Temporary closure: woodland on the northern boundary of Deangate Ridge
Essential health and safety work is being carried out as part of our plans to transform the site into Deangate Community Parkland.
The parkland will help to protect our wildlife and give further access for residents to enjoy the space.
For everyone’s safety, do not enter or allow your dogs to enter the area that has been cordoned off.
When visiting the site please take care and be cautious. The area of open land, away from the stretch of woodland, will remain open during this time.
We're planning to create a new community parkland at Deangate Ridge (the site of the former golf course).
This will transform a site currently not in use into a new parkland that can be enjoyed by local wildlife around the area including nightingales, and provide a space for families to enjoy.
Deangate Community Parkland will form an important part of the overall Strategic Environmental Management Strategy. This will provide a network of open spaces designed to protect wildlife and ecology, and create new public open spaces for residents.
The planning application for Deangate Community Parkland has now been approved.
Ground Control has been contracted to carry out our improvement works. Works are planned to begin at the end of 2025, and be completed by the end of 2026.
Find out more about Ground Control.
Find out more:
- public events
- online consultation
- environmental improvements and improvements for residents
- funding.
Aerial view showing the concept plan for Deangate parklands.
Despite the decision by the government to withdraw the Housing Infrastructure Funding for the Hoo Peninsula, we’re committed to our vision of delivering environmental improvements that benefit local wildlife and residents around the peninsula.
The proposals for Deangate include:
- creating a substantial public open space of at least 43 hectares
- increasing public knowledge on the importance of the nightingale population
- celebrating nature through nurturing existing habitats and creating new ones
- providing visitor facilities including picnic spaces
- creating a network of safe and attractive routes for dog walkers, walkers and cyclists.
Public events
We hosted a series of free events throughout August and September 2023, giving people a chance to see the latest proposals for the new community parkland.
This offered a chance to meet our project team and ask any questions about the proposals.
Online consultation
We also ran an online consultation between Friday 11 August and Friday 22 September 2023.
Environmental improvements
Following ecology studies, the following species of wildlife have been identified at Deangate Ridge:
- nightingale
- pipistrelle bat
- slow worm
- great crested newt.
Our proposal for a new parkland site at Deangate will enhance habitats and the connections between them to help support rare and common wildlife found around the area.
The improvements to protect these important habitats will include enhanced woodland blocks of trees. Larger areas of open meadow will also be kept with an aim to bring more species of wildlife into the grasslands.
When the project is finished, the new parkland will improve local nature, with an 18.39% increase in biodiversity.
In 2025, 3,500 trees of different species were planted across the site by volunteers.
Acorns were also planted across the site in 2025 by:
- the 2nd Cliffe Scout Group
- the 27th Medway Scout Group
- the Friends of Deangate.
Improvements for local residents
We want to improve the wellbeing of all residents, and one of the ways we'll do this is by improving access to open spaces across Medway.
Deangate Community Parklands will provide the following improvements:
- new picnic areas
- improved access to amazing viewpoints across the grasslands
- new cycle paths
- new paths for walkers and dog walkers
- new public signage with information about the local wildlife based at the site, including nightingales.
We'll provide updates about the project and consultation on this page.
Funding
We secured £1.1million for this project.
Funding has come from:
- Section 106 (S106) with contributions from Bellway, Taylor Wimpey and Jones Homes
- The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
