Medway1 #2 by 3Fox

issue 2 2009 medway making history

medway 1 Round table discussion Page 10 Championing Chatham Page 19 Public realm works Page 42 What is Medway Partnership? Page 49

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contents

issue#02_summer ‘09

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Executive editor: Kirsty MacAulay kirsty@3foxinternational.com Features editor: Alex Aspinall alex@3foxinternational.com Art director: Terry Hawes terry@3foxinternational.com Advertisement sales: Paul Gussar paul@3foxinternational.com Production: Rachael Schofield rachael@3foxinternational.com Office manager: Sue Mapara sue@3foxinternational.com Managing director: Toby Fox toby@3foxinternational.com Printed by: Manson Images: Medway Council, Medway Renaissance, SEEDA, Newscast, Corus, Medway Innovation Centre, Anthony Benson, Glen Steggles, Steve Rowland, Bianca Donnelly, Made in Medway 2, www.urbik.co.uk, The Joiners Shop, Jorg Greuel, Getty Images, Pentagon Shopping Centre Published by: 189 Lavender Hill, London SW11 5TB T: 020 7978 6840 F: 020 7978 6837 For Medway Renaissance Medway Council Eastgate House High Street Rochester Kent ME1 1EW 01634 337154 Head of Medway Renaissance Brian Weddell Regeneration PR manager John Ryall Subscriptions and feedback: www.medway1.com © 3Fox International Limited 2009. All material is strictly copyright and all rights are reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without the written permission of 3Fox International Limited is strictly forbidden. The greatest care has been taken to ensure accuracy of information in this magazine at time of going to press, but we accept no responsibility for omissions or errors. The views expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of 3Fox International Limited or Medway Renaissance.

07 N ews

All of Medway’s regeneration news from energy to the Olympics and all the latest development updates.

10 Round table

The leading lights of Medway’s regeneration discuss the area’s future.

19 C hatham

Medway’s second largest town takes its place as the next in line for regeneration.

24 P rojects

An update on the major projects happening throughout Medway.

37 F ive towns

An in-depth look at Terry Farrell’s report into the five towns that make up Medway.

42 P ublic realm

The importance of placeshaping in regeneration.

49 M edway Partnership

Just who is involved in Medway’s transformation?

52 M ade in Medway

A snapshot of the area’s thriving businesses.

60 W hat others say

Who’s been saying what about Medway.

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a river runs Through it

The River Medway – and the proposed riverside walkway – is at the heart of Medway’s regeneration, and nowhere more so than in Rochester, where a one-mile stretch of the walkway has opened giving residents and visitors access to the river.

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CHATHAM MARITIME COMES OF AGE

Chatham Dockyard closed on 31st March 1984, but since then, the 140-hectare site has been transformed into a thriving community where people live, work and study and enjoy quality leisure time. In 1999, SEEDA (South East England Development Agency) took ownership of the site from its predecessors English Industrial Estates Corporation and English Partnerships to lead the regeneration of the area. Ten years on Chatham Maritime is SEEDA’s flagship development for sustainable living in the heart of the Thames Gateway combining new infrastructure, and a mixed development, enabled by over £850m investment funding from the public and private sector. Jonathan Sadler, SEEDA Development Director for Thames Gateway who has led the project through to realisation said, “SEEDA has invested £150 million of public sector funding into Chatham Maritime and brought a further £700m from the private sector.”

“Together with our partners we have built 1,000 new homes and a million square feet of new office space, creating over 5,000 jobs. The University of Greenwich, University of Kent and Canterbury Christ Church University along with Mid Kent College have all established themselves at Chatham Maritime or nearby, giving a bright new future to thousands of students. Chatham Maritime offers a range of leisure facilities for everyone to enjoy including the 300-berth marina, the Dickens World visitor attraction, a multiplex cinema and a range of shops at the Dockside Outlet Centre along with 20 acres of parkland and riverside walks.” “The early vision for Chatham Maritime was to regenerate this once abandoned and derelict site at the heart of the Medway Towns as a premier business location and vibrant residential community as well as a centre for education. Ten years on, we are well on the way to delivering the vision and are very proud of our collective achievements.”

www.chatham-maritime.co.uk www.seeda.co.uk

[ news ]

Power to the people

Medway’s ‘promising prospects’ for regeneration were praised by the Audit Commission.

High commission Audit Commission gives Medway’s regeneration programme highest score yet for any local authority. Medway’s £6 billion regeneration programme received a “good” two-star rating from the Audit Commission – one of the highest scores ever achieved by any local authority. The 32-page report followed an intensive inspection of Medway Council’s regeneration service in February 2009. It described the council’s plans as showing “promising prospects”. Leader of Medway Council, councillor Rodney Chambers, said: “This is another example of the ‘Medway model’ successfully delivering regeneration in the Thames Gateway. It demonstrates

that if you have local accountability, partnership working, democratic control and the support of residents and businesses, you can bring about immense transformation, and we are still only at the start of our ambitious regeneration plans. We are capitalising on the 2012 Olympics, becoming a centre for green technology, investing in our precious green spaces, ensuring we have adequate employment sites and encouraging inward investment.” The report praised the council’s approach, which: “effectively tackles the things which matter most to local people and focuses on delivering a balance of social, physical and

economic improvements”. Specific praise was given to the council’s success in communicating the vision for Medway’s renaissance to businesses and potential investors. Chief executive of Medway Council Neil Davies said: “This marks a highpoint in a 25-year regeneration story. The key achievements are plain to see: Chatham Maritime, Rochester Riverside, Temple Waterfront, Medway’s expanding universities, the major infrastructure improvements now under way in Chatham, Medway Innovation Centre, the Medway Park project and the success of the Reignite programme in putting people back into work and creating

Local businesses and residents were given the opportunity to help shape Medway’s future by commenting on Medway Council’s Economic Development Strategy 2009-2012 recently. The plan was designed to allow the council to build on the success it has already achieved and help focus efforts on the key issues likely to encourage a vibrant and prosperous future for everyone living and working in the Medway area. Portfolio holder for strategic development and economic growth, councillor Jane Chitty, said: “By working closely with major local businesses and local business support agencies we have been able to produce a strategy that will allow us to take Medway’s economic regeneration to the next level”. The council has also invited passionate members of the community to become Medway Ambassadors, talking about and promoting the work of Medway’s regeneration. Medway Council leader Rodney Chambers was encouraged by the positive outlook he has encountered within the community. “We asked people throughout the community whether they’d like to come forward and act as ambassadors,” he said. “There is a lot of enthusiasm in the area, and the ambassadors have been successful.”

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news

31 mins

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Journey times from Medway to London will be slashed thanks to high-speed rail

300,000 Medway’s population is set to grow as its regeneration continues

£6 billion

Medway’s regeneration programme is among the most ambitious in the country

Cementing Rochester’s future

Small businesses received a boost with the opening of phase two of the Medway Innovation Centre in Rochester. The additional 3,000sq m of office space across three-storeys welcomed its first occupants in May 2009.

Developer Lafarge is making Medway history. Not just with the redevelopment of the 28-hectare Temple Waterfront site, which is another step closer to realisation after a planning application was submitted in April 2009. But by signing the first Planning Performance Agreement with Medway Council. The agreement, which is signed by both the developer and the local authority, formally sets out what is expected, and when, from all parties during the planning application process. The agreement, which is designed to streamline the planning

process and remove some of the associated risks and delays, has been largely regarded as a success by both Lafarge and the council. This is the first time such an agreement has been used in the Thames Gateway regeneration area and, considering the success, it is unlikely to be the last. David Simms, land and planning director at Lafarge Cement, said: “Submission of our planning application, together with the signing of the Planning Performance Agreement, is a huge step forward.” Leader of Medway Council councillor Rodney Chambers, said:

“This is another milestone for our 20-year regeneration programme to transform Medway into a successful riverside city through the redevelopment of town centre and waterfront sites along seven miles of the river.” The £100 million development will establish 620 homes and around 12,300sq m of mixed-use employment and retail space on the site, creating up to 250 jobs.

[ news ] Green light for London Array environmental technologies. “Continuing to attract inward investment from international institutions and companies will be an increasingly important vehicle for economic growth in Kent in the future, further fuelling job creation and supporting local businesses.” Energy company E.ON, along with its development partners Dong Energy and Abu Dhabi company Masdar, will be investing almost £2 billion in the project, which is expected to create hundreds of jobs. London Array should be up and running in time for the London Olympics in 2012.

Lee Amor, Tim Seed, Allison Sweeney and Bill Ferris at the Joiners’ Shop’s grand opening. Much of Medway’s regeneration is based around its riverside following the success of Chatham Maritime.

Joined up thinking

341 wind turbines will be located off the Medway coast creating the world’s largest wind farm.

Work on the 90 square mile site will start before the end of this year

Kingsnorth Medway’s relevance as a centre for cleaner energy production received a boost back in April 2009 with energy and climate change secretary Ed Miliband’s announcement that the UK government believes coal-burning power stations can form part of the country’s energy future. Miliband stated that new stations would have to be based on a model of carbon capture, where a proportion of the carbon dioxide emitted is captured, and buried underground. The news was welcomed by E.ON, operator of Medway’s Kingsnorth power station. Six contractors – Kier,

Laing O’Rourke, Morgan Est, Balfour Beatty and Bam Nuttall and a joint venture bid from Costain/Hochtief – are in the running to secure the £1.5 billion contract to rebuild the station. Dr Paul Golby, chief executive of energy company E.ON UK, said: “Carbon capture is the most important technology we have in the fight against climate change if we can get it right then we can look forward to a secure, low carbon energy future for the UK.” The final decision on the planned new power station now rests with the government.

January 2009 saw the re-opening of the Joiners’ Shop in Chatham’s Historic Dockyard. The Grade II-listed building is now home to a number of local creative industries businesses. The £3.5 million refurbishment of the 200-year old Joiners’ Shop was funded by the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA), with an additional £1 million from the Department for Communities and Local Government. SEEDA executive director for infrastructure and development Lee Amor said: “The Joiners’ Shop is a wonderful opportunity to encourage and support creative businesses in these uncertain economic times, and is yet another positive step in the regeneration of Chatham as a whole”.

Going for gold

Medway had reason to celebrate when London 2012 organisers revealed the venues selected to host pre-Games training camps. Five venues in the area were declared suitable: Medway Park, Jumpers Rebound Trampolining Centre, Gillingham Football Club, Howard Table Tennis Centre and the Medway Badminton Association all made the grade.

