Medway Council approves Local Plan for first time since 2003
Plus Illustrated Lives exhibition, Poetry in the garden, library news, our weekly events guide, and more
Our Friday editions are usually a politics-free zone focusing on culture in our towns, but we’re breaking with that today after Medway Council approved a Local Plan last night for the first time since 2003. We have a sketch of the proceedings from the meeting. After that, we return to familiar territory with news of a new exhibition at Sun Pier House, an upcoming poetry event, some library news, a new side project, our weekly events guide, and lots more.
Medway Council pre- determines Local Plan outcome
Earlier in the week we reported that Medway Council might finally get a Local Plan completed. While we aren’t quite there, the process moved considerably closer at last night’s special council meeting, as councillors approved the proposed version of the plan, which will now move to formal consultation and government inspection before taking effect.
It was immediately notable at the start of the meeting that Strood North and Frindsbury Labour councillor Stephen Hubbard wasn’t in attendance after we reported on his Facebook comments that seemed to indicate pre-determination on the plan. Councillors are supposed to listen to all the evidence and debate before making up their mind on the plan, which is somewhat challenging to do when you’ve already told your residents how you plan to vote a week early. As such, it appears Medway Council’s legal officer strongly encouraged him to avoid the meeting.
This was, of course, the right thing to do under the circumstances, but it didn’t stop the meeting descending into repeated instances of councillors speaking in a manner that suggested they had already pre-determined their position on the plan. Multiple Labour councillors made it clear they were supporting the plan relatively early on. Still, things reached a crescendo with Deputy Leader of the Conservative Group Gary Hackwell declaring that “the Conservative Group will not be supporting the plan.” The legal officer declared this an “unfortunate turn of phrase” rather than pre-determination. By the time Cllr Alex Hyne (Con) declared he would be voting the plan down halfway through the meeting, Labour councillors were throwing their arms in the air in exasperation and asking what the point was in having rules if there were no consequences to breaking them. The Mayor, chairing the meeting, and the legal officer, seemed to take little interest in these breaches, taking a position that “we need to keep the debate going because it’s too important not to,” and instead highlighting the complaints system.
Of course, the rules on pre-determination are perhaps rather silly in their own right. Despite the repeated reminders that councillors should approach the matter with an open mind and not in line with a party position, by complete coincidence, every single Labour councillor in the room voted for the plan, with every single Conservative, Independent Group, and Reform councillor voting against it. It appears that the only councillor who seriously wrestled with the choice was independent Chris Spalding, who tried to balance what he seemed to think was a bad plan overall for the Hoo Peninsula but a good plan for his particular ward. He ended up voting in favour of it, the only non-Labour councillor to do so, with the final vote being 31-23 in favour of the plan.
The flashpoints in the debate primarily seemed to come around the ongoing argument over Chatham Docks, with workers turning up in numbers to lobby for their workplace to not be designated as suitable for residential development. When the vote came down that it would be, cries of “traitor,” “shame on you,” and “turncoat” were shouted at Labour councillors who once stood on a platform of saving the site.
Medway’s prospective Local Plan will now move to a formal consultation that starts this Monday and will run for six weeks. After that, the plan will move to the government’s Planning Inspectorate, which will assess its soundness, and if they are happy, Medway can implement it, in a best case scenario, by the end of next year. Just in time for Medway to be abolished…
We’ll have more on the Local Plan in our upcoming Tuesday briefing, as well as comments from those on all sides of the debate. In the meantime, you can watch the full Local Plan debate here:
Illustrated lives
Simon Mills has released the first volume of his two-part autobiography. He and his partner, Bronach Rae, are hosting an exhibition at Sun Pier House to celebrate and highlight this achievement. The exhibition is on now, but we caught up with them both to find out more, should you wish to visit and meet them on its final day, Saturday 28 June.
