Medway Matters Live hits different in Hoo
Plus Tesco tries again, one week until Medway Question Time, news in brief, and more
Medway Council held their latest Medway Matters Live event this week, visiting the Hoo Peninsula for the first time. As you might expect, a lively and robust exchange of views was had. We’ve got the full details below. Further down, we have news of Tesco having another go at opening a store in Rochester, details of our next Medway Question Time event next week, news in brief, and more.
Editor’s note: Thanks for the great response to the launch of the Kent Current, our second title. We had an amazing first week, with our first news briefing focusing on the upcoming KCC elections, we got to interview legendary illustrator Ralph Steadman, and yesterday, we went behind the scenes of the local wrestlers at UKPW. We’ve got some great pieces planned over there in the coming weeks, so please subscribe for free if you’re interested in getting the latest from across the county.
Medway Matters Live hits different in Hoo
Politicians are public servants who only exist at the whim of the electorate, which can inevitably mean they can serve as punching bags when meeting the public. Such as it was when Medway Council rolled into Hoo last week for their latest Medway Matters Live event with the Leader and Deputy Leader of the council alongside the Chief Executive and his Deputy.
This is the third of these events that Medway Council has put on since Labour took control of the council two years ago. Each has followed the same format. Medway Council Leader Vince Maple talks about the current challenges in local government, Chief Executive Richard Hicks talks about how brilliant Medway is to work, rest, and play. No, wait, that’s Mars bars. Hicks’ schtick is live, work, learn, and visit, but close enough.
The first and second events, in Rainham and Chatham respectively, featured some challenging questions but were, on the whole, good natured discussions between the two men representing the council and local residents.
The event in Hoo last Wednesday night hit different.
The Hoo Peninsula has a somewhat different politics to the rest Medway. The area, seemingly frustrated with substantial development in the area, has largely rejected mainstream politicians and chosen to send independents to Gun Wharf instead. All four council seats on the peninsula are now independent, alongside two of the three in neighbouring Strood Rural.
Indeed, in the run up to the event, Deputy Leader of the Independent Group, Cllr Michael Pearce, raised concerns about the event. He wrote to Richard Hicks asking to be included on the panel to represent the political makeup of the area better. Unsurprisingly, Medway Council weren’t interested in his participation, in the same way the Conservatives didn’t get to take part in the two previous events in Tory-held wards.
Whether it is right for a council to spend money on events like this is a valid question. Ironically, the events take on the name of the Medway Council-produced magazine that Cllr Maple and Medway Labour spent years calling propaganda and pledging to end. Of course, now they are in power, Medway Matters continues to arrive regularly on our doormats, and now we have these events as well.
Politicians facing the public and answering questions can only be a good thing, and that is the bulk of what makes up Medway Matters Live. But akin to a questionable timeshare hard sell, you have to sit through half an hour of Vince and Richard telling you how well everything is going in Medway first.
Obviously, it’s the question and answer segment that everyone in the audience has come for, and inevitably, the first question is about overdevelopment and a lack of infrastructure, themes that we’ll return to throughout the night. The questioner seemingly decides to go for five or six questions rather than the customary one and then asks how many homes in the area are going to Medway residents before demanding a new hospital and getting very upset about water levels. Hicks and Maple begin an effort to answer some of the points but don’t get very far before the questioner shouts back at them. Finally, after responses that stumble all over the place and further heckling from the audience, the man finally gives his microphone up, and we can move on to question two. 17 minutes have elapsed.
The next questioner asks about connectivity, seemingly being more open to new homes in the area but claiming the road network isn’t suitable. That there is only one road on or off the peninsula is a regular concern in these concerns, and indeed valid, even if the questioner exaggerates things somewhat by claiming people are ‘regularly’ stuck in four-hour traffic jams to get in and out of the area. Hicks responds that they had plans to build an additional road onto the peninsula using £170m Housing Infrastructure Fund money that the previous government withdrew.
The back and forth here leads to perhaps the most interesting exchange of the night. A disgruntled man shouts about not wanting houses and tries to rally those in the audience for a show of hands against more houses being built. Around a third of the audience raised their hands. Deputy Leader of Medway Council Cllr Teresa Murray asks the audience to raise their hands if they think we need to build homes for the next generation, and around the same number raise their hands again. With the momentum behind her, Murray launches into a robust argument for building new homes and reducing the housing crisis that, surprisingly, garners the largest round of applause of the night. This isn’t to say the residents of the Hoo Peninsula have fully embraced the YIMBY cause, but perhaps things aren’t as clear cut as some would have people believe.
Another questioner asked if Rochester and Strood MP Lauren Edwards even knew where the peninsula is, gaining one of the crowd laughs of the night, before claiming all new houses in Hoo were going to people moving down from London. Slightly awkwardly, Hicks cited our feature looking at the figures behind that concept to push back against it.