Project repair

Medway’s Kingsnorth power station could take the lead in new carbon capture technology.

Partners from across Europe were drawn to Medway in May 2009 to discuss how to approach the regeneration of abandoned military sites. Medway Council is acting as the lead partner for Project Repair, which brings together 10 European associates including representatives from Germany, Lithuania and Sweden. Fittingly the event was timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary for the Historic Dockyard, Chatham.

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Plans to build the world’s largest wind farm off the Medway coast have been given the go ahead. Work is expected to start on the 341 wind turbines before the end of 2009. The £3 billion London Array project is to be delivered in two phases on a 90 square mile site located 12 miles off the Kent and Essex coast. It will generate up to one gigawatt of electricity, enough to power 750,000 homes. Peter Symons, director of business development at Locate in Kent, said: “We welcome the go-ahead of London Array, which will consolidate the UK’s leading position in offshore wind farms and demonstrates Kent’s credentials as a centre of excellence in

news in brief

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Talking shop

We brought together the big names involved in Medwayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s renaissance to find out their opinions on the regeneration plans and what can be done to keep them on track

THE PANEL:

1 Rodney Chambers leader of Medway Council 2 Robin Cooper director of regeneration, community and culture at Medway Council 3 Neil Davies chief executive of Medway Council 4 David Simms land and planning director at Lafarge Cement 5 Brian Weddell head of Medway Renaissance

Given the current climate, how do you feel about the development prospects in Medway? Brian Weddell: We are well set up. The current three year spending review is mainly focused on infrastructure, so there is a new bus station, new road layouts and improved transport. Most of the work we are doing now is preparing sites and working with joint venture partners who want to develop sites in the area. We are in a position to get all the things prepared that are necessary for when the market picks up. Neil Davies: The thing about planning for economic recovery is that when the economy does recover, we will be perfectly placed to take advantage of the upturn and the opportunities it presents. David Simms: We must not overlook the fact that we have the high-speed domestic train service starting from December. This has tremendous potential. There have also been the improvements to the roads

[ round table ]

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and Medway is very well situated in terms of tangible infrastructure improvements. Rodney Chambers: Yes, Medway will be ready to go when the economic climate changes. What can the public and private sectors do in terms of speeding up Medway’s recovery? Brian Weddell: We are very lucky that there are various private sector partners who are very keen to get going in Medway, Tesco and Lafarge are good examples. On Rochester Riverside we have selected our preferred developer, which is Crest. With Dominion Housing we are already working towards a joint planning application. There are a number of private sector partners already here and working well. Robin Cooper: Some areas are actually quite buoyant: the hotel market is good, we’ve got hotels being built. There is also student accommodation being built for the

university, for September, and housing is holding up so some parts of the market are not as badly affected by the recession as others. Rodney Chambers: Certainly from the Rochester Riverside point of view there can be public sector involvement, and we will make efforts to help kick-start some of the developments that are ready to go. Part of the government’s budget announcement was not only to help with some elements of affordable housing, but also to help with some infrastructure work if it means that, by investing in a small amount of infrastructure, it would also help kick-start a site. Brian Weddell: We also have around £30 million to improve infrastructure generally. We are working on improvements to the bus routes and the new bus station. And, with Arriva as the main operator there, it is another example of the public and private sector working together.

“When the economy does recover we will be perfectly placed to take advantage”

Robin Cooper: Yes, the bus station development is an important one because we are building it with public money to unlock private investment. David Simms: A very important aspect from the private sector view is that it is not just the big, high level partnerships but also having the planning officers that have the confidence to work with you. So it is not a game of skittles, with you putting ideas up, and them knocking them down. It is a coming together. We’ve been working on Temple Waterfront for five or six years. Without pre-empting any planning decisions, we have refined and worked on aspects with the officers. Understanding what your council requires, if you can have that working relationship, removes a great deal of risk and frustration.

continued overleaf

[ round table ]

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ABOVE: Rodney Chambers and Brian Weddell discuss the benefits of Medway’s renaissance.

Is the partnership between the public and private sectors particularly strong in Medway? Brian Weddell: Temple Waterfront is a joint venture. In addition to that, we have also got together to create a Planning Performance Agreement, the first of its kind in the Thames Gateway, which is an agreement where we supply a certain amount of information by specific dates, and a dedicated officer agrees to respond by set dates. It adds some certainty to the system, where everyone knows what they are getting and when in advance. Once we have signed the agreement, we can all feel confident that it will be a quicker process than previously. It establishes a much more positive route to creating a solution to a planning application. This is the first time we have done it like this but it has worked well so I think we’ll be doing it again. Rodney Chambers: Actually, we are the first to deliver a project in this way. Robin Cooper: And it does not affect the public consultation stage in any way. That

all still goes ahead as it always does. David Simms: It helps remove risk. Development is extremely difficult in today’s circumstances, and the more you can reduce the risk, the easier it makes it. Brian Weddell: It certainly speeds things up. We have been speaking to Dominion, another private sector partner. They have a site on the waterfront, we have a site next to it and another partner has a site on the other side of the water. The big question is: how certain is the planning process? We have had good dialogue with the planning board already and, if we enter into one of these agreements, we will have a fixed time at which the result will come out. That gives them the confidence to go ahead with the project. What would you say is the single most important element to guaranteeing Medway’s successful regeneration? Brian Weddell: Confidence. Rodney Chambers: And certainty of funding, which is a huge issue. Neil Davies: We are determined »

“We are determined to make a difference in Medway. There is a real ambition with our officers and private sector partners”

Delivering in Medway

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Leading sustainable developments

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ABOVE: Neil Davies of Medway Council (left) and Lafarge Cement’s David Simms (right).

“In some senses we believe we have buffered the recession - there are schemes still going forward”

to make a difference in Medway. We have been planning these schemes for a number of years, and there is a real ambition with our officers and also with our private sector partners. Collectively, we have a determination to make Medway a better place. Medway is at the centre of the Thames Gateway and has already demonstrated its credentials in terms of delivery. In some senses we believe we have buffered the recession and there are schemes still going forward. We are differentiating, identifying opportunities, and really pushing the market. Over the next 10-15 years, recession aside, the face of Medway will change significantly. It will be a fantastic place. Brian Weddell: The hard bit is at the beginning, when we are digging up the roads, and building river walls. But we are now at the stage where things are about to be built; the bus station will be one of the first. Dominon is keen to get going on the waterfront and things are starting to come out of the ground. Neil Davies: In some senses the physical regeneration is merely a catalyst for those issues that are important to Medway’s future. It is not just about physical regeneration. The leader has talked repeatedly about social regeneration in terms of improving opportunities and life chances for everyone in Medway. Rodney Chambers: We are talking about

regeneration in Medway, not regeneration in just Rochester Riverside or Chatham. The whole community needs to benefit. Brian Weddell: And that is true of the whole peninsula, not just the urban bit. We look at the whole peninsula and that is something Terry Farrell has been helping us with. Part of it is idyllic wet landscape and much of it is urban. Some is power stations. How do you balance them up and make them work? How does Terry Farrell’s involvement benefit Medway? Rodney Chambers: Terry Farrell is big on the national scene. But the man on the street does not necessarily know who he is. In terms of putting Medway on the map, we need the Terry Farrells but we also need to engage our own community. Neil Davies: Terry has been working with us for a number of years and his work has been excellent. Brian Weddell: I think Terry’s role is at a strategic level. He is not sitting looking at planning applications; it is not what he does. He works on the bigger picture, coming up with the ideas. Robin Cooper: He is championing the parklands scheme, and he has been asked to do the infrastructure too. He is pan-Gateway.

[ round table ]

Rodney Chambers: He is someone that is committed wholly to Medway. He really feels that we will deliver soonest, of all the places in the gateway. How important to Medway is its position in the Thames Gateway? Brian Weddell: We are part of the Thames Gateway funding programmes, so we quite like that. But what is interesting is that one of the things Medway is looking for is to establish its position on the map. And if you are talking to a German, they may not know where Medway is but the Thames Gateway, and its association with London, fixes it in their minds. It helps people position where we are. Rodney Chambers: You have to realise that Medway has no history. The local authority has only been around for 10 years. I think we have come a long way in putting Medway on the map and it has not been easy, because of the historic significance of the towns that make up Medway. The Royal Navy was based in Chatham for 400 years, so Chatham is known throughout the world. We need to take these significant names and make people associate them with Medway. People often say to me “why Medway?” and my argument is “that river has been here a lot longer than Rochester, and a lot longer

than Chatham, and it connects the towns together, and that is the significance of our name”. Brian Weddell: We have also noticed people on the TV news mentioning Medway now. Five years ago it would not have happened. Rodney Chambers: Everything is branded Medway now. You just keep talking about it. Every publication says “Medway” on it. Which aspect of the regeneration are you most excited about? Rodney Chambers: Delivery. Nine years ago hardly anyone in Medway went on to higher education. The dockyard provided Medway’s further education, and it was such a large employer that everyone went into the dockyard and the dockyard school for further education. We had the lowest number of young people going on to higher education in the south east of England. We now have 6,000 full-time students and 10,000 students of one type or another here in Medway. That is a remarkable achievement. Brian Weddell: I think the most exciting thing is that the politicians have got a 20-year vision and that is translated into a delivery plan with a realistic basis. Everything that is in the plan has been extensively researched and the long-term framework that runs until 2016 is based on

hard facts. There is a long-term, clear plan and it focuses on activity. David Simms: One of the very special features about Medway is its proximity to water and the fact that so many of the major regeneration sites are close to water. People do love water and being near it. It does not have to be a major piece of regeneration. It could be St Mary’s Island or the Cliffe Marshes, where there is great wildlife. Even industrial views across a river are dynamic in their own right. These places have something that few areas have got. Many areas of Kent are landlocked, but in Medway there is a lot of water and it is one of the special features of Medway. In respect of Temple Waterfront, the most important elements are its location, the access to water it has and the view – stunning views of the cathedral and the castle. Neil Davies: Terry Farrell once compared Medway’s waterfront to a redundant stage. He claimed that the residents of Medway did not have access to the stage. Now our challenge is to populate the stage and make it vibrant again, make it a fantastic place. Rodney Chambers: One good example is Rochester Riverside. One of the first things we did there was to open up the waterside and make it accessible and you would be amazed by the number of people who said

“Terry Farrell compared our waterfront to a redundant stage, our challenge is to populate the stage”

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BELOW: Robin Cooper of Medway Council and Brian Weddell of Medway Renaissance.

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THIS PICTURE: Brian Weddell, head of Medway Renaissance.

