New Local Plan finally emerges
Plus Medway Council cabinet changes, another Tory councillor quits, Rochester developer proposes fewer homes, news in brief, and more
We’ve been writing about Medway’s lack of a Local Plan for years. Now, a mere 14 months into a Labour administration that said they would get it done, some new proposals are finally here. Of course, no one will be happy with any of them. We’ve taken an initial glance at what is being proposed. Further down, news of three new Medway cabinet holders, a Conservative councillor quitting his group, a frustrating development that aims to bring fewer homes to Rochester, news in brief, and more.
New Local Plan finally emerges
Medway is around two decades late in delivering a Local Plan, a document that all local councils must have to set out for future development in their area. We’ve been writing about this for years, but we might finally be moving towards a deliverable version.
With the new Labour government reinstating mandatory housebuilding targets, Medway must deliver around 28,000 new homes by 2041, the end of the required plan period. Medway needs to deliver 1,658 new homes each year, similar to a new Rochester Riverside development or St. Mary’s Island every year. Unsurprisingly, given recent politics in our towns, Medway has never come particularly close to meeting that target.
When Labour took control of Medway Council last year, they pledged to rapidly get on with delivering a Local Plan, and with these new proposals, there is a chance they will just about scrape one through before the next local elections in 2027. Don’t let anyone tell you that these processes move quickly.
As is often the case with these kinds of things, Medway Council has put together three options: two apocalyptic scenarios (depending on your point of view) and one middle-ground option that no one will be happy with but will ultimately be the least bad.
Option 1 focuses on urban development. This would maximise town centre development, including a huge increase in density. It would need limited amounts of green land, but it is the least of the options. It would involve building on the Green Belt west of Strood, Chatham Docks, and parts of Medway City Estate. The higher density would be significantly more flats being built than houses, likely conflicting with town centre design codes.
Option 2 would see limited regeneration sites, with most coming from greenfield. It would involve significant development around Hoo, Rainham, the Medway Valley, and Darland but retain Chatham Docks and Medway City Estate in their current form. This plan is viewed as not ideal as it would lead to significantly more car-focused developments.
Option 3 is effectively a mix of both. Half of all development would come from brownfield sites, the Green Belt around Strood would be protected, a better mix of housing types could be offered, and land taken around Hoo and Rainham would be less dramatic than in Option 2. However, it would mean the redevelopment of Chatham Docks and parts of Medway City Estate.
Medway Council is making it clear that Option 3 is their preferred option. While no Local Plan option will make everyone happy, this is deemed the most sustainable long-term option.
A consultation will be held to determine which option residents prefer, though it seems to be largely a formality, as these things tend to be. Option 3 is what’s coming.
With that in mind, what can we expect under this future plan? Let’s take a look at some key sites.
Urban centres in Medway will see some significant development, most notably in Chatham and Strood. Chatham will continue in-filling the town centre with new housing, a process that has already begun with recent developments. The area around Chatham rail station will be redeveloped, as will the former UCA campus. Other notable sites in this area include B&M in Chatham, multiple car parks, and areas of Medway City Estate, which faces moving from industrial to industrial with pockets of flats dotted in between.
Of course, building on the peninsula has always been one of the more controversial issues in Medway. Under these Local Plan proposals, most parts of the peninsula will see some development, but as ever, Hoo will be expected to take the brunt, with large developments on most sides of the existing village.
Rainham will also see a large amount of development, mostly to the east of the town, pushing up to the border with Swale. This is less dramatic than the amount proposed in Option 2, which would also take much of the north of the town but will still represent a large amount of growth.
Beyond the peninsula, the most significant development is set to come in the Capstone Valley, where Lordswood and Hempstead will seemingly finally connect, particularly if Maidstone build their Lidsing village project over the border. This will see swathes of rural land converted to residential-led development. Curiously, it also seems to include the development of Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre.
There is plenty of data to review in these maps, and we’ll no doubt return to this issue in the future. It is unavoidable that Medway will change dramatically in the coming years. Now, it’s a matter of deciding exactly what that looks like.
Medway’s Local Plan consultation will begin on July 15 and run until September 8. Following that, a final plan will be published in 2025, and it should be adopted in 2026. There will likely be easy-to-read documents available then, but in the meantime, you can pour over the incredibly slow-loading maps on Medway Council’s website.
Council administration’s first reshuffle
You might have noticed a General Election last week, and Labour did fairly well. In Medway, they swept all three parliamentary seats. Each of the winning MPs was already a Medway Council Cabinet member, presenting the leadership with a challenge to replace them.
