Plans submitted for Strood Civic Centre site
Plus Medway CAB suddenly shuts up shop, a councillor goes full Wagatha Christie, and sad cuts confirmed at University of Kent
After over a decade of not much happening, plans have finally been submitted for the former Strood Civic Centre site. Nearly 200 new homes are planned for the site, as well as a small number of commercial elements. We’ve got full details of the plans below. Further down, there’s the odd tale of Citizens Advice Medway suddenly closing services and blaming Medway Council, a Medway councillor going full Wagatha Christie, and sad cuts are confirmed for the University of Kent.
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Plans submitted for Strood Civic Centre site
Back in January, we revealed that plans were finally moving forward to develop the former Strood Civic Centre site, a substantial bit of brownfield waterfront land next to Rochester Bridge.
Medway Development Company, the Medway Council-owned company behind the scheme, has now completed its own consultation on the plans and submitted a formal planning application.
The submitted application isn’t that different from the original proposals, other than cheekily sneaking in 11 more units. This means the scheme now features 195 homes in a mix of flats and houses. It’s an interesting design, with three and four-storey blocks of flats surrounding the edge of the site and houses in the middle.
Beyond the housing, the plans include a single cafe/bar unit on the waterfront so you can admire the view of Rochester Castle and Cathedral across the river, a live/work unit where the site meets the A2 High Street, and a small ambulance rest station at the rear of the development.
Inevitably, issues will be found. When the plans were initially consulted on, residents in the local Facebook groups seemed to raise too conflicting issues: A lack of car parking spaces for the size of the development (121 are included) and fears that the road infrastructure couldn’t handle the extra traffic generated. It’s unclear how those two things are meant to square with each other, but here we are.
The planning proposals also highlight the number of people who referenced the demolition of the Aveling and Porter building on the site around 15 years ago. As a result, the developers have taken this into account and have chosen to ‘honour’ the building by using more red bricks and naming two of the blocks Aveling House and Porter House. That’ll make people happy, for sure.
Still, mocking aside, it’s an important development for Medway. As locations to build on go, you couldn’t do much better. A prominent town centre location, bus stops and shops all around, and only five minutes walk from the railway station.
The planning application is open for comment on Medway Council’s website. A decision is expected in June.
All is not well at the CAB
Citizens Advice Medway (CAB) suddenly announced on Friday that they will be ‘closed until further notice’, blaming Medway Council for withdrawing ‘core funding’ worth around £250,000. A statement on their website says this will result in the organisation having to undertake an extensive restructuring exercise and suggesting job cuts will need to be made:
“Citizens Advice Medway will be closed until further notice starting Friday 22nd March 2024. This is because Medway Council have withdrawn our core funding (approx £250,000) prompting us to undertake an extensive restructure exercise to determine how we can operate with reduced workers and funding.
The funding we received from Medway Council was primarily for housing and welfare benefits matters as they have a statutory duty to provide support to local residents with these types of issues. The funding has been taken in-house by the Council so they can reduce costs and opearte the housing and welfare benefits service themselves.”
Medway CAB provides a number of services in Medway, with the issue here largely focusing on welfare and debt advice services that Medway Council commissioned. For these services, they were paid £204,000 per year, as well as a rolling £50,000 sum to provide debt advice for housing customers.
The previous Medway Council administration decided to withdraw this funding and bring services in-house, which the new Labour administration has continued. This does raise some questions about why the organisation seemed to suddenly hit a wall last Friday rather than being prepared for the transition.
In a statement, Medway Council deputy leader responded:
“Medway Citizens Advice Bureau were the providers of a contract to provide welfare and debt advice, which ended in December 2023. This decision was taken by the previous administration at cabinet meeting in January 2023, and one which we have continued to support.
The decision was made not to put this contract out to tender on the open market, as there was a duplication of service already provided within the council. Bringing welfare and debt advice in-house allows for a holistic service, where all welfare benefit services in Medway Council are centralised in one place.”
