Read this blog, by our Chief Planning Officer, Dave Harris, to find out more about what the Local Plan means for Medway’s future.
What does the Local Plan mean?
The Local Plan is important to everyone in Medway. Whether you’re just about to begin your studies or coming towards your retirement, the Local Plan sets out the vision for Medway’s growth up to 2040. When I talk about growth, it’s about improving all aspects of what makes Medway a great place to live, learn, work and visit to ensure we can make it an even greater place for our residents to call home, where there are skilled jobs, fabulous school and universities supplying the skills for the jobs and making the most of our natural and historic environment to make visiting Medway an incredible experience. Better access to green spaces, better health services, better leisure facilities, better roads to improve traffic flow around our towns, better public transport services. It’s about making Medway even better and generating that pride for living in Medway.
Improving our local infrastructure is absolutely key to this. We need to ensure that Medway has an improved transport system, more public services such as schools, more shops and much more. We need to have the right infrastructure to ensure we can deliver more homes to support the growth. The government uses a formula to identify how much housing is needed in each council area. Medway Council has to plan for the delivery 1,667 new homes each year between now and 2040 – a total of nearly 28,500. The Local Plan sets out the approach on how best to meet the need for new homes, alongside planning for new jobs, services and protecting the environment.
Providing more homes is key to Medway’s growth
Medway’s population is growing and one of the key aspects of the Local Plan is providing new homes that are of high quality, both in design and build, to ensure we’re providing enough homes for different sections of the community. We know that young people are finding it difficult to rent or buy their first home and we want them to have the option to stay and live in Medway by providing more affordable homes.
Nationally, the average age of a person buying their first home is now 37 years old, according to research conducted by House Buyer Bureau. We must buck the trend and ensure young people have enough opportunities and incentives to help them see a future in Medway, to secure a first home and to choose Medway as a great place to enjoy a prosperous life.
We also know that people are living longer and family structures are changing, so we must also provide enough variety of homes, from apartments and family properties, to downsizers freeing up valuable family homes. The new development needs to look attractive and align with the character of the local area. It needs to be energy efficient, helping to save on fuel bills while externally be set within high quality public realm with good access to open space and services.
Protecting what is special about Medway
While regeneration is key to ensuring Medway can grow and provide new and improved areas to improve the quality of living (such as our current works to transform Chatham Town Centre with vibrant retail, dining and entertainment opportunities and community facilities), it’s also vitally important that we’re protecting what is special about Medway, including local heritage and environmental features that can be found across our towns and villages. I am proud to live on the Hoo Peninsula and I know first-hand what makes the peninsula special, with its impressive green spaces and coast, with the rare wildlife that’s found there. However, the villages may need to grow to meet the needs of our communities. We can only truly do this if we have the right infrastructure in place first. At the same time, we need to ensure that Medway’s local environment is protected as much as possible, and take account of how we can build ‘greener’ in the future to address climate change. Having a Local Plan in place can ensure that places like the Hoo Peninsula, our suburban areas and urban centres can grow sustainably.
An exciting future for Medway
I’ve lived in Medway for 36 years. When I came here, I fell in love with the area. I still have that passion today and I want everyone to have that same passion and pride to live in Medway. It has so much to offer: If you come here as a visitor, we want you to come more and enjoy our leisure facilities, tourism attractions and green spaces. If you come here to work, we want you to enjoy working here, and if you come here to study, then we want you to stay after you’ve finished your studies and use your new-found skills and start your career here. Medway prides itself on being one of the most promising growth areas in the South-East; it is currently home to over 14,000 businesses and has an economy worth £5.9 billion. Our Local Plan will ensure we have a strategy in place to continue this growth over the next 15+ years, expanding our talented workforce and putting Medway on the map for having fantastic career prospects across a range of fields.
Take part in the consultation by Tuesday, 31 October
The Local Plan consultation on our Regulation 18 stage is now up and running. It’s really important that residents can tell us what they want to see developed, along with what they want to see protected (particularly around the local heritage and character for the area). What would make you prouder to live in Medway?
We’d love to hear from you and get your feedback on what should be factored into our emerging plan.
If you have any questions during the consultation period, please drop us an email and we will be in touch: futuremedway@medway.gov.uk
Dave Harris
Chief Planning Officer