Questions followed on the free t-shirts given out at the Medway Mile when free swimming has been cut, the mix of housing types in the area, and how Section 106 money from developers gets used. It’s all interesting stuff, but whether or not anyone would have had their mind changed on anything is another matter.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, one person who didn’t have his mind changed was Cllr Pearce, who, in a snazzy video after the event, described it as ‘propaganda’ and said he would be chasing down whether it was an appropriate use of council funds.
Apparently the next Medway Matters Live event will take place in October at MidKent College in Gillingham, which awkwardly leads us to…
One week until our Medway Question Time event at MidKent College!
In an unhelpful coincidence of timing and location, our first Medway Question Time event of the year is just over a week away, where you can put questions to an esteemed panel of Medway figures. Unlike Medway Matters Live, we’ll cut straight to the questions, and the only hard sell will be us trying to convince you to subscribe to this very publication.
You’ve already sent us some excellent questions for our panel to answer. We’re still looking for more, so please book your free ticket and submit a question on Medway's current issues.
Our panel for this event features:
Cllr Vince Maple, Labour Leader of Medway Council
Cllr George Perfect, Conservative Leader of the Opposition
Dalia Halpern, Chair of Trustees at Chatham Memorial Synagogue
Richard Morsley, Chief Executive of Chatham Historic Dockyard
The four of them will discuss and debate the issues raised by those submitting questions. We always enjoy these events and can’t wait for this one. As always, tickets are free, but booking is essential.
Tesco tries again
Back in January, we wrote about Tesco withdrawing their licence application to open a new Express store next door to Rochester station following a number of objections to the plan. We’ve somehow reached a point where a convenience store next to a railway station is a problem, but let’s ignore that for now.
At the time, Kent Police, Medway Council’s Public Health team, and various members of the public, mainly on the grounds of the level of alcohol-related crime in the area. The fact that the area is Medway’s nightlife capital and across the road from a nightclub wasn’t an issue, but Tesco selling someone some alcohol in the evening might be.
Following the withdrawal, Tesco has returned with a new plan, allowing them to open between 6am and midnight but only sell alcohol between 10am and 9pm on most days, but with an even earlier restriction of 8pm on Fridays and Saturdays. So, as some residents requested, you’ll be able to get tanked up in the Casino Rooms until 3am on a Friday, but you won’t be able to pick up a bottle of wine when getting off the train on the way home from work.
As tends to be the way of things, this hasn’t made anyone even happier. Medway Council Public Health still objects, as do two members of the public and Sarah Tranter, former Chair of the Rochester City (sic) Centre Forum, though Kent Police don’t seem to be as fussed this time around.
The application will be discussed at Medway Council’s Licensing Hearing Panel next Tuesday (15 Apr). You can read all of the documents around the issue here.
In brief
🥕 Medway is set to get a new farm shop, with Myatts of Mockbeggar opening soon in Cliffe Woods. The shop will presumably replace the former Mockbeggar Farm Shop, which closed at the start of the year.
🏡 Plans have been submitted to convert the former Natwest bank in Rainham High Street into an estate agent. Robinson, Michael & Jackson plan to take on the unit, replacing their existing location further along the street.
🏗️ An application for 75 new homes in Hoo has been submitted by Dean Lewis Estates. The site, north of Stoke Road to the east of the village, would act as an extension to a neighbouring recent development.
🧒 Residents of Hoo are upset about a former drug house being converted into a children’s home. The house was previously used to grow over 1,000 cannabis plants, had a massive pile of rubbish outside, and was left open and unlocked after the police raided it, but the new plans will cause ‘aggravation’ apparently.
🚚 A lorry has crashed into the Bryant Road railway bridge in Strood. Again.
More Authority
For our Sunday interview this week, we sat down with Genevieve Tullberg, gallery manager at The Halpern Gallery in Chatham, to discuss the challenges of exhibiting and selling art and lots more.
Coming up later this week, beyond our free culture briefing, we’ve got a feature on the vicar in Rainham trying to make his church into the town’s destination art venue, and on Sunday, we’ll be sitting down with the newly elected councillor and Reform group leader, David Finch. As ever, our features and interviews are exclusively for our paid supporters, so please consider upgrading if you’d like to receive them.
Over on our new Kent Current title, we’ve had a bumper first week. On Saturday, we interviewed the legendary illustrator Ralph Steadman, while yesterday, we went behind the scenes of local grapplers United Kingdom Pro Wrestling. We won’t keep plugging Kent Current content here, so please subscribe for free to ensure you don’t miss out on what we’re up to over there.
Footnotes
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Music that soundtracked the creation of this edition: Torch Song by Radiator Hospital, Searching For A Stream by Garden Centre, and Bless My Psyche by Sincere Engineer.