One interesting wrinkle in this is that the Chief Executive of Medway CAB is Dan McDonald, a Labour councillor for Gillingham South. While he hasn’t publicly commented on the situation, it seems likely that he would be aware of the situation and the fairly blunt statement being directed from the organisation to the council over the funding. Yet a decision was still made to go public with their disgruntlement over the situation.
While £250,000 is a significant sum, Medway CAB reported income of over £850,000 in the previous financial year. It is inevitable that some changes would need to be made within the organisation. Still, it is curious that even with notice of the changes, a decision was taken to temporarily close all services last Friday.
We would love to go deeper into this story. If you have any information on the relationship between Medway Council and Medway CAB from the perspective of either organisation, please get in touch via hello@localauthority.news.
Tickets are now available for our Kent Police and Crime Commissioner debate ahead of May’s election for the post. All announced candidates have confirmed they will participate in the debate, where they will answer your questions on crime, public safety, the role of the commissioner, and more. Tickets are free, but booking is essential. When booking a ticket, you can submit a question for the panel, and we’ll be asking as many of them on the night as possible. We hope you’ll be able to join us.
Medway councillor goes full Wagatha Christie
In a time when so many people have abandoned the app formerly known as Twitter, it can sometimes feel like the days of ridiculous local politics psychodrama on the site might be over. Thankfully, this week, we had a classic edition involving councillors taking sneaky photos of each other and the local MP, snarky anonymous accounts, and another councillor going full Coleen Rooney to solve the case. Good stuff.
It all started on Sunday afternoon, when the anonymous Medway Manë, who often posts snarkily about local politics, uploaded a photo of Rochester and Strood MP Kelly Tolhurst and deputy leader of the Independent Group on Medway Council Michael Pearce out and about together in Hoo.
Three hours later, Detective Pearce was on the case, taking to Twitter to declare that Cllr Gareth Myton, Group Whip of the Medway Labour Group, was running the account. Now, anonymous social media accounts are hardly new for Labour councillors. Hence, it perhaps wasn’t an outlandish guess, particularly as Cllr Pearce apparently had witnesses of Cllr Myton taking the photo in question.
Cllr Myton responded, denying that he was behind the account, claiming that he’d just sent the picture over the account because he knew they were “a big fan of your work”. Cllr Pearce seemed sceptical of this explanation, posting further tweets asking if the avatar of the anonymous account was a photo from Australia, a not-too-subtle dig given Cllr Myton’s partner is Cllr Lauren Edwards is Australian.
Within two hours, more shots were fired, with Cllr Pearce implying Cllr David Field could be behind the account given that both he and the account had called him ‘Mick’. It doesn’t feel like something that would pass much legal scrutiny, but sometimes, you just need to shoot your shot.
To be clear, Medway politics does have an issue with people taking to anonymous social media accounts, particularly on Twitter, to try and score points against each other. Large numbers of these accounts have existed over the years, and several of them are still active from a range of different political positions. Most are fairly harmless, including the Medway Manë account above, but it does speak to how the state of debate within Medway Council when councillors believe each other to be operating such accounts.
If anyone with knowledge of any of the anonymous accounts currently operating in Medway would like to get in touch for a chat, we’d love to have a chat on or off the record. Drop an email to hello@localauthority.news.
University of Kent confirms course cuts
Sad news from the University of Kent this week. Following a consultation, the university has decided to close down a number of courses at the Medway campus, including the vitally important Centre for Journalism.
Six courses across the university are being axed, with music, art history, philosophy, anthropology, and health and social care all being wound down alongside journalism.
Not all of these courses are taught at the Medway campus. But journalism and music will, at the very least, have an impact here, with the university offloading two of its three buildings to the University of Greenwich as part of cost-saving measures.
Of course, losing all of these courses is bad from an educational and employment point of view, but as an outlet that regularly bangs the drum about the state of local journalism, it is especially sad that the Centre for Journalism will be lost.
