Medway Council asks itself to build a pier
Plus baffling new garden waste plan, Local Plan consultation is live, news in brief, and more
For an urban area named for the river that runs through the middle of it, Medway isn’t great at using the water's opportunities. This reached a low point in 2022 when Rochester Pier was allowed to crumble into the river. Now, there’s a new plan to get the town back on the water. Further down, we have details of Medway’s baffling new garden waste subscription plan that you almost certainly don’t need, the start of the formal Local Plan consultation, news in brief, and more.
Medway Council asks itself to build a pier
In February, we broke the news that Medway Council was considering building a new docking platform for boats in Rochester.
This followed the previous Rochester Pier being allowed to collapse into the river, as was only natural for an area promoting itself as a thriving waterfront city.
Following an informal consultation with relevant stakeholders, plans are now moving forward to install the platform, intending to open up river access in Rochester once again.
The plans aren’t particularly grand, nor do they represent a proper replacement of Rochester Pier, but those are the austere times we live in.
Limehouse Wharf, located within the new Rochester Riverside development, will become the new location to disembark vessels in Rochester. In a rare moment of unity, everyone seems to favour the plans, with Medway Council, developers Hyde and Countryside, the City of Rochester Society, and (the big one) the Medway and Swale Boating Association all supporting the move.
Only the Rochester Riverside Resident’s Association raised concerns (mostly around parking), but they still supported the move by 70% to 20%, with 10% not being sure either way.
The proposal does seem to have several positive aspects. Being east of Rochester Bridge allows larger vessels to dock than could previously reach Rochester Pier. Further, some operators have already agreed to use the new platform.
Jetstream Tours has agreed to run services from Southend and Queenborough to Rochester weekly for five months of the year. Similarly, the Paddle Steamer Preservation Society pledged to sail the Waverley paddle steamer between London and Rochester for one entire weekend in September.
You may have noted that the one thing this doesn’t seem to be offering is much in the way of accessible river traffic from Rochester itself. The focus here is on delivering tourists to Rochester via boat, which is welcome for the town. Still, hopefully, some further uses that allow access for local residents can also be developed.
There is no timeline for the installation of the new platform, though a full planning application has now been submitted by Medway Council to Medway Council to decide on the plans. Given that, it seems likely that the plans will be full steam ahead as surely Medway Council won’t reject Medway Council’s application.
Stranger things have happened though…
Medway to launch baffling garden waste subscription plan
For all the jokes about our rubbish collections being in crisis, overall service provision in Medway is pretty good and more frequent than in most other areas.
While most of the country has switched to fortnightly rubbish collections, Medway has stubbornly retained a weekly collection. Times are tough though, and revenue has to be raised somewhere, so Medway Council agreed last week to launch a garden and food waste subscription service.
When looking at the details, it raises inevitable questions about exactly who might choose to use it.
Subscriptions for garden and food waste collection aren’t entirely unusual. Indeed, every other council in Kent operates this system, with residents paying on average £50 to £60 to have their brown bins (or equivalents) collected.
This isn’t what Medway is choosing to implement though. They intend to retain a weekly free collection of garden and food waste, and you’ll only need to pay if you want to get rid of above and beyond what fits in your brown bin.
Given Medway’s bins are 240 litres in capacity, and the collection is weekly, who is putting out more than an entire brown bin of waste regularly? If you are, we have serious questions about gardening habits, and maybe it’s time to come indoors for a bit.
If you occasionally exceed your brown bin capacity, you’ll probably just throw the extra in a black sack rather than pay £40 for an annual subscription. As a result, it’s hard to imagine this being taken up by anyone other than the most hardcore of gardeners.
To be fair to Medway Council, they aren’t expecting a high uptake. Their own report suggests an uptake between 2% and 5%. Even those figures feel like they are bordering on the optimistic.
With implementation costs of up to £50,000, that’s a lot of subscribers before the new service can even break even.
Is it going to prove worth it?
Local Plan consultation is now open
Last week, we ran through the highlights from Medway’s latest Local Plan consultation. Long-time readers will know that Medway has been lacking a plan for two decades despite being legally compelled to have one, and now an updated one is being put out for consultation again.
Having previously consulted last year, we’re back for another go this year, and now Medway Council has identified three potential plans for development. One that focuses on brownfield sites, one on greenfield, and one that aims to annoy everyone just a bit by blending the two.
Of course, it’s that third one that Medway Council prefer.
Most excitingly, we now have a full map of the council’s preferred outcome, which is rather better than our screenshots from parts of it last week. The map gives a clearer overview of the areas facing development between now and 2041.
It should be noted that an orange area doesn’t mean the location will be littered with homes. It can also mean development for employment uses, which seems to be the plan around Kingsnorth and Grain.
That said, most of the spaces above are likely to become homes, pending developers' plans and council approval. Swathes of land around Hoo and the Capstone Valley, as well as a large area east of Rainham and Chatham Docks, are facing development.
These plans are likely to be controversial, and Medway Council are seeking your input as part of the formal Local Plan consultation. There are reams of pages to go through, and consultation software that is nearly impossible to navigate without a computer science, but you’re welcome to have a go if you’re feeling lucky.
The Local Plan consultation is now open and runs until September 8. You can also attend an in-person event to learn more and speak to the officers involved.
In brief
🌲 Eight Medway parks have retained their Green Flag status. Broomhill Park, Capstone Farm Country Park, Gillingham Park, Hillyfields Community Park, Riverside Country Park, The Great Lines Heritage Park, The Vines Gardens, and Ranscombe Farm Reserve all received the accolade.
🏊 Cozenton Park Sports Centre opens tomorrow, and that is all we can say about that.
🎙️ Kent Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Scott is a podcaster now. He and three other Conservative PCCs who are part of ReBuild, a new think tank, discuss the election results and where the party goes next.
Can you help us?
🏚️ We’re still eager to hear from anyone knowledgeable about the Spembley building in Chatham. We’d particularly like to speak to anyone who lived on the site in recent years, anyone involved in it’s conversion to flats, and anyone who has accessed the site since it was vacated.
We’re happy to speak off the record in the first instance. If you can help us, please email hello@localauthority.news - thanks!
More Authority
This week's interview was with artist Wendy Daws of the Mess Room and Medway Open Studios. We spoke with Wendy about what happens at the Mess Room, the effect of closing UCA on Medway, working with tactile art, and more.
Footnotes
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Music that soundtracked the creation of this edition: Two White Cranes by Two White Cranes, Sentimental Scum by Suzie True, and Fuck These Fuckin Fascists by The Muslims.
To use more than one brown bin a week you must be a commercial gardener. The council need hanging if they waste 50k on a scheme like this.
Predictably, you referenced your own joke before I could. Although, in hindsight, Medway council may have had a point about Medway council's roof...