An office block in Chatham town centre that has stood empty for more than a decade has been bought by Medway Council. The local authority announced today that it acquired Mountbatten House, which sits above the Pentagon Shopping Centre, for £1,975,000 as part of its ambitions to regenerate the town centre. Its own housing firm, Medway Development Company (MDC), was given the go-ahead in April this year to convert and extend the 12-storey building to accommodate 164 flats. A rooftop bar and restaurant with views across Medway will also be created. Dubbed an 'eyesore' by many local people, the concrete and brick façade of the 1970s building will be cleaned and restored to "enhance the character of the original design." As part of the redevelopment, 17 of the flats will be available as affordable shared ownership units with a further 24 units for affordable rent at a separate site. Work to demolish the old bus station ramps beside the office block has recently been completed, which will make way for a new public square with space for small restaurants, pop-up shops and market stalls. The old Pentagon bus station itself will become 147 car parking spaces for the new homes. Improvements to the existing taxi rank and entrances to the Pentagon Centre are also part of the plans. Construction work is set to begin next year and could cost around £30 million. Lyall Bills & Young and C.F. Møller, the architects who drew up the proposals for MDC, are now preparing detailed designs and surveys. Cllr Adrian Gulvin, Medway Council’s portfolio holder for resources and a director at MDC, said: “We have an ambitious vision for Medway and this exciting project will further transform Medway’s city centre. "We are committed to continuing to transform Chatham into a vibrant place to live, work, eat and shop. "The investment in Mountbatten House continues to demonstrate that we are also committed to shaping the future of our town centres to boost the local economy and provide more opportunities for residents and businesses." Medway Council first revealed its intentions to snap up the empty office block in 2019, when it emerged that the previous owner Mapeley Gamma did not wish to sell it to the Council.
In turn, the Council agreed to pursue a process known as a compulsory purchase order (CPO) on the building. It was said at the time that the expected cost of obtaining a CPO may amount to at least £250,000 - although £6m were committed from the initial £45m budget towards its purchase of the Pentagon Shopping Centre in April 2019. The Council bought the shopping centre for nearly £35m instead. Mountbatten House - originally known as Pentagon House - was built in April 1975 as a custom-made office building for Lloyds Bank. The architects were Lister, Drew & Associates and the main building contractor was John Laing Construction Ltd. Over the years it became home to other large, national banking groups such as Scottish Widows and Black Horse Financial until it became vacant in 2008. An application by Mapeley Gamma to convert the empty offices into 112 apartments was approved in 2018 - however, this did not come to fruition. A busy route in Chatham will close for the second phase of road safety improvements later this month. Luton Road will be shut to motorists between Pheasant Road and Ambrose Hill for one week from Saturday, 23 October. The £120,000 project aims to reduce the number of serious crashes along the road, including in 2017 when an 18-year-old was hit by a car driver and a head-on collision between two drivers last year. Work will include the construction of a raised table traffic calming feature outside Luton Primary School to slow down drivers, upgrading traffic signals, resurfacing footways, and replacing the pedestrian guardrail and bollards. The road will be closed again on the weekend of 6 and 7 November between Upper Luton Road and Edinburgh Road to enable carriageway resurfacing. Luton High Street will also be shut between Tramways and Upper Luton Road. The closure will be in place between 7am and 7pm on both days, with on street car parking also suspended. Local bus services will be affected during the works, including temporary bus stop closures at locations where works are taking place. Buses will be diverted for the duration of the road closures and will not be able to pick up or drop off passengers between Street End Road and Castle Road in either direction. Arriva has announced the following diversions to its bus services:
Service 176 is not affected by the closure. The first phase of Medway Council's project started in August this year, which involved constructing a pedestrian crossing island near the junction with Upper Luton Road and upgrading street lighting.