CfJ has trained hundreds of journalists over the years, many of whom have worked themselves up to national jobs through local titles like the Medway Messenger.
In a statement, CfJ said:
“We have fought hard against a decision which we think defies logic on very many levels. Our current students should not be affected by the news, and the university has assured us it remains committed to 'teaching out' these programmes to the same high quality that CfJ staff have always prided ourselves on.”
The move to abolish the courses is the latest blow to higher education provision in Medway, following the departure of the University for the Creative Arts from Rochester last year.
We’re still working on an in-depth story on the state of higher education in Medway following the news of these cuts and the recent closure of the University of the Creative Arts. We’re eager to speak to anyone with knowledge of the sector locally, and present and past employees of Medway’s HE campuses. If you’d like to talk to us, please email hello@localauthority.news - Thanks!
In brief
⚡ A few weeks ago, we covered how unprepared Medway was for the electric car future. Following that piece, a representative from EV Site got in touch. The company works with EV charging companies to install ultra-rapid chargers and is currently looking for up to 15 sites in Medway. They’d be eager to speak with any pubs, restaurants, hotels, or similar that might be interested in getting chargers installed at their location.
⚽ Chatham Town Women have been relegated from the FA Women’s National League. The team, which evolved from Gillingham Ladies, will now play in the FA Women’s National League Division One South East next season.
🚗 The owner of a new bridal shop in Rochester has claimed she opened because the London Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ) destroyed her previous business in Bexley. Despite London car journeys dropping by 2% after the scheme's implementation, visitors to Beau Brides were a particularly polluting bunch as the owner claimed she lost 70% of her custom once the charge was introduced.
😶🌫️ Plans for a shisha lounge in Chatham have been rejected after concerns were raised concerns about anti-social behaviour and having a detrimental impact on the area. This was the second attempt to turn the courtyard behind two Railway Street shops into a commercial premises.
🏊 Cozenton Park Sports Centre, the replacement for Splashes, is set to open in July. The expensive facility includes a fun swimming pool, a non-fun one, a gym, and a cafe.
🚧 Rehman Chishti has taken to social media to call a road closure to fix a gas leak in Rainham ‘unsatisfactory’. Arguing that constituents’ homes should be at risk of explosion is a bold new stance for the Gillingham and Rainham MP.
Can you help us?
🏭 We’re eager to speak to anyone knowledgeable about the ongoing industrial dispute at Phinia in Gillingham. We’d particularly like to hear from any employees at the site and are happy to talk off the record. Please email hello@localauthority.news if you can offer any insight.
More Authority
Our paid supporters receive extra editions of Local Authority every week. Over the weekend, Steven interviewed Cllr George Perfect, the new Conservative deputy leader of the opposition, to discuss his quick rise to the front of local politics, the leadership of the Conservatives locally and nationally, and, of course, the Rainham red route.
“I think the point is that the group are united”
Councillor George Perfect was elected to Medway Council in 2023, representing the Conservatives in Rainham North. Steven met the former Chair of Medway Youth Council at Starbucks in Chatham to discuss his quick rise to the front of local politics, the leadership of the Conservatives locally and nationally, and, of course, the Rainham red route.
Our weekly interview series is now exclusively available to our paid supporters every Sunday morning. If you’re a free reader and want to keep receiving them, please consider upgrading your subscription. Speaking of our Sunday interviews, we have a cracking one coming up this week — more details on that will be coming up on Friday.
If you missed our Friday edition, our Gills columnist looked for positivity at Gillingham FC. We also examined Medway Council's uninspiring coworking space, reviewed the Mast and Rigging pub in Gillingham, included our weekly events guide, and lots more.
Footnotes
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Music that soundtracked the creation of this edition: Worry by Jeff Rosenstock, Withdraw by Fresh, and How to Socialise and Make Friends by Camp Cope.