It’s Blooming Intra
Plus Love Gillingham action plan, Mutual Aid for Medway, we review J&T Pizza Bar, our weekly events guide, news in brief, and more
A series of events to help boost the Chatham Intra area culminates this weekend with a number of community events. We’ve been finding out more. Further down, we have news of the campaign to regenerate Gillingham town centre, learn about a group tackling social isolation in our towns, we review a new pizza restaurant in Gillingham, our weekly events guide, news in brief, and more.
It’s Blooming Intra
The Intra Community Trust became a CIO (Charitable Incorporated Organisation) as part of their plans to support the Chatham Intra area as a heritage place. We caught up with their new Executive Director, Cerian Eiles, to talk about the ‘Blooming Intra’ project, which will culminate this weekend.
The Intra Community Trust (ICT) is a new organisation focusing on the conservation area. between Star Hill and Sun Pier, which is known for this purpose as Chatham Intra. “We are a community-led organisation that focuses on regeneration using heritage and culture as tools for that regeneration,” says Cerian.
As part of that heritage and culture focus, they have launched the ‘Blooming Intra’ project, which is “part of our strategy to essentially animate the Intra area”. This essentially involves providing activities for local people and incentives to encourage people to visit the area. “It is our spring intervention. We're focusing on renewal, rejuvenation.” One of the overarching projects that ICT has been working on with their 100-plus members is “bringing more greenery into the area.” This has included tree planting and wildflower meadow planting over the last year. There will also be seed planting, with a focus on individual participation. “You can come along, plant a seed, take away your little seed in its pot and then grow it at home.”
Part of the ‘Blooming Intra’ also includes poppy designs hand-drawn by Matilda Flood for VE Day that can be found in shop windows along the high street. The activities culminate with an eco-fair at the Unitarian Church on New Road on Saturday, which looks at what it means to make do and mend in a modern culture. “A lot of us are conscious environmentally of not using too much and how do we reuse, how do we recycle?” The trust is working with the Zigzag Scrap Store at Intra Arts, whose “big remit is around giving access to local people to materials so they can reuse them.”
“It's about people coming along, taking part in something that is about new life, rejuvenation, and reusing. The incredible Jodie Elwin (Intra Project Manager) has, as ever, pulled out an astonishing suite of events.” There will be digital flower drawing at Poco Loco on Sunday for 7–11-year-olds, and Sun Pier House is hosting a kitchen table event, ‘Unlocking the Creation Space,’ their exciting new venue at the base of Sun Pier House on Saturday. There will also be a litter pick in the area on Saturday starting at 10am.
“I think the big headline for anyone that wants to take part in something on Saturday is head down to the Intra area. There's lots going on. You can just show up, drop in, and the workshops are free to take part in.” Whilst you can take home anything you make in the workshops, which include fabric flower making and hat millinery, they will also be making future window displays out of work produced on the day.
For Cerian and the Intra Community Trust, the desired impact of the project and its workshops is twofold. “First it is about animating the high street, making Intra into a destination.” The longer-term goal of these projects is developing Intra so that it is seen as a place to go on a Saturday afternoon, and there will be something participatory, probably for free. “Second is we are using these events to talk to people.” ICT want to know what local people want, how they want to use the places and spaces, and “what are the projects they'd like to see? Do they want more live music? Do they want more opportunity to make flowers out of recycled materials? Do they want more intercultural events? Do we need more intergenerational events?” Their aim with this project is to enable them to speak to more people and understand what local and hyperlocal people to Intra want to happen.
The Intra Community Trust is community led. “We talk a lot to our members. We don't do anything without our members agreeing that it's something that they want us to do.” However, Cerian recognises that they need to bring wider communities into those conversations, which is why she will be at the Sun Pier House event on Saturday, “because we want to talk to your readers. We want to hear what they have to say.”
In brief
📜 The Peoples Poem for Piece, with contributions from residents of Medway, has been edited and performed by poet Dan Simpson.
☕ TickTocks cafe in Rainham has closed, with the owners citing having to pay their employees an increased minimum wage and higher National Insurance contributions as the reason.
🍲 The Good Food Guide has published its list of recommended places to eat in Medway.
✈️ A restored 1930s ‘floatplane’ will be displayed in Rochester Cathedral throughout August.
The Love Gillingham Action Plan
‘Love Gillingham’ is a campaign launched by Gillingham and Rainham MP Naushabah Khan to bring focus, support and investment to Gillingham High Street. Following a successful launch event last year, we caught up with her to learn about this year’s event and the development of a Gillingham Action Plan.
