Medway Development Company celebrates five years of regeneration

Local Democracy Reporter Ollie Leader looked inside the works on Chatham Waterfront.

Transcript

00:00Balloons and festivities at Chatham bus station a small tribute to five years of

00:08towering regeneration work visible right in the heart of the five towns since it

00:13was launched by the council in 2020 the medway development company has built

00:19nearly 400 new homes in the local area but are they for locals or catering to

00:26London commuters well so people who've moved into these developments are

00:31predominantly from Medway so 65% of residents are from Medway and that figure

00:35is high for our rented portfolio as well so I think it shows that investment is

00:40being made into Chatham you know the last major investment was the Pentagon in the

00:4670s when it was built and really it's just great to see money being invested

00:52into the area to sort of improve the experience of people coming to the

00:57area but it's not just about providing affordable housing we went inside Mount

01:03Batten house on top of the Pentagon Center once an empty office block now being

01:08turned into a hundred and sixty four new apartments and much more besides I think

01:15for me it's about recognizing not just the fact that these will be you know

01:19really good quality homes in the middle of our town center but also it's part of a

01:23wider piece of regeneration where there used to be a bus ramp there will now be

01:28you know shops restaurants and other things improving that late night offer

01:32which Chatham has to a degree but certainly we need to make further progress on

01:37Mount Batten house is the final piece in the puzzle for the Riverside area and is

01:44expected to be complete by early 2027 but with further developments set for the

01:50Strewd Civic Center the Medway Development Company aren't putting away their

01:56high-vis just yet Olly Leader in Chatham