“We have a lot of support from the local community. People recognise that there is a better future ahead”

they had never been there before. Robin Cooper: And one of the big plus points is that it has not been done at the expense of green spaces. We have been re-using land that was industrial. It is not taking away some of the stunning scenery that we have around the area. What do you think Medway’s best achievements have been so far? Neil Davies: They are many, and varied, I would say. I think we have demonstrated some of the delivery credentials already. We have already mentioned the universities. And we have seen Chatham Maritime, where we have worked closely with the regional development agency, and the development is still continuing there. To see the waterfront transform, in terms of what it was a few years ago, it is a fantastic prospect. Robin Cooper: One of the things I would add is support. You cannot deliver regeneration as a local authority without the private sector because that is, by and large, where the big sums of money come from. We are already seeing that with the investments that are coming in here. Also, there is a lot of support from the local community. People recognise there is a better future ahead. We don’t

have campaign groups trying to stop what we are doing. People understand what we are trying to do and I think this is absolutely crucial if you want to deliver a regeneration programme. Rodney Chambers: An example of that is how we managed to create the team of volunteer Medway Regeneration Ambassadors. I was a bit sceptical at first but people have been coming forward and they are people from all walks of life; people who have lived here for years and people who have moved here. If you ask them “why do you want to be a Medway Ambassador?” and they say “I think it is wonderful here now, but what the future holds is even better”. They paint a picture of the future of Medway as being a bit like a utopia. There is a lot of enthusiasm in the area. Brian Weddell: For me, by the end of this three-year period we will have completed some of the strategic projects. And this triggers investment worth up to £6 billion. If you add on top of that things like the power stations and the National Grid site, where a new power station is worth £4.6 billion, all these investments coming into the area will be staggering when they are all added together.” M

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[ chatham ] “And so home, where all our hearts do ake; for the news is true, that the Dutch have broke the chain and burned our ships… I do fear much that the whole kingdom is undone”. Samuel Pepys, June 1667

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Riverside renaissance The River Medway has played a crucial role in Chatham’s proud history and it is centre stage in the town’s regeneration plans, says Charlotte Goodworth

his heartfelt entry in Samuel Pepys’ diary in June 1667 not only tells of the Dutch attack of Chatham Dockyard during the second Anglo-Dutch war that succeeded in destroying much of the English naval fleet; it also highlights the historic importance of Chatham and its riverside position to the country as a whole. This waterfront town in Kent, at the heart of the Thames Gateway, may no longer be a national defence base but it holds the key to the successful regeneration of the five towns that make up Medway: Chatham, Gillingham,

Rochester, Strood and Rainham. Chatham’s strategic dockyards have for centuries driven the fortunes of the Medway towns, and, through a 20-year waterfront redevelopment scheme, they are again at the heart of the area’s future. Situated on a sharp bend in the River Medway and tucked between steep hills, Chatham was thought to be easily defended from attack and so an ideal location for a naval dockyard. Ever since the mid-16th century, Chatham has been at the centre of British shipbuilding: constructing, maintaining and repairing the Royal Navy’s fleet, and becoming »

ABOVE: Chatham waterfront.

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Chatham Maritime shows just how beneficial riverside regeneration can be.

Chatham. facts. Population: 71,500, the second largest of the Medway towns after Gillingham. Economy: the retail hub of Medway, with a strong tourist attraction in its Historic Dockyards and a premier business development at Chatham Maritime. The largest employment sectors include wholesale and retail trade, manufacturing, real estate and construction. Demographic: 45% full-time employed; 11% retired; 11% graduates; 2% full-time students.

England’s principal fleet base by the reign of Elizabeth I. When the Royal Navy finally left Chatham in 1984, many assumed the town would never be able to pick itself up and dust itself off. Indeed, around 7,000 jobs were lost, and, with the simultaneous decline of traditional riverside industries, the economy of the surrounding towns suffered greatly. But 25 years later, Chatham has a bright future. Big businesses and major public sector organisations are investing in the area, with many located in Chatham dockyard itself. The waterfront is a hive of activity. Central Chatham’s road system is being remodelled to improve traffic flow, improve pedestrian connectivity and to free up key sites for regeneration, connecting Chatham with its striking waterfront. Councillor Rodney Chambers, leader

of Medway Council, highlights just how far the area has come since this blow to its economy: “This area is tough, resilient and resourceful. During the next few years, the whole area will be transformed. We aren’t just 25 years on from the sad and traumatic closure of the dockyard, we’re many miles down the road towards regenerating the whole of Medway.” The dockyards have been preserved as a tourist destination, the Historic Dockyard, Chatham. Containing around 100 small businesses and some 400 residents, the 80-acre site has around 150,000 visitors every year. It is the most complete Georgian and Victorian former Royal Dockyard in Britain and is at the centre of a World Heritage Status bid that would firmly anchor Chatham’s regeneration plans into its waterfront. The Historic Dockyard, however, is only part of the area within the

[ chatham ]

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regeneration scheme. A vast 140-hectare site has been transformed by the South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) into a thriving waterfront business and residential community: Chatham Maritime. SEEDA has invested £150 million of public sector funding into this flagship development and brought £700 million from the private sector, creating one of the premier business locations in Kent, providing 3,500 new jobs and attracting large, corporate names such as Natwest Bank, Halifax and Medway Council. Jonathan Sadler, SEEDA development director for Thames Gateway, sees this waterfront scheme as crucial to the area’s future: “Our vision is to regenerate this once derelict site into a thriving business and residential community and we are well on the way to achieving this. Chatham Maritime has a real sense of place

“Chatham’s dockyard is at the centre of a World Heritage Status bid”

with a diverse range of jobs which will strengthen the local economy in these difficult times.” Britain’s first and only strategically planned island community has been created on St Mary’s Island, offering private and social housing, education facilities, community facilities and leisure opportunities, plus plenty of open, green space. Within this 60-hectare development 1,000 residential units have already been created, with 1,000 more still to be built. Many of the new services and businesses within Chatham have been located in sensitively restored historic buildings, ensuring the town’s incredible story is continued through its preserved architecture. For instance, the former Grade II Boiler Shop has become the Dockside Outlet Centre, which opened in 2003 containing more than 80 shops and restaurants. »

History. 1570 Chatham becomes a Royal Dockyard. 16th – 19th century Chatham plays a key role in building and maintaining England’s Royal Navy battleships. 1759 Work starts on HMS Victory. 1908 – 1960 57 submarines are built at Chatham Dockyard. 1984 Royal Navy leave Chatham. 1999 Regeneration of Chatham begins.

[ chatham ] “The River Medway and the town’s relationship with it will once again secure Chatham’s success”

LEFT: Chatham’s town centre will soon boast a much improved public realm. BELOW: The Brook Theatre is also being redeveloped as part of the town’s impressive regeneration schedule.

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More former naval buildings have found new homes as part of Medway’s new university campus, formed by the coming together of three universities – Greenwich, Canterbury Christ Church and Kent. Student figures have risen from 2,000 to 10,000 in just a handful of years, with plans to welcome 15,000 students by 2012. This influx of students is creating an attractive pool of skilled workers and an additional outlet for the area’s economy. The new universities are crucial in helping to reinforce Chatham’s business economy, as Tracey Manley, CEO of Thames Gateway (Kent) Chamber of Commerce, explains: “As shipbuilding is no longer a major industry in the town, Chatham, with the input from the new universities and the Innovation and Enterprise hubs, is beginning to show the signs of a new breed of business type – those that offer consultancy in many forms from technical, e-based to financial specialities. With the help and support from a vast array of organisations such as ourselves and Medway Council this sector can only grow from strength to strength.” In 2008 the Chatham Centre & Waterfront Development Brief was adopted to push forward the regeneration of the area. One of the main objectives was to make the most of Chatham’s unique features – the river, the green spaces and its history – to give the town a distinct character. As well as the creation of new urban neighbourhoods and sustainable communities, the aim was to turn Chatham into the cultural and retail hub of Medway. To this end, a masterplan was designed that sets out a vision for a waterfront park housing a new arts and entertainment venue surrounded by cafés, restaurants and shops, turning Chatham into a destination that will attract visitors all year round. Connected by a network of walkways, including pleasant riverside paths, this

seven-hectare site with its safe, green spaces will greatly improve links from the waterfront into the town centre and between the major regeneration sites – one of the key objectives in the town’s redevelopment plans. Chatham is Medway’s main retail centre. Despite the recession, the High Street is attracting new stores and there are long-term plans for a major expansion and refurbishment of the Pentagon shopping centre. Improvements are also being planned to Chatham train station, creating a new gateway to the town. The scheme could include a new public square, hotel and office space, and a new network of streets and improved pedestrian links will reconnect the railway station, the waterfront and the town centre. A long-term programme of major road and junction improvements, including a new bus facility, the demolition of the St John Hawkins Flyover and the replacement of the ring road, is a key factor in linking the major regeneration sites and bringing the waterfront into easy reach of the town centre. Once the regeneration plans are complete, Chatham will be established as the commercial and cultural centre of a much-improved Medway. Its unique naval history and riverside location will be built on to lift Chatham’s image and profile, attract visitors and create new, sustainable communities. Ultimately, it is the River Medway and the town’s relationship with it that will again secure the success of Chatham. M

Chatham’s. regeneration. plans. ✚ Chatham centre and waterfront – a new waterfront leisure and residential development, including a multi-million-pound arts and entertainment centre. ✚ Station Gateway – improvements to the station and the immediate area, and its links to the town and waterfront. ✚P entagon shopping centre (pictured) – a multimillion pound expansion and improvement plan is being considered, including the addition of office and residential space.

