics, it's actually quite simple, easy and enjoyable”, he offers. It’s that spirit that will drive his upcoming Local Authority column. Readers can expect “advice, knowledge and help.” Stuart wants to provide tips and tricks of the trade, to “show people there is nothing to be scared of”. Stuart will also highlight some of the parks and greenspaces that we here in Medway “that are right on our doorstep. They've got not only open spaces, but actually have got unique and interesting plants. We're quite blessed in Medway to have so many interesting habitats and gardens.”
You can read Stuart Bourne’s writing on his Bourne to Garden Substack newsletter.
Events this week
🖼️ Until 11 Mar - Art Fundraiser // Exhibition organised by Nucleus artist Sam Scoggins to raise money for artists who recently suffered a fire at the venue. The Halpern Pop, Rochester. Free.
🤠 Sat 1 Mar - Everyday Action, Everyday Change // Medway Culture Club event for 5 to 16-year-olds exploring personal identity. Woodlands Youth Club, Gillingham. Tickets £8.
🎳 Thu 6 Mar - The Big Lebowski // Screening of the classic Coen Brothers comedy about a dude seeking vengeance for someone peeing on his rug. Odeon, Chatham. Tickets £5.
🎵 Fri 7 Mar - I am Woman // Music to celebrate International Women's Day with Karen Newby. Rising Sun, Rochester. £5, proceeds to the Vavengers Charity.
More Authority
A Chatham theatre faces threat from neighbouring development, accusing a developer of refusing to engage with them after blocking access to a car park used by patrons. We looked at what’s been happening for our midweek feature.
Yesterday was Medway Council’s annual budget meeting, where a set of balanced books had to be agreed for the year ahead. We’ll have a full report in our Tuesday edition, but we covered the events in our Substack Chat, which you can catch up with here.
Footnotes
Follow us on social media! We’re on Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky, and Threads, but not that other one.
Music that soundtracked the creation of this edition: The Complete Live O Graphic Session by Galileo 7 and The New and Improved Bob Dylan by the William Loveday Intention.
Could you find out what my local MP, Lauren Edwards had been up too
She appears to be MIA