Medway Council says the upgrades outside the school support its ambition to "become a Child-Friendly City" by "putting children and young people at the heart of everything we do." In a letter from Medway Council residents were told: "Resurfacing works are by their nature noisy and it would be expected that higher levels of noise will be experienced during the works. "Every effort will be made to keep the disturbance and site noise to a minimum but we do appreciate the inconvenience that this noise may cause. "Access for residents will be maintained as much as practically possible. If you require access to your property whilst we are undertaking the work, please ask the contractors on site for assistance." The work is being completed by its contractor Volker Highways. Any questions or issues can be raised to the workforce on site or by calling Medway Council's Customer Contact Centre on 01634 333333. A community group has kick-started a consultation giving local people a say on the future of a large town centre site in Chatham. Arches Chatham Neighbourhood Forum (ACNF) is hosting a series of workshops to shape a community-led plan for the future of the old GO Outdoors, Market Hall, which is currently HomePlus Furniture, and the multi-storey car park. More than 150 local people have already attended events to have their say on the future of the town centre site, the freehold of which is owned by Medway Council. Most of the site currently stands empty since GO Outdoors permanently closed in August last year, having previously been a purpose-built Tesco superstore that shut in April 2015. The community group, which is made up of residents, businesses and organisations, and its consultants Create Streets say that ensuring young people’s voices are included in the future of the site is "key to this inclusive plan for Chatham’s centre". It held a workshop for children aged between 5 and 15 at Luton Primary School in August this year, where they were tasked with drawing their interpretation of a ‘perfect street’. Many of the produced images featured neighbourhoods that had plenty of street trees and more people walking and cycling than relying on cars. Chatham’s young planners and designers also created a large masterplan for the site to voice their need for a more child-friendly town centre where they feel safe to move around and spend time outdoors. People living and working in Medway are also being encouraged to share their thoughts and ideas for the future of the site by completing a quick, two-minute online survey, which has seen over 200 contributions so far. An interactive map allowing people to pinpoint their experiences of wider Chatham town centre and make suggestions for improvements has also launched. Jackson Fraser-Hague, secretary at Arches Chatham Neighbourhood Forum, said: “We as local people have an opportunity to play our part and shape a development which is vital for the success of Chatham and wider Medway.” "This project... is about putting the pride and prosperity back into Chatham’s historic town centre. It has my full support." The community-led plan has already gained widespread support, including the backing of Tracey Crouch, MP for Chatham & Aylesford. She said: "This is a really exciting project! Exactly what development should be: a community-led, people-oriented project to create beautiful and sustainable homes and places to work. "This project has heart and is about putting the pride and prosperity back into Chatham’s historic town centre. It has my full support." To help create the community-led plan, ACNF was awarded £50,000 from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities in June this year.
The government funding will help the group to create a proposal for the site based on local people's ideas and experiences that emerge from the ongoing consultation. The plan, known as a Neighbourhood Development Order (NDO), will be among the first of its kind in the country since its introduction as a planning tool by the government in 2011. The use of an NDO could grant outline planning permission for specified uses on the site, such as housing, commercial uses, or recreational uses. Although the NDO does not necessarily mean that the group itself will pursue the development, it may promote greater certainty to both a potential developer and the local community. To stay up-to-date on the community-led plan, find Arches Chatham Neighbourhood Forum on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. An online game exploring the history of Chatham's first public library has been released, marking what would have been the building's 118th anniversary. The online escape room is inspired by the story of an Edwardian library that stood in New Road, Chatham, near the Luton Arches, until it was demolished in the 1980s. The Lost Library takes players through a series of films and puzzles to go back in time and find out the lost secrets of the building. Chatham resident Natasha Boardman-Steer, founder of community arts organisation Creatabot, created the online activity in a bid to combine gaming with heritage and historic items from Medway Archives Centre for the first time. Natasha said: "Finding out interesting facts about where we live often helps us connect more to our surroundings and improve our wellbeing. "There are a number of legendary mysteries people often talk about in Medway including the huge networks of tunnels, but this game explores some facts about the lost library on New Road and helps us think about what we have now that we would like to hold onto into our future." The free online game takes around an hour to play and is best suited to small groups of people. It was commissioned by Arches Local, a resident-led group delivering positive local change on either side of the Luton Arches. The group received £1 million in National Lottery funding as part of the Big Local initiative across the UK towards projects improving the lives of local people, including tree planting, sporting activities and community art sessions. George Atzev, chair at Arches Local, said: "We are really pleased to have worked with Natasha to launch Medway's first online escape room celebrating the untold stories of a building that played such an important role to many in our community. "Recognising local history through new, innovative and fun ways brings Medway's past much closer to the people that live here to help explore their experiences of the area and shape their identity." The library, which was the first in Chatham, was designed by George E. Bond, the local architect famously behind buildings such as Chatham Town Hall (now The Brook Theatre) and Theatre Royal.
It was opened by the Mayor of Chatham, Councillor William Driver, on 7 October 1903 with more than 5,000 books available to local residents. The library was extended to include a new junior library in May 1962, which became home to around 12,000 children's books. In 1971 the library closed due to dry rot and relocated to a new building at Chatham Riverside, before it was demolished in May 1984. The site of the old Chatham Public Library is now a car park behind Five Ways Court, a block of social housing flats. To play the free game visit the Arches Local website and place your order. |
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August 2023
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