Trafalgar Centre redevelopment might finally happen (in two more years)
Trafalgar Centre redevelopment might finally happen (in two more years)
Plus we review Limehouse Thai, our weekly events guide, news in brief, and more
We talk about development a lot here as it’s important to the future of our towns, yet it can also be wildly frustrating. Today, we have details of the redevelopment of the Trafalgar Centre in Chatham, which has taken 11 years so far with little to show for it. However, things might finally be happening with a new planning application being submitted to Medway Council. Further down, we have a review of Limehouse Thai, our weekly events guide, news in brief, and more.
Coming up over the weekend, we have our first column from one of Medway’s new parliamentarians, as Gillingham and Rainham MP Naushabah Khan talks about the work being done to revitalise Gillingham town centre. Then, on Sunday, we sit down with Michael Colyer, a camera systems designer from Medway who managed to win an Emmy for his work on the Superbowl, which is apparently some kind of American sports event.
Trafalgar Centre redevelopment might finally happen (in two more years)
One of the problems around development is that it all takes so long. Years of drawing up initial plans, repeated consultations, and torturous planning processes mean it can take a lengthy period of time before anything actually gets built. In a housing crisis, this is far from ideal.
One such site where things have been dragging on is the former Trafalgar Centre site in the centre of Chatham. Readers of a certain vintage might recall it as the inShops, a rabbit warren of tiny traders with a Safeway (!) buried at the back, and a giant multi-storey car park behind.
The Trafalgar Centre closed in 2013, leaving a giant abandoned building in a prime town centre location, and a scarcely used car park behind. It’s the kind of site that should be ripe for rapid redevelopment, particularly when the local council has a mission to regenerate Chatham town centre by adding more residential uses to the area.
Yet, here we are, 11 years on, and the site remains an empty wasteland. Yet there are now signs that something might indeed start to happen on the site, at least in the next couple of years.
Back in 2021, owner Terance Butler Holdings successfully won outline planning permission to clear the site and replace it with up to 175 flats, art studios, coworking spaces, and 152 parking spaces using part of the existing car park.
In 2022, they put the site up for sale, seemingly to see if anyone else would like to take on the development itself once planning permission had been achieved. This presumably pushed up the land value, and a few weeks later, demolition work was completed on the site.
Now, it would appear that there were no interested buyers in the site, as Terance Butler Holdings is back with a new planning application to cover the site's specifics. When outline planning permission is granted, you have three years to come back with these specifics, and happily, the developers have popped up with them a snappy two years and eight months later.
A cynic might suggest it is in developers' interest to sit on land for as long as possible before proceeding, as value only tends to increase with time, but that could seem very unfair to developers.
We can’t see the specific details of the plan yet as Medway Council has an annoying habit of listing planning applications on its website without bothering to include the documents associated with them, but they are likely to appear here in a few days.
There is an internal target date of the application being decided by the end of November. Once approved, developers will have two years to begin the building works properly.
So by November 2026, a mere 13 years after this prime development spot became available, something might finally be starting to be built on it. Hurrah!
In brief
🏗️ As we reported as likely last week, the 450 home development at Gibraltar Farm was given the go-ahead by Medway Council’s planning committee. Councillors from Labour and the Independent Group voted in favour, while the Conservatives opposed.
🚓 The owner of the Gadcet secondhand shop in Chatham has been arrested and charged with operating an illegal cryptocurrency ATM in the store. He is alleged to have laundered over £300,000 in criminal cash and will appear before magistrates in October.
🏎️ Three Medway roads are among the worst for speeding across Kent. Hoath Way in Rainham, Maidstone Road in Rochester, and City Way in Rochester all made the list, with nearly 3,000 fines being issued across the three locations over the past year.
Out to Lunch: Limehouse Thai
In which Steven Keevil assesses the lunch options available in our towns. This week, he’s been down to Limehouse Thai in Rochester...
Limehouse Thai can be found near the start of the Intra area as you head towards Chatham from Rochester. There is good car parking nearby and if you find yourself going to Grandma Thai by mistake, you’ll find it’s been closed down for a while. Limehouse Thai has managed to place a number of tables into its limited downstairs floor space, though for busier times there are further seats upstairs. Talking of stairs, be careful on the way in and out as there is a sizeable step waiting to catch people out.
I ordered prawn crackers and duck spring rolls to start, and then ‘Weeping Tiger’ steak served with peppers, onions and a tamarind sauce, along with egg-fried rice and spicy aubergine as the main. The crackers were more substantial than the pale fare from Chinese takeaways, flavourful and hardy. The duck spring rolls were generous in duck and delightful to eat with hoisin sauce, even if they were incredibly hot on arrival. A slight criticism was that the steak was too thinly cut for my liking, but it still made for a great lunch with the egg-fried rice and aubergine. The aubergine was perhaps the meal's highlight, with a spice that slowly built up but was not overwhelming.
Overall, it is great that Limehouse Thai is still going strong after all these years. If you have never been, you should go, and if, like this writer, you have not been in a while, you should rectify that mistake as soon as possible.
Events this week
👻 Super Saturday is back in Chatham tomorrow (Sat 31 Aug) as part of the council’s child-friendly initiative. A 30ft Ghostbusters marshmallow man will oversee proceedings, with film cars, opportunities to meet superheroes, and activities. Free.
🎉 Love Gillingham takes place in Gillingham High Street on Sunday (1 Sep) to celebrate what the town has to offer. Stalls, entertainment, live music, activities, and pro wrestling will happen throughout the day. Free.
🎸 The next Kicking Against Nothing night at Poco Loco in Chatham is this Thursday (5 Sep). A night of indie rock from Sunshine Pony Finger, Carjack, and Blue Mirror. Tickets £5.
🖌️ Household Essentials are a collective of three female self-taught artists specialising in traditionally drawn artwork in varying mediums of ink, watercolour and paint. They have an exhibition at Nucleus Arts’ Halpern Gallery in Chatham from Thursday (5 Sep) until 18 Sep. Free.
More Authority
St. Mary’s Island has been one of the success stories of Medway regeneration, turning former Chatham Dockyard land into a community of 1,700 homes over nearly three decades. But what is it actually like to live there? We talked to residents to get a sense of the good, the bad, and the just plain weird parts of island living in Medway.
The end result is one of my favourite bits of writing that I’ve done in a little while that I think gets to the heart of the nice but slightly odd place that thousands of us call home.
Remember that our Medwayish shop contains a wide range of Medway-related gifts and products designed by local creatives. We have books, mugs, t-shirts, prints, and other fun bits and pieces. Check it out!
Footnotes
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Music that soundtracked the creation of this edition: You Look A Lot Like Me by Mal Blum, Slow Buzz by Remember Sports, and What Still Gets Me by Shit Present.