Medway Liberal Democrats respond to the Local Plan

Medway Liberal Democrats welcome the introduction of a Local Plan and believe this is the best chance to plan for a future Medway that has sufficient appropriate housing and employment for all, with protection for our green spaces and industry.

There is a housing crisis in Medway and to solve this we need to build more housing to meet higher demand. Therefore, we support the agreed housing target of 22,500 by 2041. We agree with Local Plan’s third option for spatial growth, a mixed distribution of housing in both rural and urban locations. However, we have strongly opposed the redevelopment of Chatham Docks for housing and recommended the Alterative Vision for the future of the site. We have identified suitable sites across Medway to act as alternative sites instead of new housing on Chatham Docks.

Areas of Natural Outstanding Beauty (AONB) must not be built on. However, areas in the green belt that are designated ‘grey belt’ should be allowed to be developed. We have supported measures to protect green space and recommend further measures to protect Village Greens across Medway. We endorsed 15% Biodiversity Net Gain and strengthening of s106 to ensure that measures are provided on site as much as possible, and money is recovered if the developer fails to meet their contractual obligations.

To ensure Net Zero targets are met, we want the EcoHouse standard adopted as the minimum specification, and PassivHaus standard where economically feasible. This will result in both reduced consumption of energy and lower bills for residences. We have recommended that renewable energy generation is enhanced, through wind and solar, and also through hydrogen production, storage and transportation. We also believe that some of Medway Council’s operations to inspect and maintain infrastructure assets across Medway should be measured for carbon usage and optimized to reduce carbon usage.

We support the proposals for 15-minute accessible communities – Medway would benefit from better public transport services. We have also suggested expansion of the walking and cycling routes, and a passenger train service to Grain which is connected to the main urban conurbation through the Higham Curve. We have also recommended travel cards for integrated public transport connections across Medway using bus and train.

Medway’s rural economy needs further support with farmers’ markets, and permission to change use in order to diversify and make best use of the land. This includes diversification of food production, such as wine making, and using land for renewable energy production where this is the best economic use of the land.

Planning to improve Medway’s health care is crucial for our communities. We support provision of health care in community, and have recommended that the Healthy Living Centre network is extended into Strood and Hoo. This means that Medway Maritime Hospital can concentrate on delivering services that can only be provide in a regional hospital.

ENDS