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Temple Waterfront page 31

Rochester Riverside page 26

Chatham town centre page 32

[ site map ]

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Gillingham page 34

medway on the map A look at what is planned, completed and under way across Medwayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s main regeneration sites

Rochester Riverside medway 1

A new community of 2,000 homes is to be created on Rochester Riverside, Medway’s flagship regeneration site. Ahead of development, the site’s milelong waterfront features a walkway and cycle path, opening up a section of the waterfront to the public for the first time in more than 100 years. Despite a lack of physical progress on site, the team behind the development are pressing ahead regardless of the testing economic times. Developer Crest Nicholson is working closely with Medway Renaissance finding ways to revise and optimise the plan to allow it to go forward as soon as possible. The company has also underlined its continued commitment to the project by putting in a bid to the government’s kickstart scheme. Plans for the 30-hectare site include 2,000 homes, shops, bars, offices, a school, hotel and two public parks. The scheme will create a highly attractive waterfront, a key step in the process of creating continuous public realm along the length of the river. And those involved are eager to stick as closely as possible to the original plans for the area. Deborah Aplin, managing director of Crest Nicholson, says: “The scheme will complete and round-off Rochester as a destination. We all acknowledge that the railway line divides the town from the river, but we are hoping this development will enhance the experience of going around the river walk. By having people there it creates security and an improved environment, and therefore people won’t see the railway as such a barrier anymore. This is why it is so important that the project is developed, and developed along the lines that the outline states. The mix of uses is

very important.” Despite problems such as unfavourable economic conditions, the challenges of changing perceptions in industrial areas and the scale of what is being attempted in Medway, the developers working in the area remain optimistic about its future. Aplin adds: “The reason you have the likes of Medway Renaissance set up is that it has been too difficult in the past for any one person to be the catalyst to start these developments. “They have gone about it in exactly the right way in our terms; that is they have got the vision, got the buy-in, got a good masterplan, spent the money in terms of cleaning up the sites, and ensuring other public agencies, like the environment agency are all on board, and they have gone to the council’s choice of developers. In short, you need to ensure all the ingredients are there in the first place, allowing somebody to be able to start.”

ABOVE: The new riverside walkway. RIGHT: The redevelopment of Rochester Riverside will make full use of the area’s natural assets.

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continued overleaf

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We do more than just produce energy, E.ON is one of the UKâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s largest power and gas companies â&#x20AC;&#x201C; generating and distributing electricity, and supplying power and gas to millions of homes and businesses nationwide.

Photo: Courtesy NASAÂŠ

Offshore wind farm

Gas-fired CHP construction at Grain

we build for the future And Kent and the south east of England are at the heart of what we do. We’re a major developer and operator of power stations On the Isle of Grain we’re more than half way through construction of a new gas-fired CHP (Combined Heat and Power) plant that will provide enough electricity for over one million homes and businesses. The plant will also provide excess heat to the nearby Grain Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) facility and help save 350,000 tonnes of carbon emissions every year by replacing fossil fuels that would otherwise have been used in the LNG gasification process.

We’re a major developer and operator of onshore and offshore wind farms We’ve committed, with our partners, Dong Energy and Masdar, to build the world’s largest offshore wind farm – the London Array - in the outer Thames Estuary. When complete, this wind farm will be capable of producing enough renewable electricity to supply up to a quarter of the homes in Greater London and offset emission of 1.9 million tonnes of harmful greenhouse gases each year.

We’re determined to lead the way in finding new ways to provide secure, affordable energy and to address the threat of climate change The south east of England has the highest electricity demand in the UK. This is set to grow, particularly as in the future we move towards the electrification of transport, which is why we’re committed to exploring new technologies.

eon-uk.com

Existing power stations like our own at Kingsnorth and Grain are set to close and the need to tackle climate change grows ever more urgent. So we need to replace this lost capacity in a way that ensures affordability and security of energy supply while being mindful of our impact on the environment. This is why we're hoping to replace the current coal-fired plant at Kingsnorth with cleaner, more efficient coal units that we can use as a test bed for the development of pioneering carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology. Our vision for the development of CCS is the creation of a 'Thames Cluster' of projects that would see carbon captured from sites including the Kingsnorth demonstration plant and transported via a single pipeline up to the southern North Sea for storage in depleted gas fields. A Thames Cluster would provide the south east with the potential to lead the world in the development of low carbon technology. It would also significantly increase the potential for investment by other local carbon producers and with it, even further advances in technological development. E.ON’s CCS project at Kingsnorth, financed in part with EU and UK government funding, would provide a multi-billion pound boost to the local economy as well as a low-carbon infrastructure attractive to future industrial investment. Carbon capture and the opportunities it brings for further low-carbon energy development will greatly reduce the release of carbon into the atmosphere, enabling the whole of the south east of England to decarbonise. This represents an unmissable opportunity for the future of the region.

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Supporting our customers for almost 100 years Morgan Timber has been selling top quality timber in the Medway area since 1910. We look forward to serving our customers from our current location as part of the Temple Waterfront Development. • • • • •

Environmentally certified timber Quality hardwoods and softwoods Cladding, flooring and decking Structural and restoration timber Selected by experts and machined to your specification

Call us on 01634 290909 www.morgantimber.co.uk Morgan Timber Knight Road, Rochester, Kent ME2 2BA

MORGAN TIMBER Timber Merchants, Importers & Sawmillers

PEFC/16-37-018 www.pefc.org

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Temple Waterfront

One of Medway’s largest regeneration projects took a huge step forward in April, when Lafarge Cement submitted its planning application for the 28-hectare Temple Waterfront site. The £100 million development is set to deliver up to 620 homes and up to 12,300sq m of mixed-use employment and retail space, creating up to 250 jobs in the process. Proposed community services within the development also include shops, community facilities and access to Medway’s public transport system. Public realm improvements along the site’s half-mile waterfront are a vital element of the scheme. The scheme includes establishing new paths, open space management programmes and wildlife protection plans to transform Temple Waterfront into a pleasant riverside destination. David Simms, land and planning

director at Lafarge Cement, comments: “The completed project will do a number of things. Most importantly it will open up the riverside to a much wider audience, and provide some very attractive views, both towards Rochester’s castle and cathedral, and up towards the M2 and the bridges. It is also going to be a piece of high quality development providing an interesting blend between residential and employment. “Quite rightly, Medway intend to open up and create greater access to the river, and it is not just creating access, our scheme will be positively welcoming. It will be a safe and attractive landscape. “Temple Waterfront, with its links to the motorway and superb views across the river to Rochester’s castle and cathedral, is one of our most important sites. It has massive

potential and we’re determined to see that potential realised.” The result of the planning application should be released in August 2009, and the search for development partners is likely to begin in 2010, with work potentially starting on site by 2011.

continued overleaf

Chatham town centre

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Before the redevelopment of Chatham town centre is able to get under way in earnest, there are major infrastructure issues to be resolved, and anyone familiar with the town will not be surprised to hear that this refers mainly to its road layout. Over the next two years, a programme of road improvements, including the demolition of the Sir John Hawkins Way flyover, will transform the town’s traffic system, improving access for all road users, and opening up key regeneration sites, as well as creating a new bus station, which will serve as an important transport hub for the area. These upgrades represent the first steps in Chatham becoming Medway’s commercial and cultural centre. Sara Purvis, Chatham project manager at Medway Renaissance, says: “The main objective here is to tie the town centre more closely together with the waterfront. At present the flyover and Globe Lane, with its heavy traffic, are a barrier between the town centre and the waterfront. We are trying to connect places through improved pedestrian routes; it is all tied in with improving the public realm. “The work is also going to allow the bus station to be constructed on Globe Lane. It means the traffic will be re-routed around the two-way system, which is being improved with major works planned at Union Street and The Brook. Another benefit of these works

ABOVE: Work under way in Chatham High Street. RIGHT: Life before and after the demolition of the Sir John Hawkins Way flyover.

is that it caters for the growth predicted for Chatham in the coming years. It is a case of future-proofing Chatham’s road network.” Chatham’s skyline changed dramatically over a single weekend in July with the removal of the central section of the flyover. In the first step of a six-week demolition process, nearly 500 tonnes of concrete and more than 100 tonnes of steel were removed over 48 hours. “This is major, complex infrastructure work and some disruption is unavoidable,” says Robin Cooper, Medway Council’s director of regeneration, community and culture. “It’s a little pain for massive gain. This work will give Chatham improved traffic flow for years to come. It will contribute to making the centre of Chatham a more attractive place, as will a series of other road and public realm improvements over the next two years.” The £1.6 million scheme is being funded by the Homes and Communities Agency as part of the government funding that Medway receives as a key region of the Thames Gateway. www.medway.gov.uk/chathamfuture

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[ projects ]

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Strood centre

North of the river, central Strood and Strood Riverside are key areas of Medway’s regeneration programme. Here improving the quality of the public realm is the top priority. The creation of a continuous pedestrian route from the Medway Valley Leisure Park through the centre of Strood to Strood Riverside will help to integrate these areas, making them more accessible on foot. Despite the recession there remains strong interest in the area from retail investors. Longterm, the aim is to open up the town centre and reconnect it with the waterfront, which has great views across the Medway to historic Rochester. M

Gillingham

Two projects in Gillingham are proving that the recession does not have to bring regeneration projects grinding to a halt. Building work is ongoing at both Gillingham Waterfront’s Victory Pier development and at the Medway Park sports complex. Berkeley First is responsible for the delivery of a new community, located at Gillingham’s waterfront. The completed development will eventually see the creation of 640 student residential units for the University of Kent, a range of retail units, including a Tesco store, a 120-bedroom hotel, 60 residential units for the elderly, 43 for shared-ownership, and improved areas of public realm. Phase one of the scheme, which includes the student units and some of

the retail provision, is expected to be completed in time for the start of the new term in September 2009. Work has already started on the hotel, and, once planning consent has been granted for phase two, work will begin on the additional residential units. Progress has also been swift over at Medway Park, the centrepiece of the region’s 2012 preparations. The development, which is set to become a regional centre of sporting excellence for use by both local residents and competing athletes, should be completed by February 2010. The venue will be used as a pre-games training camp, with Barbados’ Paralympics team already signed up.

ABOVE: Phase one of Berkeley Homes’ Victory Pier development at Gillingham Waterfront is heading for completion by September 2009.

Partner of Choice mhs homes is a unique and innovative supplier of affordable homes. We own and manage 8000 homes in the Thames Gateway. Working with Medway Council and the Homes and Communities Agency we are committed to the regeneration and growth of Medway. We are looking for new partners to help us deliver some exciting ambitions.

If you would like to discuss partnership opportunities, please contact Emma Riddington â&#x20AC;&#x201C; Development Manager

Telephone: 01634 354053 email: emma.riddington@mhs.org.uk Or write to: mhs homes, Broadside, Leviathan Way, Chatham, Kent ME4 4LL

Passionate about People and Neighbourhoods

www.mhshomes.co.uk

Before people...places...opportunity...aspiration

impact We aim to have a lasting

on the places where we develop, creating successful communities which will continue to thrive in the long-term. www.hyde-housing.co.uk

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[ 5 towns ]

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Greater than the sum of its parts Medway’s future has been in good hands ever since Sir Terry Farrell was selected as its design champion. And the publication of his report detailing how the area could move forward is testament to this claim. By Alex Aspinall

hen London’s ExCel centre hosted the Thames Gateway Forum in November 2008, it provided the backdrop for the dawning of a new era in Medway’s regeneration; the launch of Terry Farrell’s Five Towns Make a City report. Commenting on the report’s release, Medway Council’s leader, councillor Rodney Chambers, said: “Two years ago Sir Terry Farrell became Medway’s design champion. He has since been made design champion for the whole of the Thames Gateway. We’re delighted that so distinguished a figure shares our enthusiasm and ambition for Medway’s future.”

