Medway Council to sell off Temple Manor, Gillingham Business Park, Rainham Shopping Centre, and 27 more sites
Plus a quiet change in the Labour administration, cutting down trees for vague reasons, Lower Thames Crossing delayed again, news in brief, and more
It’s no secret that Medway Council finds itself in a dire financial situation. A new plan proposes raising £35m by selling off 30 properties, with heritage assets like Temple Manor and major business sites like Gillingham Business Park and Rainham Shopping Centre facing the chop. We’ve got the full details below. Further down, we have news of a quiet change within the Labour administration, an effort to cut down trees in Chatham for questionable reasons, a decision on the Lower Thames Crossing being delayed again, news in brief, and more.
Medway Council to sell off 30 properties
Medway Council is set to sell off 30 properties that it owns to generate £35m in revenue as efforts to close its large budget gap continue.
Significant sites from the council’s portfolio are on the chopping block, including the entirety of Gillingham Business Park, Temple Manor in Strood, and Rainham Shopping Centre.
While the 30 properties currently generate £1.6m each year in revenue, it is estimated that disposing of them will allow the council to reduce debt payments by £2.7m per year, giving a net saving of £1.1m per year.
These properties are all deemed ‘non-operational’, so they are not directly involved in council operations. A further review of operational facilities will be undertaken in the future, where the council will consider the fate of libraries, museums, youth clubs, car parks, care facilities, community hubs, theatres, business units and more.
But for now, non-operational properties are seen as a quick fix as they are easier to dispose of without disrupting services.
So, what is on the chopping block?
20 sites in Medway are proposed for sale:
Land to the southeast of the end of North Dane Way Lordswood
Land at 126-150 Chatham Hill
Warren Wood Social Club, Rochester
Rainham District Shopping Centre
Industrial Estate, Railway Street, Gillingham
Indoor Bowls Club, Prince Arthur Road, Gillingham
Gillingham Business Park
Northbank House, Sir Thomas Longley Road, Rochester
Ground Floor Shop, 23-25 High Street, Brompton
Britton Farm Shopping Centre, High Street, Gillingham
Former Fire Station and Public Toilets Arches, New Cut, Chatham
Temple Manor, Knight Road, Strood, Rochester
Site of 121-129 The Brook, Chatham
Capstone Farm, Capstone Road, Farmland adjacent to Capstone
Farm Country Park, Chatham
Eastcourt & Mariners Fields Farmland adjacent to Riverside Country
Park, Gillingham
Land and building rear of 70 Maidstone Road, Rochester
Stirling Sports Centre, Maidstone Road, Rochester
Eastgate Cottage, High Street, Rochester
Land at Abbotts Court Farm, Bredhurst, Gillingham
Gillingham Golf Club, Woodlands Road, Gillingham
The land at North Dane Way is interesting as it is the fabled ‘ransom strip’ that Medway Council has refused to sell to developers wanting to build on Gibraltar Farm for years. With Medway Council finally granted planning permission for the site, it is the last chance to make money by selling the land to access the site, allowing it to connect to North Dane Way in Lordswood rather than country lanes in Hempstead.
The entire areas of Gillingham Business Park and Rainham Shopping Centre are set to be sold, as is Gillingham Golf Club. Britton Farm Shopping Centre, recently converted into a health centre, and the former fire station in Chatham that now houses the Gurkha Fire restaurant also make the list.
Two heritage sites make the list, with Eastgate Cottage in Rochester and Temple Manor in Strood likely to be seeking new owners. Some sites are random shops or relatively trivial buildings, with some random unused land plots. Potentially the most curious are the large swathes of land around Capstone Farm, Abbotts Court Farm in Hempstead, and fields alongside Riverside Country Park. Given the scale and location of these sites, it’s hard not to imagine that enterprising developers may look at them with glee.
Further, the council is set to sell ten sites outside of Medway. Most of these are distribution warehouses for a food company called Bobby’s that the council invested in to make money, though some industrial units around Snodland also make the list.
Selling property in itself isn’t cheap. Medway Council are proposing adding £1.2m to the budget over three years to cover the cost of selling the sites. But with the kind of figures they are seeking to raise from the offloading, that may well seem like a small price to pay.
Medway Council’s Regeneration, Culture and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee will consider the proposals this Thursday. You can read the full report on the issue via Medway Council’s website.
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Whipping up a change
There has been a quiet change within the Labour administration of Medway Council as Cllr Gareth Myton has stood down as the Group Whip and been replaced by Cllr Eddie Peake.
Cllr Myton had been the Group Whip since Labour took control of Medway Council, tasked with keeping councillors organised and handling any disciplinary issues within the group.
The task can’t have been made easy after controversial tweets from new Rochester and Strood MP Lauren Edwards surfaced recently, while she also remained a Medway councillor. This led to an awkward situation where Cllr Myton and Leader Vince Maple would have been responsible for deciding any disciplinary action. No action has been taken against Edwards.