“The ‘Love Gillingham’ campaign pretty much does what it says on the tin,” says Naushabah, who grew up in Gillingham before becoming a councillor for the area. “It came about after years of me as a councillor speaking to people of the frustrations around Gillingham town centre’s decades of decline.” As a councillor in opposition trying to do something about this, she felt it was like hitting up against a brick wall, “going to the Conservative council and asking them to support Gillingham.” Naushabah thinks it was clear that it wasn't a political priority for them and “their interests for whatever reasons were in other parts of Medway”.
For local people, that has been an enormous frustration, and when Naushabah became a cabinet member in the new Labour administration, these were challenges that she was determined to address. It was this that launched the ‘Love Gillingham’ concept, which she is now carrying on as an MP. “’Love Gillingham’ is an umbrella term for all the work that we are doing around Gillingham Town Centre.” The biggest part of which is the Gillingham Town Centre Task Force, which Naushabah chairs. This brings together the council, police and other stakeholders with the intention to tackle some of those immediate challenges on the high streets. The focus of the task force has been making the High Street look cleaner and welcoming. “The task force is the vehicle through which we're trying to drive through that change.”
The other element of ‘Love Gillingham’ is the annual event launched last year. This year’s event is part of a weekend of activity, culminating on Sunday 20 July. “We've got more money for it. We're trying to make it bigger, more engaging, and that's to celebrate what is happening in Gillingham and reinstil that sense of pride.” The weekend starts with the Medway Mile, which will now going to go through the Gillingham Town Centre.
They have also established community panels, with “40 people who are really keen to talk about the future of Gillingham,” and have been running workshops facilitated by external organizers. Findings from these panels will be used to complete an action plan, which will be launched in July this year. “We've got this overarching strategic program for the future. The big thing for me is that Gillingham needs investment,” which is an issue Naushabah has been trying to raise in Parliament.
Naushabah has also been talking to the private sector on a broader scale about what high street regeneration can look like, for which she will be setting up an external partners group. This group will include Gillingham FC, Peel Ports, and Gillingham Marina. She describes this group as “people who are doing big things and may have an interest in ensuring that the town centre is thriving.” Naushabah is keen to continue working with the council, and “the ideal would be a design code or master plan for Gillingham.”
The MP recently submitted a report to Medway Council following two roundtables she held with local businesses. One held at the Queen of Bakes in Gillingham on Small Business Saturday and provided an opportunity for her to listen to what they found frustrating, challenging, and where they think the area could be improved. “People are invested in Gillingham. They had either grown up here or they've been here for a long time, and they want it to succeed as a place.” Naushabah and her team collated the findings to decide the next steps in the action plan.
Naushabah highlights that people are starting to notice a difference: The area is cleaner, waste is better controlled, and there is development on murals for the area. “It doesn't have to be expensive stuff.” The Royal Engineers are looking at updating the memorial on Sapper's Walk, and Gillingham FC are looking at adding signs highlighting that this is their home. She has also been work with local designer Esther Johnson on the ‘Love Gillingham’ logo and designs, which “we're hoping to get painted in the town.”
The MP sees this as an opportunity to show some love for Gillingham. “We've got to be honest about the fact that town centres have changed, how people use them has changed, what people expect from them has changed. The key thing for us now is what does Gillingham need to look like so that people still want to go there, they still want to use it.”
Mutual aid for Medway
Mutual Aid Road Reps is a community project based on mutual aid, which started at the beginning of covid to help people struggling with isolation. “A couple of us were putting leaflets out, and within the space of about two months, we had 270 volunteers across Medway,” Kate Belmonte, the co-founder, tells me. They were helping with shopping, prescriptions, going to the post office, and making telephone calls to isolated people.
Isolation can affect people’s physical health as well as mental health. They now run community sessions every week in Rainham and Gillingham, as well as a monthly session in Rochester and “a monthly session which is a walk and talk.” Their goal is to have a session every day of the week within the next year. “We are on course for making people be less lonely.”
They have recently finished a project funded by the third year of Medway Council’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund. “We provide breakfast, lunch, or a light buffet at all our sessions. Over a thousand meals served to people.” Whilst there are care companies who provide support, “they can charge a lot of money, whilst MARR is a not-for-profit.”