And a brief flick through the report shows just how bright that future could be. It outlines the area’s strengths and details how they can be maximised to create a new Medway with a significant role to play on the national and international stage. By capitalising on the assets already present in Medway’s towns of Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham and Rainham, and their shared association with the River Medway, the report explains how the area has the ability to become an exemplary 21st century sustainable city. Five Towns Make a City highlights the area’s unique geography, topography and heritage as factors providing a great base from which to develop. Enviable local, national and international transport

links are singled out for specific praise. And the report explains how, through the exploitation of a rich built and cultural heritage, Medway’s history will ensure its prosperous future. But the real starting point, and a recurrent theme in Medway’s regeneration, is the river. It is the area’s strongest feature and has been the main driver in the five towns’ independent development, as well as providing them with a shared identity. The Royal Navy’s presence on the River Medway has shaped the five towns since the 18th century, affecting the built environment and providing jobs. So when the Navy left in the 1980s, as well as removing a source of employment »

BELOW: Images from the Five Towns Make a City report

FIVE TOWNS MAKE A CITY MEDWAY

A CONCEPT FOR MEDWAY’S FUTURE BY SIR TERRY FARRELL MEDWAY DESIGN CHAMPION

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Danny & Elizabeth Students Rainham

An exceptional place The five Medway towns of Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham and Rainham possess an exceptional geography, a rich heritage, a dynamic, creative population and a resurgent economy. These powerful ingredients are ripe for enhancement, to realise aspirations for a cohesive world-class place that has played a formative role in British and global history. This document is a set of ideas, produced by Medway Design Champion Sir Terry Farrell and his practice Farrells, which suggest how Medway might transform itself into that ideal. The ideas are presented for the people of the Medway Towns, and for everyone interested in the potential of Medway, to debate and celebrate what an amazing and significant place it is and can become.

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Medway has the potential to be an exemplary 21st century sustainable city.

[ 5 towns ]

FIVE TOWNS MAKE A CITY MEDWAY

A CONCEPT FOR MEDWAY’S FUTURE BY SIR TERRY FARRELL MEDWAY DESIGN CHAMPION

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The opportunity is there on both sides of the river to create and harness a unique natural asset that would enhance values across Medway

it also left the river devoid of purpose. The area’s “strongest asset” drifted out of everyday life. Reversing that is central to Farrell’s vision. Describing the river as an “empty stage,” the report enthuses over the “once-in-a-generation” opportunity to fill that stage. It highlights the role the river could play in boosting real estate values, refreshing the area’s identity, creating an interesting public realm and establishing a new connectivity between the five towns. It also makes specific recommendations. Farrell suggests the creation of a continuous public realm along the riverfront and around the docks. The report describes how: “From Temple Waterfront in the south west all the way to Gillingham Waterfront, the opportunity is there on both sides of the river to create and harness a unique natural asset that would enhance values throughout the Medway area”. Comparisons are made with successful waterside regeneration schemes in Newcastle and Gateshead and London’s South Bank, and overseas in Malmö, Sweden, and the linear water-facing public realm along Paris’ River Seine. The report observes how

this continuous public space would attract new residents, visitors, tourists, businesses and investors, as well as create strategically useful linkages between the towns. Connectivity between the five town centres is an important theme. In a section headed “Connect and heal the high streets”, the report asserts that joining and improving the high streets of each town would create an area “greater than the sum of its parts”. The report proposes a landscape in which Medway’s existing parks, playing fields and surrounding green spaces are linked, to create a pleasant non-urban quality of life in the new city. Five Towns Make a City acknowledges the substantial level of regeneration work already taking place in Medway - Strood Riverside, for example, with 500 new homes to be completed in 2012, and the 750 homes and 250 jobs being created at Chatham Maritime. “The sheer quality of Medway’s physical and cultural assets makes Medway very attractive to the market,” Farrell says. But he goes on to emphasise the importance of following a wider vision rather than proceeding piecemeal and site-by-site. Medway’s regeneration must guide development »

steps to a new Medway city: 1. Reoccupy the riverside

2. Connect and improve the high streets 3. Improve the area’s transport connectivity 4. Urbanise the peninsula 5. Create interesting public spaces along the river 6. C reate new connections with the river 7. Embrace the existing natural landscape The Five Towns Make a City document was edited, designed and produced by Urbik, www.urbik.co.uk

[ 5 towns ] Five towns: one city.

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1 4 2 5 3

Strood Population: 33,000 The only Medway town located north of the river, Strood used to be seen as a residential suburb of nearby Rochester. It is now home to many commuters working in London, who use the twice-hourly train service to Charing Cross. “towards goals agreed with and informed by the community”, he says, for the best possible chance of creating truly sustainable regeneration that “takes into account the broadest possible range of interests”. The Medway City Estate peninsula is highlighted as being an area that could kickstart a new era of collaborative regeneration in Medway. The report advocates transforming the low-density industrial area into a mixed-use development offering employment and residential opportunities and new cultural facilities appropriate to a city. This kind of ambitious development would send out a message of intent, Farrell says, attracting outside investment which could be used to provide funding for developing the public realm. “Development could be targeted at highvalue engineering..... creative industries, knowledge-based industry linked to the university, leisure with a focus on heritage and marine sectors and eco-friendly manufacturing”. Farrell’s vision for Medway’s development sees the area growing into a sustainable 21st century city. He describes sustainability as “the driving force of our age” and illustrates Medway’s opportunity to become a remarkable destination. New, and expanding technologies such as wind, tidal and biomass power should be utilised. And Medway should build on the established ecological significance of the Thames Estuary, to become the “exemplary carbonneutral city”. Five Towns Make a City represents an ambitious and deliverable vision for Medway, Farrell believes. The report is not a formal planning document, but rather a vision to guide planning decisions, yet it offers a striking and attractive view of Medway’s future. There are many challenges to be overcome in realising Farrell’s ambitions for Medway but, he says, by following this guidance “Medway could be, once again, a world-leading example of something really special”. M

Sir Terry Farrell Occupying a respected position at the head of the community of world architects, Farrell’s influence can be seen shaping cities around the world. His multi-award winning practice is responsible for masterplanning and designing spaces and developments as diverse as the Quayside in Newcastle, the Greenwich Peninsula in London, the Deep Aquarium in Hull and the transportation centre at Incheon airport in South Korea. His continued commitment to the development of the Thames Gateway is testament to the scale of what can be achieved in the area over the next 20 years.

Rochester Population: 27,000 Rochester has been home to the Romans, England’s second oldest cathedral and Charles Dickens at various stages of its distinguished history, and all have left their mark. Despite a smaller population than Strood, Rochester’s historical importance has enabled it to govern the land on the opposite side of the river.

Chatham Population: 71,500 The second most populated town in Medway acts as the area’s central hub. The Royal Navy called the town home for over 200 years. More recently its excellent transport links have served to ensure the people of Medway remain connected, both to each other and to London.

A continuous public realm along the River Medway would help link the five towns and repopulate the waterfront.

Gillingham Population: 99,800 Recognised in the Domesday Book of 1086, Gillingham’s growth was secured thanks to two-thirds of Chatham Dockyards being situated within its boundaries. The closure of the docks was felt strongly in the town but attempts to diversify its economy have been successful, with the Gillingham Business Park providing a good example. Rainham Population: 6,400 A separate village until it was added to Gillingham in 1928, Rainham’s growth was leisurely until the arrival of the railway in 1858, when the population increased significantly. Largely residential, the town is one of Medway’s quieter centres and enjoys an excellent reputation for high-quality schools. Medway Population: 252,000 Conveniently located 30 miles from central London, England’s newest city boasts a diverse and unique history. Medway is also potentially a vital part of what could be an eco-region, pioneering new industries, patterns of settlement and food production. Its residents enjoy the benefits of living in a setting simultaneously well-connected, green and urban.

PLAYING OUR PART

[ 5 towns ]

IN MEDWAY AND THE THAMES GATEWAY

40 STORES 9,000 JOBS 1,000 TONNES OF CUSTOMER RECYCLING

£26,000 COLLECTED

FOR OUR CHARITY OF THE YEAR

£61,000 OF SPORTS EQUIPMENT & COACHING

OVER 30,000,000

GIVEN TO SCHOOLS & CLUBS

CARRIER BAGS SAVED

REGIONAL BUYING FROM LOCAL PRODUCERS IN KENT & ESSEX

£173,000 OF COMPUTERS

& IT EQUIPMENT TO SCHOOLS

Tesco is committed to Medway and the Thames Gateway and is currently involved in major regeneration developments in Chatham, Strood, Sittingbourne, Dartford, Southend and Greenwich. For more information on how Tesco is helping the Thames Gateway regeneration, contact: Michael Kissman or James Wiggam at Tesco michael.kissman@uk.tesco.com james.wiggam@uk.tesco.com

www.tesco.com

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All the small things The public realm is just as important as any other element in the creation of a successful regeneration programme, according to Medway Council. And they intend to learn from the best. Alex Aspinall reports

[ public realm ]

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n the UK the importance of public space was underlined by the publication in May this year of “World Class Places,” a document detailing the government’s strategy for improving the quality of the country’s public realm. The document describes how public realm influences levels of crime, health, community cohesion and the prosperity of an area. It also details the steps the government intends to take to persuade local authorities and developers to engage in higher quality public realm planning. At the document’s launch the then secretary of state for communities and

local government Hazel Blears said: “Badly designed housing estates and low quality neighbourhoods encourage crime, undermine communities, deter investment, spoil the environment and cost a fortune in the long term. “If we give up on good design now, we will simply create rundown areas which we will all have to live with once we get beyond this recession – and we’ll end up paying for them twice.” Even without this initiative, it’s difficult to identify many UK cities not putting the public realm at the heart of their regeneration plans. There has been a shift in understanding regarding how

the city should work. Where once the motorcar reigned supreme, attention now is devoted to the pedestrian’s experience of the urban environment. Places with large road systems running through their centres are working to divert traffic flow, and improve the connections between their major attractions and points of arrival and departure, for example. The Public Realm Information and Advice Network, seeks to encourage and disseminate best practice in public realm design across the UK. Joint founder Colin Davis is under no illusions about the importance of shared space. “The quality »

