Neighbouring council plans temporary accommodation on Medway’s doorstep
Plus think tank proposes Thames Gateway development corporation, news in brief, and more
Temporary accommodation is essential in the world of housing crisis we find ourselves living in, and neighbouring Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council plans to do its part to provide it by building a £5m complex on the doorstep of Medway. A good thing for residents in need or a savvy move to shift some of the burden elsewhere? We look at the details below. Further down, we also have news of a bold new proposal from a think tank that wants to turn both sides of the Thames Estuary into a turbo-charged development bonanza, news in brief, and more.
Neighbouring council plans temporary accommodation on Medway’s doorstep
A neighbouring council is planning to spend nearly £5m to create a complex of temporary accommodation for people experiencing homelessness on the doorstep of Medway.
Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council intends to convert the former commuter car park in Bluebell Hill into temporary accommodation, which, given its location, has inevitably raised concerns about additional pressures on Medway services.
While the abandoned car park sits within Tonbridge & Malling, it is in a far-flung part of the borough, wedged between three different dual carriageways, and not near any significant settlements in the area. Access to other parts of the borough requires lengthy journeys along high-speed dual carriageways, country lanes, or rural paths, with most walkable locations nearby being in Medway, as the site sits just over the southern border of our area.
All of the nearest essential services for residents of the new accommodation would be located in Medway, with one Tonbridge & Malling councillor speaking at a full council meeting this evening, even highlighting Chatham Asda being a 20 minute walk away as a positive aspect of the scheme. Similarly, the nearest healthcare and education facilities would be located within Medway.
The item was raced through Tonbridge & Malling’s full council meeting this evening, with a small number of councillors from multiple parties all speaking in favour of it Tonbridge & Malling council leader Matt Boughton called the scheme an “exciting proposal.” Still, few details were given in what was the first public discussion of the plans, and none of the publicly available documents set out how many households TMBC plan to house on the site.
We asked Tonbridge & Malling Borough Council if they had engaged with Medway Council on the plans given the location of the site, but they did not respond to us.
On the other hand, Medway Council spokesperson told us that they had received no communication from TMBC:
“There has not been any engagement between Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council and Medway Council on the proposed Bluebell Hill site to date. However, we would welcome the opportunity to engage with colleagues at Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council at the appropriate time to ensure any potential impact these proposed plans may have on Medway’s services and residents are mitigated as best as possible.”
Of course, temporary accommodation for those in need is urgently needed across the southeast, but councils building developments on the edge of other council areas is becoming an increasingly common move as resources are stretched. Whether placing families experiencing homelessness in a remote car park with no immediate access to services and facilities proves positive remains to be seen.
Have a Medway story you think we might be interested in? Get in touch via hello(at)localauthority(dot)news - We’re always happy to talk off the record in the first instance…
Think tank proposes Thames Gateway development corporation
A new report from the Adam Smith Institute has made a bold proposal that Medway should be part of a vast new Urban Development Corporation (UDC), a kind of turbo-charged planning body that could sidestep local councils, attract private developers, and get houses built at pace. If that sounds like a planning free-for-all, that’s kind of the point.
The report, Dwharfing the City, makes the case for reviving the model that gave us London’s Docklands. Back in the 1980s, that meant bypassing dithering councils and building Canary Wharf on top of disused wharves. The authors now want to apply the same treatment to the Thames Gateway, stretching from east London through Essex and deep into north Kent. Medway would be central to this vision.
The proposal would create one giant UDC spanning 17 existing local council areas, including Dartford, Gravesham and Medway. The scale is unapologetically huge, involving hundreds of thousands of homes, billions in investment, and ‘urban transformation’ on a level not seen in Britain since the post-war new towns.
According to the report, Medway provides a prime development opportunity, with a UDC potentially unlocking 8,000 new homes on brownfield sites. The report also cites decent transport thanks to our high-speed rail connections and relatively cheap land.
But this isn’t just about squeezing in more houses. The idea is that areas like Chatham and Gillingham, close enough to London to matter, but far enough out to be affordable, could become new urban hubs in their own right.
What would this look like on the ground? In theory, new homes on brownfield sites, commercial investment, better public transport, and possibly even more glossy PR about riverside living. In practice, a central government-backed body that could override local objections, fast-track planning, and offer incentives to developers to build where councils have stalled or said no.
It’s not hard to see the appeal. Medway has spent years caught between London’s gravitational pull and the inertia of England’s broken planning system. A UDC could bring pace and money to the kind of regeneration politicians keep promising but can never quite deliver.
But it’s also not hard to imagine the pushback. Elected councillors would have limited say, communities could feel overrun, and forcing developers to build what is needed rather than what they want to sell remains a challenge.
As it stands, the report is just a proposal from an enthusiastic think tank. Still, with the Labour government making positive noises about development corporations, this may not be a hypothetical for long.
In brief
🚧 Rochester Pier can’t catch a break. After a large chunk of it fell into the river, the main structure reopened last year, but has been shut again following structural concerns. Medway Council says they are “looking into funding options” for a survey to assess the state of things.
👮 A Kent Police sergeant based in Medway was found to have sexually assaulted a female officer, while at least one other officer worked to protect him against the allegations.
🚒 The remarkably flammable former St John Fisher school building on Ordnance Street was on fire again this week. Six fire engines were needed to bring the blaze under control.
🚓 Police are investigating an alleged assault at a Rochester Castle Live event last week. Facebook posts allege that at least two security guards assaulted attendees before throwing them out of the Symphonic Ibiza event.
🏦 Unsurprisingly, Barclays are set to close its Chatham High Street branch as it opens a new branch at Chatham Dockside.
🛍️ KentOnline have published a remarkable profile of the Pentagon in Chatham. In it, they claim the escalators are “long gone,” and the manager of D&A Toys calls customers “lazy.”
More Authority
For our weekend interview, we sat down with three artists exhibiting work at the Hazelnut Press in Rochester as part of Medway Open Studios. Ionut Bertea, Liz Howe, and Paddy Tutt talk about their artistic practice, how they came to be involved with the Hazelnut Press, and what people can look forward to during Medway Open Studios.
“I've been able to do a lot more than I thought”
Medway Open Studios is on now and runs until July 20th, with multiple events and exhibitions happening across Medway. A number of events will be occurring at the Hazelnut Press in Rochester, so we spoke to three artists - Ionut Bertea, Liz Howe, and Paddy Tutt - at the studio to discuss what people can look forward to, how they came to be involved with Hazelnut Press, and their own artistic practice.
Footnotes
Follow us on social media! We’re on Facebook, Instagram, BlueSky, and Threads, but not that other one.
If you enjoy Local Authority, please share it with your friends, family, associates, and even your enemies. We have no meaningful marketing budget, so we rely on word of mouth from our readers to find new readers. You can even get some sweet, sweet rewards for sending new readers our way. Details here.
Music that soundtracked the creation of this edition: Soft Spots by Adult Mom, Wowee Zowee by Pavement, and Alvvays by Alvvays.
fascinating moment in the Pentagon article where the D&A Toys manager says two completely different things in one quote. "We don’t have to conform. We need to keep on top of the trends and jump on them" Which is it mate?