I ask them what they want to discuss first, the exhibition or the book, which are connected. “Oh, very much so,” says Simon. The exhibition is called Autobiography, Illustrated Lives. “I've written my autobiography, and Bronach said, ‘Why don't we put on a show that is about our lives, but expressed in a visual way?’”.
Simon’s part of the show will feature work from his entire life, from the 1950s through to the 2020s, “eight decades, which is quite frightening.” To achieve this, Simon has included drawings from when he was a child, “from when I was three years old,” up to “a half-finished piece” that Simon is partway through at the moment. Similarly, the book that has been released and is part of the exhibition, “doesn't chart the whole of my life.” Simon has completed the first half, with Volume 1 going up to 1990. The second half will come out later this year.
Simon is a working artist and predominantly paints landscapes, and “since living down here in Kent, I've been painting local scenes, but also travelling further afield.” Simon has also painted portraits, town scenes, architectural “stuff” and murals. He has also painted scenery for the theatre. “I've been surviving with my paintbrush for a long time.”
Bronach has a very different background. “My work is collage, and that comes from my love of doing really small things.” The piece she has produced for the exhibition, however, is life-size, with the concept being an “idea I had in the middle of the night.” The piece is “a little bit political,” featuring all the things “I've done since I was born, up to now, as a woman, paid and unpaid.” It became a huge list.
Bronach didn’t want to elaborate during the interview, wanting to keep it secret for those who actually see it in the exhibition. “I think some of it might be a bit challenging, because it's trying to be as truthful as possible,” but “obviously to protect the guilty at the same time.” She highlights that the good thing about exhibiting with Simon is that “we're artists, we're not rivals,” and that they quite often collaborate.
Bronach reflects, “I don't have an artistic background. I have a background of making things and being creative spontaneously with groups of young people.” I ask when they first collaborated. “It's interesting,” says Simon, who will often ask for Bronach’s thoughts on the artwork he produces. “I think I first realised that Bronach was an artist, even though she wasn't making art,” Simon tells me about walking in Shropshire and marvelling at her ability to recognise what vistas would make great paintings.
Their collaboration extends to their home, where “the downstairs loo has a sort of Matisse style cutout thing on the wall, which is very old-fashioned, which we did together,” says Bronach, as well as collages that Simon entered into paintings, which became “a headboard for our bed.” Simon and Bronach met online when they both entered their details into a website, Simon not realising that he would get emails from women, and Bronach being told that her profiled personality was “too challenging.”
That was 16 years ago, when Simon, who lived in London at the time, agreed to meet Bronach in Rochester for a drink in a pub. When they couldn’t find a place to move on to for a cup of tea, Bronach invited Simon back to hers, and the rest, as they say, is in Volume 2.
The exhibition is free and finishes tomorrow (Sat 28 June). Simon and Bronach both expect to be there, and will be selling some examples of their work, as well as copies of Simon’s book. If you cannot attend, Simon takes orders via his Facebook or Instagram.
Poetry in the garden
On 10 July, there will be a cross collaboration between Medway River Lit and Medway Open Studios at the Hazlenut Press, who are hosting Poetry in the Garden. We spoke to Sam and Barry Fentiman-Hall to find out more.
As part of Medway Open Studios, Sam Hall will be exhibiting as part of the Hazelnut Press for the days of the festival. “I shall be selling my graphic novels, but also some original artwork that I've made.” She will also be launching her new Medway comic.
Part one of the new (possibly ten-part) series about people who may be Greek gods stranded without powers in Medway in modern times, or as Sam puts it, perhaps they are “just delusional”. The comic is suitable for those 14 years and over and is written and drawn by Sam. “Imagine you're stranded on earth, powerless, 43 minutes from London. Worst than that, though, nobody believes who you are.” Published via Wordsmithery, the book is currently only available via Medway Open Studios and will cost £6.