[ public realm ]

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TOP: Chatham’s maritime history. ABOVE: Redesigning Chatham’s town centre. ABOVE RIGHT: Plans for Chatham’s new bus station and public realm.

of an area’s public realm and its economic wellbeing go hand-in-hand,” he says. “Every region in the country is keen to improve the quality of its public realm. “People make personal judgements on the basis of the quality of an area’s public space. If people can afford to live and/or invest in areas with better quality public realm, they do so. There is absolutely no question that people choose to invest in areas that could be described as being ‘better’ places; areas with nicer public realms.” UNIQUE Medway A similar understanding of the relevance of public spaces is informing the regeneration of Medway. The area is blessed with an abundance of waterside areas, along with distinctive town centres at Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham and Rainham. This gives Medway a chance to develop striking public spaces. “More people will be interested in the place if it offers a pleasant experience, and this is tied in with inward investment too. An attractive public realm does attract increased levels of inward investment,” says Sara Purvis, Chatham project

“People make personal judgements on the quality of an area’s public space” manager at regeneration unit Medway Renaissance. “Medway is a unique example in that it is made up of five smaller towns that cumulatively are a significant urban area. This is why we have a focus on linking the areas. You can walk between all of the towns and the key is to make that a pleasant experience, so people are more likely to visit them.” Purvis lists three “benchmarks for public realm success”, regeneration projects from three very different cities that include successful new public spaces: Grainger Town in Newcastle upon Tyne, London’s Canary Wharf and the Berlin

government quarter, Regierungsviertel. “All three places have the same quality of attracting people to them, even when they don’t necessarily have any specific need to go there,” she says. “Two of these areas, Canary Wharf and Regierungsviertel, are intensively managed. This highlights the importance of maintenance in the ongoing success of a space.” Purvis adds another thought: that all three “are in or near places I have lived or worked in. This is no coincidence, because the quality of a public space isn’t something you can understand just by looking at it once. You need to see the space working day and night, winter and summer, to understand how it is used because this is the true indicator of the quality of the space.” That thinking is being applied not just to Medway’s public spaces, but also to the linkages between them. Improved high streets and interconnected areas of well developed green space will help to create a cohesive public environment in Medway, in a strategy advocated by Sir Terry Farrell in his report Five Towns Make a City. The report is also concerned with reclaiming spaces along each side of the River Medway to create a continuous public realm along the riverfront and through the historic docks. It argues »

[ energy ]

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[ public realm ] Medway’s future: “Medway’s regeneration framework sees Chatham as being effectively the city centre. The regeneration priority is to improve all the town centres, but with Chatham acting as the central focus for culture and leisure and shopping. This is why Chatham is so pivotal.” TWO-YEAR PROGRAMME Work is already under way, with a two-year programme of governmentfunded road improvements designed to open up vital sites for the town’s wider regeneration. A major element of this work is the demolition of the Sir John Hawkins Way flyover, which currently runs through the heart of the town centre (for more information, see pg 32). The £1.7 million project by civil engineer Breheny will create a more pleasant and friendly town centre shopping district. Medway Council and Medway Renaissance hope it - and other transport improvements - will also help attract new development projects which will, in turn, include further public realm investment. “Regeneration is not all about changing

BELOW: Waterside living is increasing in popularity around the country.

roads and buildings,” says Medway Council leader Rodney Chambers. “It is about taking the public realm that you have, and saying ‘what improvements can we make that the community will appreciate?’ And when we talk about infrastructure, we are not only talking about roads, we are talking about public realm, and how it can be improved. “In many respects, the small things really do count. For instance we have taken on a rather dilapidated car park site in Chatham, and reinstated it as a proper public car park. People have come up to me and said ‘it’s great you are doing something in Chatham’. That brings it home that they are not looking at the big things, they are looking at improvements in the public realm that they use on an everyday basis. A small amount of investment in that area goes a long way.” A small amount of progress goes a long way, too, as Purvis explains. “There has been an awful lot of work done to date in terms of masterplanning and design, and we are now getting to the stage where we have work taking place on site,” she says. “And the demolition of the flyover is now under way, which is great news. Things are starting to happen, and it is very exciting to see that physical changes are taking place.” The next change people will see in Chatham will be a new bus station, for which the planning application has been submitted in the hope of work starting in January 2010. Designed by Birmingham architect D5, the station “is important in its own right but also as a piece of the public realm”, according to Purvis. “It’s a prominent site close to the waterfront and the Pentagon shopping centre. It’s also adjacent to two open spaces so it needs to provide a connection between them. The design is very open – a sort of ‘bus station in a park’. “Things like the demolition of the flyover have the aim of connecting the town centre to the waterfront. You can start to achieve a much stronger connection and create a pedestrianfriendly movement. The design of the new bus station and the design of the new bus and taxi route, to be created when the flyover is demolished, are all done with the aim of improving pedestrian connectivity.” M

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that, from Temple Waterfront all the way to Gillingham Waterfront, there exists an opportunity to create a unique natural asset that would improve design and land use standards in the area. It goes so far as to suggest: “Rather like the banks of the Seine in Paris or London’s South Bank, a great linear waterside park could be created, running through the heart of the Medway area, attracting new residents, visitors, tourists, businesses and investors”. The vision to transform Medway from five distinct towns into a single, coherent city sees Chatham become the area’s strategic commercial, civic and cultural centre. This places an important emphasis on the quality of Chatham’s public realm, if it is to attract the level and type of investment imagined. Plans are afoot to deliver the kind of spaces appropriate to corporate headquarters, for example. The town’s public realm design code asserts: “The vision for Chatham is to create a recognisable destination; a city with a lively, active and liveable reputation”. Purvis explains Chatham’s relevance to

DaviD SimmS Land and planning director, Lafarge Cement “These are exciting times for Lafarge in Medway. Over the last few years, the company has been returning to positive use the large areas of land it no longer requires in order to make cement. Often land has been restored to provide areas of open space and nature conservation interest, such as at Holborough Marshes where 34 hectares of riverside land near the site of the former Holborough Cement Works, is part designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI) for its flora value. At Cliffe quarry, a former 20 hectare chalk quarry is now also designated a SSSI site. At Halling, the opportunity was taken to open up physical access to the river and river views to both new residents and the public with the creation of a new promenade and public open space. Surplus land has been used for innovative thinking and the delivery of high quality restoration, with new houses and new employment opportunities. Examples include Medway Valley Park, a site of 15 hectares alongside the River Medway on land previously occupied by the former Martin Earle Cement Works. This is now a vibrant area of mixed leisure uses together with a riverside walkway. This is an example of Lafarge’s programme of opening up restored land to provide access to riverside locations for public enjoyment. Lafarge’s and Medway Council’s plans for Temple Waterfront, outlined elsewhere in this publication, illustrate the on-going regeneration programme, with proposed community services include shops, services and public transport. Access along the site’s half mile waterfront will be greatly improved through investment in paths and open space management. Cement production remains at the core of our business and Lafarge’s planned new cement Works in Medway will bring prosperity to the area. The planned Works, at Holborough, will invest millions of pounds into Medway, creating both direct and indirect local employment opportunities as well as providing a state of the art world class manufacturing facility at the heart of Medway.”

Lafarge Cement Portland House Bickenhill Lane Solihull Birmingham B37 7BQ www.lafarge-cement-uk.co.uk Tel: 0845 812 6400 Fax: 0845 812 6200

[ medway partnership ]

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Big plans require big ambition, something Medway has plenty of. Medway Regeneration Partnership was set up to give public and private sector representatives the opportunity to voice their thoughts on the regeneration plans and find the best solution for Medway. Kirsty MacAulay discovers more

Working together

continued overleaf

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Formed in 2004 Medway Regeneration Partnership was set up as a council and government initiative to steer the delivery of regeneration projects in the area. Initially funded by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, and its successor departments, it is a strategic advisory partnership consisting of a mix of representatives from central government, public agencies and local partners in Medwayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s regeneration. The partnership is not a decision-making body, it has an advisory role. Since its inception it has overseen the development of the Medway Regeneration Framework, submissions against the governmentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Costed Delivery Plan, successful project delivery and the current Medway Renaissance business plan.

[ medway partnership ]

Medway Regeneration Partnership board members:

● Homes and Communities Agency (HCA) Jonathan Martin, area director Formerly English Partnerships the HCA is a government backed housing and regeneration agency focused on delivering housing, both affordable and private sector, and creating sustainable communities. ● Thames Gateway Kent Partnership David Liston-Jones, chief executive A partnership of private, public and community sectors set up in 2001 to promote the economic, social and environmental regeneration of Medway, Kent Thameside and Swale. ● The KM Group Geraldine Allinson, chairman Multimedia company operating radio stations, internet sites and local newspapers in Kent and Medway. ● South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) Jonathan Sadler, project director Government funded agency responsible for the economic and social development of the South East of England. ● Medway NHS Marion Dinwoodie, chief executive Medway NHS is very much involved in the area’s regeneration with new buildings and extensions to improve facilities and services. ● Rochester Cathedral Adrian Newman, dean Rochester Cathedral is England’s second oldest cathedral and one of Rochester’s main tourist attractions. ● Groundwork Simon Green, executive director Groundwork Medway Swale is dedicated to environmental, economic and community regeneration and addressing local needs.

Geraldine Allinson, chairman at KM Group says: “I joined the partnership two and a half years ago. As an organisation we’re passionate about Kent and Medway and we have a lot of readers, listeners and customers in the area so Medway is very important to us. I wouldn’t say it’s a decision-making organisation but the partnership helps communication and understanding of what is going on. It brings a lot of different people together who’re interested in and involved in what’s going on in the area. If the partnership didn’t exist the regeneration would be a far slower process and people would find things

“The mix of people involved works well and is really important” out in a very different way. Our meetings enable us to keep up to date with what’s going on and to help steer the future. It’s made the process more coordinated and the partners round the table better understand where the others are coming from. The mix of people involved works well and is really important as those with expertise in certain areas are able to explain and guide certain parts of the project. It’s particularly useful now, in a recession, for the people sitting around the table to know where pinch points and difficulties are going to come. Regeneration is there to try and help an area to cope with recession, so in a way this is a bit of a test for the whole project.”

