Medway Council Local Plan Consultation Events

Please see below key information from an email from Dave Harris Head of Planning at Medway Council regarding Local Plan consultation events:

Cabinet has approved the latest consultation (Regulation 18) on our emerging Local Plan which will take place between Monday, 15 July to Sunday, 8 September. This eight-week period gives Medway residents the opportunity to comment on options for development and proposed policies. This consultation feeds into finalising our draft Local Plan that will be published next year with the aim of adoption in 2026.

Our summer consultation

The last consultation on our new Local Plan took place last autumn (September to October 2023) and outlined the vision and priorities for Medway’s future growth. During this latest consultation, residents will now be able to view options for growth across Medway, and detailed proposals on our current thinking on preferred site locations for future development, and policies to manage sustainable development.

The council has responded to comments made in the last consultation, when people asked for the opportunity to review more detailed work on the local plan, before the preferred policies and sites are published in the draft plan. This upcoming consultation provides for this wider engagement in preparing our new plan for Medway. Providing an additional stage of consultation at Regulation 18 also helps to address potential legal challenges to the Local Plan.

Development options proposals

This consultation outlines three options for how we could plan for growth across Medway:

1. Urban regeneration focus
2. Dispersed growth
3. A blended strategy looking at urban regeneration and greenfield sites

Option 1 seeks to maximise development on brownfield sites in urban centres and waterfront sites, and accessible areas that benefit from good transport links.

Option 2 considers more limited land being provided through regeneration. This option involves a much higher release of land on greenfield and Green Belt sites, including the Hoo Peninsula, Capstone Valley, East and North of Rainham, Medway Valley.

Option 3 blends regeneration and greenfield development. This preferred option follows a ‘brownfield first’ focus (around 50% of new development would be on brownfield sites) with regeneration in urban centres and waterfront locations, complemented by a range of sites in suburban and rural areas.

Option 3 is the council’s current preferred approach at this stage. We have set out indicative preferred development sites and policy designations (such as environmental features for protection) in detailed policies maps. Although the council has not yet finalised the selection of sites, we are providing detailed maps, to help people in making comments in this consultation.

We will be taking account of the comments raised in this consultation in carrying out further work to finalise the proposed development sites at the next stage of the Draft Plan in 2025.

Public events

As part of our latest consultation, we will be running 10 events in locations across Medway during the consultation period, giving residents the chance to ask questions on the proposals for Medway’s future growth to members of our Planning Team.

The events timetable is as follows:

• Tuesday, 16 July at Medway Park from 5.30pm - 8.30pm
• Thursday, 18 July at Pentagon Shopping Centre (at the old Wilko unit) from 11am - 2pm
• Monday, 22 July at Halling Community Centre from 11am - 2pm
• Tuesday, 23 July at Hundred of Hoo School (Main Hall) from 5:30pm - 8:30pm
• Tuesday, 6 August at Rochester Corn Exchange from 4:00pm - 7:00pm
• Thursday, 8 August at St Margarets Church (Rainham) from 5pm - 8pm
• Tuesday, 13 August at St Nicholas Church (Strood) from 3pm - 6pm
• Thursday, 29 August at Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre (outside M&S) from 11am - 2pm
• Tuesday, 3 September at Allhallows Village Hall from 11am - 2pm
• Wednesday, 4 September at Innovation Centre Medway (Darwin Room) from 4pm - 7pm