Last October, MARR also took over Rainham’s Circle Refill Hub. “My front room is currently filled with cleaning products, bubble bath and shampoo.” The project aims to be plastic-free, and they deliver products in reusable bottles. They have pick-up points in Rainham, Rochester and Twydall, as well as a sample stand at the Zigzag scrap store at Intra Arts in Rochester, “where you can see and smell the products and look at the price lists.” All the profits from the initiative go back to MARR for running their sessions. “As far as I know, we're the only non-profit refill hub.” Nearly all the products are produced in the UK or Europe, and they are vegan, phosphate, and palm free. “They're good for you and the planet,” Kate notes.
Kate’s next focus for the Mutual Aid vision is ‘a library of things,’ where people can borrow useful things for their homes and projects instead of buying them. “It's quite expensive. We need £50,000.” Kate hopes to work with other organisations to make the project a reality. They also run a repair café in Strood with Medway Council and are part of the community climate change working group. Kate, who stood as a Green Party candidate in recent elections, is also part of the community energy project, which is looking to save people money. They have recently announced climate courses that are free to attend, both in Rainham and at Sun Pier House in Chatham, starting in June.
There are currently places available at their Tuesday and Wednesday sessions. The first Thursday of the month, they host The Friendship Spectrum at Twydall Community Centre, which is for adults with autism, ADHD, or “any other lifelong condition that makes friendships more difficult.” They also hold a monthly board game session at Playopolis in Rochester, who also provide free teas and coffee. If you are interested in participating in any of MARR’s activities, you can find more details on their website.
Out to Lunch: J&T Pizza Bar
As part of our ongoing mission to find good quality pizza to recommend, we headed to Watling Street in Gillingham, where a new pizza bar has opened. Whilst there are Italian restaurants that also serve pizza, I wanted to go somewhere where pizza is the focus. Once you get through the slightly confusing ‘is it open or not’ front door, J&T Pizza Bar is a stylish and welcoming venue with an eye for modern comic twists of famous art. For transparency purposes, I ended up going later in the day rather than lunch due to other events in the Local Authority schedule.
I ordered arancini for a starter, a mixed leaf salad and a pepperoni pizza, for which I asked for extra cheese in a fit of pique. The cost was slightly high, but the food was generously portioned and well presented.
The arancini was a good mixture with a flavoursome cheese centre, a crispy outer coating, all complemented by a tomato sauce. The salad was also a good mixture of mixed leaves, a variety of tomatoes, and cucumber. It had a good dressing, and I could have happily had more of it. Finally, I found a pizza I can recommend to you. Whilst the crust was large, the central pizza was well portioned, with good quality pepperoni that had flavour. The mix of cheeses worked well together, and I happily ate it all. If you want somewhere to have a pizza in Medway, head to Watling Street and enjoy the food on offer at J&T Pizza Bar.
Events this week
🛍️ Sat 10 May - Rochester City Artisan Market // Stalls dotted through the town centre selling art, crafts, and unique gifts. Rochester High Street. Free.
🚔 Sat 10 May - Crime & Punishment // Themed open-mic night where musicians play songs related to, well, crime and punishment. Rochester Social Club. Free.
Sun 11 May - John Bramwell // I Am Kloot singer-songwriter returns to Rochester for an intimate show. Three Sheets to the Wind, Rochester. Tickets £27.
🎭 15 - 24 May - Where The Wind Blows // Tragicomedy play about love and nuclear war. Medway Little Theatre, Rochester. Tickets £12.
All change at Medwayish
Our Medwayish project originally began to reward crowdfunding supporters with cool stuff. It spiralled out and sparked great creative conversations, long days standing at markets and festivals, and grew into a wider passion project, working with local talent to celebrate the people and place that is Medway. As part of its next step, Medwayish is separating from Local Authority, and you can read all about how we got here and what will be happening next below.
More Authority
Yesterday marked the 80th anniversary of VE Day, so we looked at the events being held across our towns to commemorate and mark the occasion.
Coming up this Sunday, we have a big sit-down interview with Medway Council Leader Vince Maple as he reaches the halfway point of his term running the area. It’s the fourth time we have interviewed Cllr Maple, and this is the toughest set of questions we have put to him. The full interview will only be available to our paid supporters, so please consider becoming one of them if you aren’t already.
Over on the Kent Current, our sister title, this week we looked at how one of the country's most significant new town developments has been derailed by the discovery of a tiny spider on the site. Earlier in the week, we looked at Kent’s May Day celebrations, where Morris dancers and pagan curious residents gather at dawn for Jack in the Green festivities. To access our Kent-wide journalism, subscribe to the Kent Current here.
Footnotes
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