Alan Reed, director of regional development for Kent and Medway at University of Greenwich in Medway, says: “The university has been involved with the partnership since its inception. We’ve been pioneering education-led regeneration since the university opened here in 1995. It’s a very successful story. Ten years ago there wasn’t one university in Medway, now there are campuses for four universities – we were leaders of that change. Regeneration is about educating and upskilling the population, preparing the workforce for a new economy and that’s very much our business. We’re increasingly seeing people retraining and changing careers as a result of the recession. The challenge is to keep those graduates in the community – train them locally, educate them locally and keep them locally. The partnership is working on that, it took a few meetings to get the message through but the university is now working in partnership with businesses and that is the way to go. There are key players from each community within the partnership to advise the delivery body on its strategy and projects, looking at not just the physical and economic development but social elements too. We cannot think in isolation about physical regeneration – it will have an impact on the community so social dimensions need to be given due consideration. The mix of partners is absolutely essential and the partnership is stronger for it. There are different opinions on the regeneration and they all have to be heard that is why it’s such a wide-ranging board. The mix brings a balance of views and prevents one dominant voice.” M

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● Medway Council Councillor Rodney Chambers Councillor Jane Chitty Councillor Paul Godwin Neil Davies, chief executive Robin Cooper, director of regeneration, community and culture ● Medway Renaissance Brian Weddell, head of Medway Renaissance Set up in 2003 Medway Renaissance is the driving force behind Medway’s regeneration plans. ● Countryside Properties Alan Cherry, chairman Property developer specialising in urban regeneration and sustainable communities with several schemes in the Thames Gateway. ● University of Greenwich Alan Reed, director of regional development for Kent and Medway The campus on Chatham Maritime has over 9,000 students. ● University of Kent Clare Mackie, pro-vice chancellor Founded in 2000 the Medway campus has grown considerably since its inception and played a large part in the area’s regeneration. ● University of Creative Arts Dianne Taylor, head of college The campus in Rochester offers teaching and research in fashion, photography, art and design and further education. ● MHS Homes Ashley Hook, chief executive Formed in 1990 MHS Homes is a nonprofit making organisation that owns and manages 7,500 homes in Medway. ● Government Office of the South East Clare Parnham Representing central government in the region. Promoting effective integration of government policies and programmes at regional and local level.

What board members have to say about it:

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Hydraulic and Engineering Services A toolmaker by trade, Stephen Matthews went into the hydraulics business when he was 24. Three years later he set up his own company, and it now employs almost 40 members of staff, who all work at the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s large manufacturing and repair facility on the Medway City Estate in Strood. The company specialises in the manufacture, supply and repair of high-quality hydraulic cylinders. Stephen Matthews: Best thing about Medway: Medway is part of the busiest environment in the south yet close enough to Kent to get away from it all. Who or what inspires you? Life. You just have to get on with it because it can be taken in the blink of an eye.

manufacturing success Medway may seem an unlikely business centre but for years now small businesses have been rubbing shoulders with a surprising number of big name manufacturers in the area. We meet some of the success stories

[ creative ]

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or years Medway’s school leavers found work at the docks. The decline of this traditional source of employment had a well-documented effect on the region. But, like any area destined to succeed, Medway has adapted and now boasts an impressive and diverse range of thriving businesses. In fact, there are more than 13,000 of them contributing to the £2.8 billion generated locally every year. Regeneration projects aimed at boosting business numbers have seen the creation of exciting new business centres, many of which are located on and around the waterfront, and Medway’s businesses continue to go from strength-to-strength.

Companies working in the internationally competitive sectors of manufacturing and engineering are doing particularly well from their north Kent base. Even during the current economic slowdown, adaptability and good quality products, mean thriving businesses can be found very much alive and kicking throughout the Medway region. As Medway’s regeneration continues, and the area becomes an increasingly important part of the South East, there is no reason to think these businesses should not continue to expand, and enjoy the world renown once associated with the area’s famous dockyards. We profile a few of the niche companies helping to make Medway what it is today…

J and A Precision Engineering After working at the same firm, Tug Lowe, Alan Lister and John Whiting decided to go it alone, and in 1975 J and A Precision Engineering was born. The company has developed a sterling reputation, and today provides services such as CNC turning and milling, precision assembly, prototype design and general precision engineering to customers across the UK. Tug Lowe: Who or what inspires you? Deadlines. What is your greatest achievement? Surviving in business for 30 years.

Putting our customers first medway 1

Working in Partnership to Regenerate Medway Orbit South owns and manages more than 12,000 homes mainly in Kent, East Sussex and South London. We are investing £50m each year in regeneration and new homes. Orbit can offer • More than 40 years of experience developing and regenerating the south east • Long term neighbourhood management and community development • Quality services across the region provided by local teams • More than1,000 homes in Medway managed from our Chatham office • Commitment to working in partnership to improve the quality of life for communities

www.orbitsouth.org.uk To find out more about how Orbit South can work with you to Build Brighter Futures contact:

Maggie McCann Divisional Development Director maggie.mccann@orbit.org.uk

Orbit South Housing Association Ltd is an exempt charity and part of the Orbit Group

Hanson-Tower Leather is in Paul Hansonâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s blood; his father was a tanner, and he always knew he wanted to follow suit. Paul and his team of 20 workers pride themselves on creating high-quality English leather, and their output is used in a diverse range of products, from car interiors and upmarket leather goods, to pet collars, saddles and bridles. And they have recently diversified into architectural leatherwork, such as floors and walls.

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Paul Hanson: Best thing about Medway? Its excellent location. It has convenient access to both London and the Continent. What has been your most unusual commission? We made the leather that was used for costumes in the Harry Potter films.

BAE Sytems Celebrating its 100th year in the world of supplying avionic equipment, BAE Systems is a world leading research, design, development and production company, and its Rochesterbased site employs 1,700 people, working across all aspects of the business. BAE is in the business of precision electronic engineering, and the company creates more than 100 new inventions every year for customers in more than 100 countries. Andy Start: Best thing about Medway? Medway has always had a pool of skilled labour. What is the next big thing? Green issues. Hybrid and fuel-efficient aircraft are hugely important.

Rayner & Sturges Originally established as a manufacturer of shirt collars in 1913 by William Claude Sturges and Mr Raynor, the company now sits easily among the ranks of the finest shirtmakers in the land, as Rayner & Sturgesâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; fine shirts can be found all along Savile Row and Jermyn Street, and on the backs of high-net-worth clients from all corners of the globe.

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Robert Boyd Bowman: Best thing about Medway? The residential community. What inspires you? To consistently improve the standard of the finest shirts in England.

[ creative ]

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APG Developments Having started from humble beginnings in a run-down backstreet garage in Gillingham, APG’s progress has been impressive over the past 20 years. Colin Florey’s company now operates from its considerably larger 830sq m production base in Medway’s City Estate business park, and supplies customers from the UK and the USA with special transmission products that can be used in a wide range of market sectors, including helicopters, bomb-disposal vehicles, cash machines and submarines. Colin Florey: Best thing about Medway? Its ideal locality for good employees. What has been your most unusual commission? A 1922 aircraft propeller pulley.

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The Nelson Brewing Company Having run pubs for 20 years, Piers MacDonald felt the need to move up the supply chain and bought The Nelson Brewing Company in 2006, whose headquarters are nestled away in Chatham’s Historic Dockyard. The company has enjoyed considerable success since Piers took over, winning the 2006 Taste of Kent Award for its Pieces of Eight Ale, and retaining its strong client base across the south-east of England. Piers MacDonald: Best thing about Medway? A hot, sunny day in the dockyard. What materials do you specialise in? As the Stella Artois advert said, there are five: water, malt, barley, hops and yeast.

Tatty Devine With their products regularly featured in the likes of Vogue and Marie Claire, Rosie Wolfenden and Harriet Vine need no introduction to those with their finger on the fashion pulse. The pair met while studying fine art at Chelsea, and have seen their jewellery business blossom rapidly since it was established in 1999. Their two shops in Soho and Brick Lane are supported by their office and workshop, both located in Gillingham. Rosie Wolfenden and Harriet Vine: Has the manufacturing industry changed since you’ve been in business? We have always kept our manufacturing in-house, having production here in Medway means we have full control. What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever received? Stick to what you believe in. M

Words and images from the book Made in Medway 2, by Steve Rowland and Bianca Donnelly. All photography by Rikard Österlund except Tatty Devine and J and A Engineering by Chris Marchant. Words by Bianca Donnelly and Zoe Hatton. The book can be ordered from Medway Council: wayne.saunders@medway.gov.uk. www.madeinmedway.com

THE BEST

SHOPPING AROUND

With over 70 leading high street fashion, homeware and food stores, cafes and restaurants to choose from, situated in a safe and comfortable shopping environment, with over 1,000 parking spaces, the Pentagon Shopping Centre is a great place to shop around.

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C h a t h a m • Ke n t • Te l : 0 1 6 3 4 4 0 5 3 8 8 Over 70 stores 7 days a week... it’s the retail heart of your community

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The councilâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s approach with its partners effectively tackles the things which matter most to local people

Audit Commission

The investment of millions of pounds of public money is generating billions of pounds of investment from the private sector

ITV Meridian News

[ what others say ]

The Medway towns will soon be linked with St Pancras and the continent by 140mph trains

Chathamâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s prospects have brightened with the injection of public and private investment

Medway Messenger

Financial Times

The scope and scale of this project along seven miles of the River Medway is astounding

Medway has the potential to be an extraordinarily beautiful place on the north Kent coastline

Business First Magazine

Sir Terry Farrell

Chatham, like Rochester, Strood and Gillingham, will substantially benefit from a Medway renaissance

Medway has recovered from a potentially fatal blow, and is now on course to become a successful, modern city

Daily Telegraph

Thames Gateway News

education Extra This section showcases Medwayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s four universities; what they offer students, local businesses, the regional economy and, importantly, what they offer Medway.