The new Group Whip is Cllr Eddie Peake, who has represented Wayfield and Weeds Wood since last year. He adds the role to his busy schedule, where he also sits on the Councillor Conduct Committee, the Health and Wellbeing Board, the Licensing and Safety Committee, the Planning Committee, the Police and Crime Panel, and the Regeneration, Culture and Environment Overview and Scrutiny Committee. Phew.
Chopping trees for vague reasons
For unclear reasons, Medway Council plans to chop down two trees next to Luton Arches in Chatham. The rules around removing trees are tight, and most tree felling is carried out for safety reasons. When a tree is planned for removal, a council must conduct a public consultation by putting a notice on it and uploading the details to an obscure part of its website.
Of course, if the trees happen to be in a central reservation that is inaccessible to the public, it might be easy for the public notices to be missed, so shout out to the Arches Local community group for spotting that Medway wishes to cut down two trees next to Luton Arches.
Curiously, the reason for the removal of the trees is cited as blocking rail signals on the track on the above viaduct. This seems somewhat curious, given recent pictures of the trees, where they don’t appear to reach the height of the railway. Even if they do, it seems unusual that it wouldn’t be possible to prune the trees so they do not interfere with the railway operation. It is also worth noting that nowhere in the documents about felling the trees is there any indication that a request has come from Network Rail or Southeastern.
Supposedly, the trees will be replaced with trees of a more suitable size if permission is granted for their removal. Of course, this is the minimum that should happen. It’s hard to entirely believe, given that a large tree on the east side of Luton Arches was removed around 2020, and no replacement was ever planted.
If you have any opinion on the proposed felling of these streets, you can provide Medway Council with feedback via their obscure tree consultation website before 21 October.
Lower Thames Crossing decision delayed yet again
In the grand tradition of this country never being able to build infrastructure, the decision on whether or not to build the Lower Thames Crossing has been delayed once again. The final decision on the road tunnel between Kent and Essex that will depart just west of Medway was due last week, then this week, and now it’ll be May next year.
With the Dartford Crossing overloaded, journeys between Kent and Essex are notoriously unreliable. The £9bn crossing would have relieved the existing crossing and opened up journey options, making crossing between Medway and pretty much anywhere north of the Thames much faster.
The Lower Thames Crossing has been discussed for decades, with a preferred route chosen in 2017 and a planning application submitted in 2020. It will take until at least 2025 to reach a decision, and it is almost certain that the already delayed opening date of 2032 will now be missed.
The crossing has remained controversial due to the amount of countryside it will tear through and how much road capacity it will add at a time when we are trying to reduce emissions. Still, the scheme has large numbers of supporters who argue that the current system isn’t economically and environmentally sustainable.
We won’t rehash the arguments here, but we did enjoy this recent piece by journalist and writer James O’Malley on why even car-hating urbanists should support building it.
In brief
💷 440 Medway residents are estimated to be eligible for Pension Credit but aren’t claiming it. Pension Credit would make someone eligible for Winter Fuel Allowance and additional support.
💉 Covid vaccinations are now available to eligible groups. Many Medway pharmacies offer a walk-in service and the usual booked appointments.
🍔 Medway Council banned opening new takeaways near schools in 2014 to curb childhood obesity. Ten years on, obesity rates in Medway children have continued to increase.
⛽ Several people filling up their cars at the Morrisons petrol station in Strood have reported car problems. Morrisons have quickly passed the blame to the company that now operates their petrol stations.
🏗️ Developer Taylor Wimpey has submitted plans for a 450-home development in Hoo. The plans also include retail space, community space, sports facilities, and outdoor space.
💇♂️ Strood Academy has a stupid haircut policy. The school has been removing children from lessons with skin fades for a reason they can’t fully articulate.
More Authority
On Friday, we wrote about the precarious state of Medway’s music scene two years on from the closure of the Royal Function Rooms in Rochester. Venues across our towns have faced rising costs, noise complaints, and council interference. Medway has a long and storied music history, but is the lack of suitable spaces putting its future at risk?
Our weekend interview this week was with Sarah Crouch, Medway musician and potter. She talks about her musical persona, pottery, and living on the River Medway.
Coming up later this week, we’ll be looking at the story behind the Spembley building, an abandoned wreck that looms over the Chatham skyline. It’s a grim reminder that not all regeneration ends well, but what can be done about it?
Footnotes
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Music that soundtracked the creation of this edition: Pity Boy by Mal Blum, Going to Hell by Lande Hekt, and Sick Scenes by Los Campesinos!
This article on the sale of Medway’s bricks and mortar and more brought home to me of the Labour Chancellor Gordon Brown selling off our Gold, and don’t forget the pension debacle. So eventually Medway won’t have a pot to pee in. No forward thinking whatsoever!
Strange that Medway Council seems to think that Sir Thomas Longley Road is in Rochester: I'm pretty sure it's in Frindsbury.