Town centre car park shuts as work begins on 175 new homes at Chatham Waterfront

It's all change at Chatham Waterfront as work gets underway to build 175 apartments by a Council-owned development company - a decade after plans for the site were first revealed.

Globe Lane car park, next to Chatham Waterfront Bus Station, was permanently closed from Monday, 19 August to make way for the radical makeover by Medway Council's own housing company, Medway Development Company Ltd.

Aerial view of the redesigned Chatham Waterfront area - © Guy Hollaway Architects

The development was given the go-ahead by councillors at a Planning Committee on 20 March this year, which will include a new public square, fountains, a children's play area and the remodelling of the existing riverside park - in addition to 1150sqm of commercial space.

Rat's Bay Pumping Station, a familiar sight for many, will also be given a facelift with plants and art murals around its perimeter to soften its 'harsh' appearance. It is not yet known whether the infamous Big Screen will remain.

Spread across five separate buildings, the 175 apartments will be made up of a mix between 1 bed, 2 bed and 3 bed residential units, while the ground floor of the buildings is to be occupied by co-working office spaces, restaurants, cafes and shops to create a "lively and active" new waterfront area.

The existing B&M store, previously occupied by Staples, is not included in the development and will remain open as usual.

​The redesigned waterfront park with fountains - © Guy Hollaway Architects

While the existing Globe Lane car park has been permanently closed, it is expected that 20 pay and display spaces will be provided as part of the new development, as well as a further 89 spaces allocated for residents and 10 spaces for a 'car share' programme. This will cause an overall loss of 151 parking spaces to the public, down from the total capacity of the Globe Lane car park which is 171 spaces.

A spokesperson for Medway Council explained that the first phase of the works begun this week with the "securing [of] the site with hoardings", which is to be followed by "enabling works" in due course.

As the only car park with Blue Badge provision serving the western end of the high street, local residents have raised concerns about the impact this will have on disabled visitors and their accessibility to the town centre.

​The waterfront site has been subject to redevelopment since the early 2000s. Medway Renaissance Partnership was a subsidiary project of Medway Council which strived to bring forward this site for regeneration, before it was axed in 2010 due to cost-cutting measures by the Council.

Over the years, several planning applications were submitted - ranging from John Lyall Architects' £25 million mixed-use scheme back in 2011 including an 80-bed hotel and 111 apartments, to previous proposals during 2016 for up to 115 apartments with 17,706 sq ft of ground floor retail space. Plans for a hotel have since been dropped from the development.

A £2.9 million grant from the Growing Places Fund was used to issue a Compulsory Purchase Order (CPO) of the waterfront site during August 2018 due to unsuccessful negotiations between Medway Council and A2 Dominion, Peel Ports and Watts Charity, the third party landowners of parts of the site being developed.

​The Chatham Waterfront development is one of Medway Development Company Ltd's flagship sites, as part of Medway Council's objective to deliver more than 29,000 homes by 2035. The housing company was formed to develop and invest in at least 12 Council-owned sites across Medway, namely car parks, with the support of £120 million over an initial five-year period.