Learning matters With four universities emerging in Medway over the past 15 years, the region now proudly produces a range of professionals in subjects as diverse as fashion, health, law and engineering continued over page

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Grad Fashion Week Advert_Myrto Stamou_Image_6.ai

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CMY

Setting the Gold Standard for Fashion From Karen Millen to Zandra Rhodes, our graduates are consistently leaders in the field. Myrto Stamou is the latest in a long line of UCA Rochester students to make a huge impact on the fashion world winning this yearâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Graduate Fashion Week River Island Gold Award. www.ucreative.ac.uk

education extra UCA Rochester – Medway’s hotbed of fashion talent With key industry figures such as Karen Millen and Zandra Rhodes numbered among the alumni of the University for the Creative Arts Rochester, it is not surprising that the institution continues to collect fashion accolades. Its most recent success story comes in the form of Myrto Stamou from Arta in north-west Greece, who has been named the top fashion student in the country. A Fashion Design student, Myrto scooped the coveted River Island Gold Award at Graduate Fashion Week, collecting £20,000 in prize money and business cards from the likes of retail magnate Sir Stuart Rose. Fashion Management student Amanda Abela also finished her studies on a high note, after winning first prize in a national competition run by River Island. Her menswear featuring printed textiles caught the judges’ eyes, and a selection of shirts designed by Amanda has now been rolled out across the brand’s stores. After completing their studies, 90 per cent of UCA’s fashion students secure a job, or go on to further study within six months. Many go on to work for a number of well known brands – in the last few years graduates have gone on to work for Marc Jacobs, Ted Baker, and Pepe Jeans to name just a few. Jo Dingwall, a Fashion Management graduate now working with Ted Baker, attributes this to the state-of-the-art facilities available to students, ensuring that they can learn, hone their skills and work with the very latest technology. A new £200,000 Computer Aided Manufacturing design suite was opened in Rochester by Anne Tyrrell MBE earlier this year, and is one of only three such suites for students in the UK. Jo said: “Ted Baker said they’d never seen a university teach skills to that level before. I don’t think a lot of universities teach this sort of technical skill so when you have some knowledge of it, it’s like ‘gold dust’ in an interview!” Alongside its fashion courses, UCA Rochester teaches a range of other creative disciplines including photography, modelmaking, art and design, and jewellery, creating a unique community of artists and designers.

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To find out more visit www.ucreative.ac.uk. large 100mm

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Ad_107096_Kent_Med_One:ad

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Voted number 1 in London and the South East!

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Kent was consistently voted the top university in London and the South East in recent National Student Surveys. At the University of Kent we offer: • First-class teaching, academic resources and facilities • A wide range of courses, spanning the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities • Degrees, Diplomas and Certificates • Multi-million-pound, award-winning campus at Chatham Maritime • New for 2009 – State-of-the-art student residences at Liberty Quays, adjacent to the Medway campus

“In the top 20 for high graduate starting salaries” Sunday Times Good University Guide 2008

For more information…

01634 888880 www.kent.ac.uk/ medway

education extra University of Kent - achieving first-class honours at Medway

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The University of Kent’s expansion at Medway has been one of the most exciting developments in higher education in the United Kingdom in recent years. We offer our students the chance to study at a multi-million-pound campus, equipped with state-of-the-art buildings and hi-tech facilities. Commitments to high-quality teaching, learning and leisure opportunities, plus an exceptional level of personal support, are key to Kent’s philosophy. In addition, the vast majority of staff work in departments which contain research of national or international levels of excellence, which means our teaching is informed by some of the best research available. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that Kent has consistently been voted the best university in London and the south-east in recent National Student Satisfaction surveys. The University has already come a long way since it moved on to the Medway campus in 2004, playing a key role in the mission to tackle the chronic skills shortage in the region. Our original degree programmes, designed to meet local needs – in the form of law, business, social sciences, social work and information technology – have been joined by a range of new subjects such as sports fitness and health, music technology, criminal justice studies, event and experience design and journalism. Just last year, the government announced that the Medway campus was a centre of excellence, setting a shining example of how higher education can transform a region’s economy and workforce. Now Kent is busy writing new chapters in this compelling story. The University is attracting growing numbers of students from all parts of the country, and from overseas, and our latest phase of expansion has responded to this demand. In September 2009 the University will open its new student accommodation at Liberty Quays. Six hundred students will be able to take advantage of these ultramodern, waterside residences, which are adjacent to the Medway campus – marking a significant milestone both in the University’s successful growth, and in the regeneration of Gillingham. The University of Kent is also involved in a ground-breaking collaboration with Medway Council, which will see us contribute to, and play an active role in, the £11 million development of Medway Park as a regional centre of sporting excellence. This project will provide a multi-sport, state-ofthe-art facility near to the campus, which will bring huge benefits to the local community, to Medway’s growing number of students, and to elite sportsmen and women, up to 2012 and beyond.

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Gateway to a new career

Kentâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s leading provider of higher education for the public services is proud to be part of the Medway community and its renewal. We are helping to create highly skilled health, education and social care professionals of the future for Medway and beyond.

www.canterbury.ac.uk/medway

education extra Training Medway’s future education and health professionals

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Canterbury Christ Church University is the largest centre of higher education in Kent for the major public services - notably teacher training, nursing and health and social care. Continually expanding into new locations and new professional and academic areas, the University is proud of its links with communities in Medway and Kent. In 2003, the University extended its offering with the addition of Rowan Williams Court at our Medway Campus, which has become a significant provider of higher education in North Kent and the Thames Gateway. As one of the leading providers of health, social care and education training, Canterbury Christ Church University is helping public service careers and professional expertise in the area grow. Peter Milburn, Director of the Medway Campus, commented: “Canterbury Christ Church University at Medway continues to make a major contribution to the ongoing regeneration of the region. The University undertakes significant research and teaching for local and national public sector organisations.” Our Medway Campus is centrally located at the shared Universities at Medway site in Chatham, both at Rowan Williams Court and in the newlyrefurbished Cathedral Court. With strong partnership links with the NHS Strategic Health Authority, local Trusts, Social Services and Local Education authorities, the Campus is equipped with state-of-the-art teaching facilities for health professionals. These facilities include an operating theatre, simulated wards, an intensive care unit and extensive X-ray facilities. Workshops and a daily living suite complete with bedroom, bathroom and kitchen are available for Occupational Therapy students. It is the ideal venue for programmes in Nursing, Midwifery, Operating Department Practice, Diagnostic Radiography, Occupational Therapy, Primary Education, Childhood and Early Years Studies. Cathedral Court, new to the University, offers excellent student and staff facilities, with large well-equipped seminar rooms and break-out areas with internet facilities. The Department of Health, Wellbeing and the Family, based at Cathedral Court, delivers Pre-registration and Continuing Professional Development programmes of study for Child Nursing and Midwifery, and in addition leads the Foundation Degree Framework for non-professionals. The Centre for Health and Social Care Research is also located in Cathedral Court and is increasingly involved in Medway’s renewal through its public health programmes. Aimed at improving services to patients, the Centre undertakes a range of national and local research projects from reducing health inequalities to understanding which health promotion campaigns work. In sharing research and skills with voluntary and community groups, the Centre aims to help improve health and social care services to local people.

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Help your business grow with the University of Greenwich The University of Greenwich has a long and proud history of working with local, regional and international companies, and can help your business grow. IBM, Pfizer, Shell, the NHS, Kent County Council and Rolls Royce are among the many organisations capitalising on a wide range of expertise and knowledge within the university. Services include: Consultancy

Access to specialist equipment and facilities

Technology development

Recruitment

Contract research

Student placements and projects

Training and development

Knowledge Transfer Partnerships

Problem solving

The Greenwich Research & Enterprise office The Greenwich Research & Enterprise office acts as a â&#x20AC;&#x2DC;first-stop shopâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;, making it easy for businesses to access the expertise and services of the university. To find out more, and discuss your business needs further, please contact:

Phone: 020 8331 7867 E-mail: first-stop@gre.ac.uk Web: www.gre.ac.uk/business-info

Making knowledge work

education extra University of Greenwich - a catalyst for regeneration

To find out how the University of Greenwich can help your business, e-mail first-stop@gre.ac.uk or phone (020) 8331 7867.

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Professor Alan Reed, Director of Regional Development at the University of Greenwich, describes how the rapidly developing Medway Campus is contributing to regeneration in the region and providing a portal to the universityâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s services for business. The University of Greenwich is in Medway for the long-term. Since 1994 when its first department moved to the Chatham Maritime site, it has built up a major presence and is today the biggest provider of higher education in the area. With around 4,500 students and 450 staff, the university offers both education and employment to local people. High-value jobs for skilled people, nurturing local talent and attracting incomers. And every job at the campus supports another in the wider economy. Offering education on the doorstep helps to keep talented young people in the area. The university estimates that two thirds of its students who come from the Medway region remain after they graduate. We also work with local schools and colleges to create a culture of ambition. Today the campus is a hub for science, engineering and technology, providing research and technical support for civil and manufacturing engineering, the pharmaceutical and food industries, agriculture, renewable energy and many more sectors. We have a track record of working with local businesses to develop courses which meet their needs. For instance the School of Engineering introduced a programme in electrical engineering to help a major Kent employer, Cummins Power Generation, overcome recruitment problems. Pfizer and the Royal School of Military Engineering are just two other local employers to have benefited from this flexible approach. The university is a leading provider of Knowledge Transfer Partnerships which allow companies to access government funding to buy in expertise. Sarena Manufacturing Ltd. in Gillingham is coming to the end of the twoyear KTP in which postgraduate students have reviewed the companyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s product design and production capabilities, and developed a professional engineering resource enabling the introduction of new products and market expansion. Technical services include concrete testing and development, rapid prototyping, telecommunications development, chemical testing, food testing, biofuel research, development of carbon capture technologies, improving the handling of bulk solids, and land reclamation, to name a few. The university is at the heart of activity to develop the region, its economy and its people.

Medwayâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s future...

www.medwayrenaissance.com ...just a click away

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Crest Nicholson Regeneration working in partnership to create a new sustainable community at Rochester Riverside

One Rochester: supporting the Rochester Riverside Green Charter

Crest Nicholson Regeneration is recognised as the market leader in delivering complex mixed-use development projects. At Rochester Riverside we are proud to be working with our Partners to help transform the area into a thriving mixed-use community, which will complement the historic town and maximise the potential of the riverside frontage. The new development will deliver sustainable initiatives that support the Rochester Riverside Green Charter and also provide a: ■ Range of attractive, affordable, quality homes ■ Variety of public open spaces and amenity areas ■ Improved River Walk ■ Wide range of commercial and community facilities Crest Nicholson Regeneration has a proven track record in delivering high quality award winning developments that champion the best principles of sustainability and design. Crest Nicholson also holds the Queen’s Award for Enterprise for Sustainable Development and is proud to be playing an important role in this landmark project.

www.crestnicholson.com

01932 580333

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Medway has an exceptional geography, a rich heritage, a dynamic, creative population and a resurgent economy. These are powerful ingredients... Sir Terry Farrell, Thames Gateway Design Champion.

www.medwayrenaissance.com For inward investment information call 01634 338177 or visit www.medway.gov.uk/businesspremises

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