Medway Council abandons plans for new rail connection

Plus we might get a winery after all, a new Lidl is on the way, and two new music videos shot in Medway

Welcome! Before we begin, a quick heads up that we will be experimenting with a limited amount of advertising in the Friday edition of Local Authority over the next few weeks. We won’t be running generalised adverts, but only for relevant local businesses, and only one ad will appear in any edition. We’ve tried to avoid doing this, but this project's economic reality is catching up with us. Hope that’s okay.

Medway Council abandons plans for rail connection to Hoo

News broke this week that plans for a new rail link to the Hoo peninsula have been ‘put on hold’, a phrase that most rational people will understand as ‘scrapped’.

The rail link has been a controversial topic around Hoo, where residents seemed to object to the plans largely because they would facilitate further development in the area rather than having an issue with a rail connection in itself.

That the rail connection was only set to connect to Gravesend rather than Strood and the rest of Medway was also a regular complaint, albeit one that ignored the fact most travel from Medway by rail is toward London and not in the other direction.

Here’s what we could have won

Still, those against the plans have now got their way, and a rail connection will not be coming to Hoo in the near future, if at all.

The whole debacle is just another chapter in the incompetence of the administration at getting any significant project done, happy for things to largely stay as they are, no matter how unsustainable they may be.

Significant questions now exist around what will happen to the £170m of Housing Infrastructure Fund money awarded to Medway Council. This money was granted to improve infrastructure on the Hoo peninsula to facilitate required housebuilding, of which £63m was set to be spent on the new rail connection.

The project had already been pushed back in 2021 as Medway Council couldn’t get plans in place quickly enough, and now increased costs are being cited as the reason for the plans being abandoned.

Medway Council are proposing improving bus connections around the peninsula instead, and we all know how well that sort of thing usually goes. Even if improved bus services do materialise, the peninsula faces substantial pressure on its road network, with the majority of traffic entering and exiting via Four Elms Hill, with delays a regular occurrence.

Obviously, there is no one solution for the peninsula in the long term. Whatever residents and local representatives of the area may think, the housing is coming no matter what, as Medway needs to catch up from failing to meet targets year after year.

While improved roads and new bus services will be welcome, the lack of a more sustainable form of transport on and off the peninsula like the proposed rail link will be a blow to the future of the area in terms of accessibility and air pollution levels.

Last year, I wrote a piece about how difficult it seems to be to get anything built in Medway, housing or otherwise. Many residents and representatives seem happy to just let Medway stagnate, and stick their heads in the sand on the levels of housing and infrastructure we so desperately need.

This isn’t sustainable over the long term. We need to accept what the future of Medway looks like and have bigger ambitions about how to make it the best it can be. A fairly simple rail connection to a growing residential area shouldn’t be this difficult.

But somehow it is. And will likely continue to be for the foreseeable future.

We might get a winery after all

A planning enquiry for the Kentish Wine Vault plans in Cuxton got underway this week, following their rejection by Medway Council last year.

The project would have seen a significant tourist destination created in Medway, with England’s largest vineyard and winery built within an architecturally distinct design by Norman Foster.

Kentish Wine Vault proposal

Medway Council officers endorsed the plans, but Medway councillors rejected them, largely because of the traffic it would bring to the area.

Conversely, Canterbury City Council this week approved a similar scale winery that will bring 400 new jobs to their city.

This again speaks to the lack of ambition in our towns. This would have created an internationally significant destination alongside the employment and tourism that comes with that, but instead, we’d rather keep a field.

It isn’t all doom and gloom for fans of the winery though, as the owners are making it very clear that they will likely build the development anyway even if they lose the appeal as permitted development rights would allow them to. It does rather beg the question why they didn’t do that in the first place, but it seems likely we’ll end up with the winery in Medway sooner or later.

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One thing we are allowed to build

While Medway might have trouble building housing, infrastructure, or anything vaguely fun, it is remarkably good at building new supermarkets.

Medway Council officers have proposed granting planning permission to a new Lidl store in Strood, situated at the entrance to Medway Valley Park. This is a good thing for retail variety in Medway as the only other Lidl in the towns opened in Gillingham last year.

Proposed new Lidl store in Strood

Similarly to how Asda tried to block Lidl's opening in Gillingham, this time Aldi has gone to great lengths in an attempt to block this new store, sending in a 9-page objection to Medway Council.

As they can’t just say “we don’t want the competition”, they have come up with an elaborate set of reasons to oppose the plans that broadly centre around a lack of impact assessment and the fact Lidl aren’t trying to open on the old Civic Centre site instead. The last point seems particularly strange given that site wasn’t available for retail development and would just add to the clutter of supermarkets in Strood town centre.

Aldi’s objections seem unlikely to stop the plans, but we’ll find out for certain when Medway Council votes on the plans this week.

Covid in numbers

Hospitalisations: There are currently 35 patients being treated for covid in Medway Hospital, with 4 of them on a ventilator. This is up 25% from last week and represents the highest ventilation figure since September. It comes in a week when testing was withdrawn yet further.

Deaths: 1 new death was recorded this week, taking Medway to 1,019 covid deaths in total.

More Medway music videos

It’s been a big month for music videos shot in Medway. Following on from Venbee’s release last week set all over the towns, two more videos released this week were shot at Chatham Dockyard.

First up is a new release from Irish pop group B*Witched, who I vaguely remember from the 90s and was surprised to discover were still making music. But making music they are, and shooting videos in Chatham no less. The song is pretty meh, and the video is just set in one of the giant boat warehouses (I’m sure there’s a technical term for these, but you don’t need to write in with it), but it’s another local production at least.

Next up, a young upstart called Edward Sheeran has been in town recording a new version of his latest single at the Dockyard. The video was shot in The Tarred Yarn Store, which has been used for several high-profile film productions. Again, the song itself is pretty nothing, and even the presence of The National’s Aaron Dessner isn’t enough to elevate it.

If nothing else though, these kinds of shoots, alongside the extensive film production at the Dockyard is cementing the site as a place where significant artistic productions can be done, which is only good for Medway as a whole.

More Authority

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Stray Links

• A planning inspector has told a developer to demolish flats in Gillingham (KentOnline). It comes after the developer built more than they had permission for, but are now trying to play the victim. Hilarious stuff.

• More giant table content, this time in video form (KMTV). I can’t get enough of this table, which is on display for the next year at Rochester Cathedral.

• No one is using the bike storage area at Chatham station (KentOnline). It’s in an area with few viable cycle routes and costs £25 for three months to use.

Footnotes

Over three-quarters of the general admission tickets have been booked for our debate ahead of the local elections. It’ll take place on April 19 at MidKent College in Gillingham. Don’t forget to book your free ticket and submit a question for our potential future leaders.

If you hear about any Medway news that might be of interest, let me know! Hit reply to message me directly, DM me on Twitter, or leave a comment below.

Music that soundtracked the creation of this newsletter: Quarterboy by Quarterbacks, Waitsgiving by Fishboy, Dissatisfactions by Onsind, and Foil Deer by Speedy Ortiz.