While nothing stops MPs from remaining as local cabinet members, it is likely too much responsibility on a practical level. As such, all three new MPs - Lauren Edwards, Tris Osborne, and Naushabah Khan - tendered their resignations from the cabinet yesterday. It should be noted that all three have chosen to remain on as councillors, at least for now.
As a result, Medway now has three new cabinet members:
Cllr Louwella Prenter is now Portfolio Holder for Housing and Homelessness
Cllr Alex Paterson is now Portfolio Holder for Community Safety, Highways and Enforcement
Cllr Nina Gurung is now Portfolio Holder for Heritage, Culture and Leisure
Cllr Gurung is replacing Cllr Harinder Mahil, who has moved from Heritage, Culture and Leisure to Economic and Social Regeneration and Inward Investment.
Cllr Paterson has been a Medway councillor since 2018, while both Cllr Prenter and Cllr Gurung were first elected last year.
Another Conservative quits council group
It’s been a difficult period for the Conservatives, nationally and locally, and today, another of their members decided to quit the Medway Council group.
Strood Rural councillor John Williams resigned from the group this morning with immediate effect, and you may be able to get a sense of how well this was taken by the full statement issued by group leader Cllr George Perfect:
“This morning Cllr John Williams informed me of his resignation from the Conservative Group with immediate effect.
The Medway Conservative Group is focused on holding the Labour and Co-Operative Group to account and developing our plans for the next local elections in 2027.”
Cllr Williams has been a councillor for Strood Rural since 2015.
Speaking to us, Cllr Williams told us that he was disillusioned with how things were going within his party and its failure to listen to its members. He told us that he stayed on until now because he wanted to support Kelly Tolhurst's re-election efforts.
For now, he says he’s happy to just focus on his ward and sit as an independent. The move comes just a few months after Cllr Elizabeth Turpin, who represents the same Strood Rural ward as Cllr Williams, suddenly departed the group. She later joined The Independent Group on Medway Council.
Could Cllr Williams be heading the same way? He tells us it’s possible and that he would be open to it if asked.
As the Conservatives begin the long process of rebuilding in Westminster, it appears that returning the council group to it’s previous strength will be no easy matter either.
Developer proposes 78 fewer homes for Rochester site
If you want an example of why fixing Medway’s housing crisis will be challenging, take a look at the prime brownfield redevelopment site at the bottom of Star Hill.
After the site sat empty for years, developers successfully received planning permission to build a 374-home mixed-use development on it last year. The Bardell Wharf development, erroneous name aside, was a huge win for delivering housing in Medway. The brownfield site is in a prime town centre location with good transport links and local facilities.
Despite gaining planning permission, developers have returned with a new vision for the site, now called Ironmonger Yard, which means the process will have to start again.
The headline change is that the site will now only include 296 homes, 26% fewer than the previously approved plans. The developer claims this is ‘more sympathetic’ to ‘the local community’, whatever that means while citing ‘market conditions’ because if there’s one thing a housing crisis results in, it’s less demand.
That isn’t to say the plans are terrible. It features work to improve the junction at the bottom of Star Hill to make it more pedestrian-friendly, which is long overdue. And, of course, nearly 300 new homes in Rochester are still welcome, but it’s frustrating that 78 are being lost from the development.
The figures in Medway’s Local Plan draft above assume that this site will deliver the previously agreed 374 new homes. As a result, Medway Council is already 78 homes below their delivery target, and they will need to find space for them somewhere else.
You can find more details about the plans and offer your feedback via Donard Living’s Ironmonger Yard website. There will be an exhibition of the plans tomorrow (Wed 10 Jul) at Medway Adult Education Centre in Rochester between 2pm and 7.30pm.
In brief
🚯 Medway Council have launched a ‘Wall of Shame’ to identify those flytipping in the area. It's understandable, but somehow, it feels a bit grubby.
🍛 The Shozna in Rochester has been named one of the best Asian restaurants in the country.
🏥 It’s been 25 years since All Saints’ Hospital in Chatham closed. KentOnline has got some old photos and a rundown of its history.
More Authority
Over the weekend, we interviewed Xtina Lamb of Intra Arts and Medway Open Studios about what goes on at Intra Arts, the impact of the University for the Creative Arts closing in Medway, working with young people, and lots more.
Coming up this week for paid supporters, we have the lessons Medway can take away from last week’s General Election and what it means for the future of our politics.
Footnotes
Music that soundtracked the creation of this edition: Emphatically No by Cheekface, The Suburbs Have Ruined My Life by Great Wight, and The Railway Prince Hotel by Tullycraft.