Sam wanted to finish something new in time for Medway Open Studios, “because I need a deadline to work to.” Sam has known Heather Haythornthwaite, of Hazlenut Press, for 15 years. “She was one of the first people I met when I moved to Medway.” Heather has been involved with a number of Wordsmithery projects going back to their first festival, Welcome to Cloisterham.
The Poetry in the Garden event will be cross-disciplinary as well as the “climax to events on the 10th.” The poetry in the garden is art-related, with Barry Fentiman-Hall performing a poem about Chagall windows down at the All Saints’ church in Tudeley. Barry highlights there will also be a “once in a lifetime event,” as Sam will also be performing poetry. They will also be joined by Bethany Goodwill and David Dykes of Big Trouble fame, “the runners of the longest and frankly, these days, best live lit night in Medway.”
Sam will also be hosting two workshops during Medway Open Studios. On 16 July, a workshop called Comic Book Conventions will introduce people to how to get started writing a comic. On 19 July will be Your Medway Zine, where attendees can learn how to create folded zines and structure longer form comics, because “zines are basically a really good way to get into making comics.”
The Poetry in the Garden event is ticketed, with money raised going towards this year’s Medway River Lit festival. Priced at £6, there are limited tickets available. Excitingly, you can only book via a secret link. “You won't find it from the main page,” you would need to find an organisation willing to share a link…
Medway library news
Should you need a book from Medway Library that they don’t have in stock, the good news is that you can order it via the SELMS system, which will reserve the book at any participating library in the UK and deliver the book for you to collect from your local library (or in Medway, perhaps a community hub).
The less-than-good news is that the non-refundable reservation charge to order a book through SELMS has increased by a third from £3 to £4. The powers in charge told us that the increase for this financial year was the first since April 2013. The charge contributes towards staff time, packaging and transportation costs, but doesn’t cover the whole expense.
In the last financial year in Medway, 1,728 items were sent to SELMS partners either as a return or a reservation. Of these, 313 were Medway items being reserved, the remaining 1,415 were items being returned from Medway to their original location.
We were also curious about this story in the Guardian about requests to libraries to remove books. Medway Council told us that in the past five years, only one request came in through a review left for the book. This was in January 2023, and the book wasn’t removed from our libraries. They assured us that a book would only be removed from circulation if it didn’t align with the stock management policy.
Medwayish launches crowdfunding project
If you want to help fund exciting new projects by local creatives, especially through the development stage, our side quest, Medwayish, is calling out for patrons.
Patreon will be the home for this endeavour. We are also launching Medwayish Books, a book imprint, and Medwayish Sounds, a record imprint. Patrons can choose to support Medway creatives as a wider group or directly support music or writing projects. The goal is to find at least 100 passionate supporters to help build a research and development budget to support local creatives.
Patreon supporters will receive original items, physical and digital, behind the scenes details, and insights into the creative process. Most importantly, you will directly help make things happen in Medway. The first item, exclusively available to our Patreon supporters, is this exclusive pin badge designed by Medway’s master of pin badges, Ben Cameron.
Are you a fan of holding things? Would you like to support Medway creatives? Visit the Medwayish Patreon to find out more about the membership tiers.
Events this week
🎸 Sat 28 Jun - Careful Now Medway Foodbank Fundraiser // All day festival of music featuring excellent indiepop bands, including Tugboat Captain. Oast Community Centre, Rainham. Tickets £18.
🎸 Wed 2 Jul - Crywank + support // Anti-folk trio play special summer show in Rochester. Three Sheets to the Wind, Rochester. Tickets £15.
🎸 Thu 3 Jul - Kicking Against Nothing // Medway grassroots music showcase featuring Dockyard, Angered Kenneth, and the Friedrichs. Poco Loco, Chatham. Tickets £5.
💡 3 - 16 Jul - Filaments exhibition // Collective of five contemporary artists using various media. Halpern Gallery, Chatham. Free.
Footnotes
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Just got to say, that art piece, the face, is glorious. What detail. I am wowed.