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Medway Council has tried to avoid consulting nearby residents about Council plans for the Rochester Airport site, which it owns and has leased to GEC-Marconi for many years. The Council appears to have its own "secret agenda" concerning the site's future.
Background
It has only fairly recently (during early August 1999, in fact) come to light that Medway Council has been planning to take back and develop the Rochester Airport site, without any real consultation with those living nearby, when GEC-Marconi Avionics -- the current lease-holder of the site -- surrenders their lease back to the Council, which is imminent. It transpires that GEC-Marconi considered relinquishing their lease early (it is not due to expire until May 2000); and Medway Council has apparently employed a market research company to get soundings from a sample of the local population before the matter goes to a Public Enquiry, as it is expected to do.
However this survey has concentrated on areas not affected by the airport, in terms of being visible by those contacted, being on the primary or secondary flight paths, or sharing a common adjacent main road. Neighbouring residential areas such as the Davis Estate have had only perfunctory, minimal contact by the market research company, and their Residents' Association (DERAC) was not contacted at all.
The official in charge of this entire issue, Paul McKim, claimed that his office was unaware even of the existence of the Davis Estate Residents' Association, even though we have been involved in all previous attempts to develop nearby property, and are still in semi-regular contact with both officials and Ward Councillors. Indeed, we receive weekly lists of planning application details at the Secretarial address below.
It would have been simplicity itself for the Council officials to have made contact with DERAC, if they had genuinely wished to do so.
So, what's it really all about?
The current thinking at the Council appears to be to create a "science and technology park" on the site, ostensibly creating a number of new jobs. Inevitably, in reality this will mean bringing others into the area, rather than employing local people; hence the need for new housing, for example, which forms part of the Council's official plans for the site.
We have already had several of these so-called science and technology sites set up in this part of Kent in recent years, and they have inevitably turned out to be dismal failures. The most notable was the one at Kings Hill, Malling, which again was built on an airfield. Only Council offices and an annexe of the University of Greenwich prevent this from being an effectively derelict site, although recently permission was (desperately?) granted to build a small Asda store there.
If these "parks" are so useful, well, Kings Hill is one of the existing places where one should be put, in an attempt to validify the Council's stance. Of course, that would then remove the need to waste time, money and effort on the Rochester site; but this is all far too logical, so what is the (probable) truth?
There is a Medway Local Plan, into which this proposal was hurriedly inserted just prior to its being deposited at the Secretary of State's offices. Because of the housing part of the ostensible plan for the airport site, there is a change of use requirement. Once this is approved, there will be little if anything that can stop the entire site being sold off for housing development throughout. This seems almost certain to be the Council's true intent, as their profligate spending has left them with a large deficit in the next year or two, and the best price for land is when it is sold for housing. The "science and technology park" ruse is merely a way to get an Inspector at a Public Enquiry (which there will have to be for a project of this size and nature) to approve the proposal and thus allow the Change of Use to go ahead. The Council is suggesting publicly that there will be large-scale job creation through this joint Council/industry scheme, while at Council meetings (two of which R A G E members and the Press have attended) Councillors proposing and supporting this scheme kept emphasizing the value of the land, suggesting that they are in reality planning to sell the site for as much money as they can grab. In effect, we here are all being forced to bail out the Council.
First and foremost, we are concerned that Medway Coucil has tried to avoid consulting those who have a valid input to make, thus showing that it was attempting to get the answer the Council wanted, rather than the truth, while (just about!) covering themselves legally. It wasn't all that subtle an approach, and it has clearly shown itself to be a deliberate attempt to deceive the public. The Council has been compelled, several weeks ago, to publicly apologise for the lack of consultation and to make amends from then on, though not a single extension of the consultation has occurred to date, nor have we heard of any plans to do so -- this appears to have been just a public-relations exercise and holds no water whatsoever.
Those living in the area for any time will have seen this kind of situation before, firstly with the creation of the Horsted Retail Park, and more recently when Asda Stores Ltd was allowed to open its store here without even complying with all of the requirements set down in the (eventual) planning consent. Every time one of these developments has gone ahead it has substantially increased traffic congestion along the Maidstone Road that runs alongside the Davis Estate, and increased traffic using the Estate as a short-cut to avoid that congestion. None of the mooted "improvements" has taken place, despite numerous promises and claims.
That last factor has increased the dangers for residents on the Davis Estate, also raising risks to children attending the Horsted School (in Barberry Avenue) through the increase in "rat running" right past the school. Despite several requests, the Council has done nothing whatsoever to tackle this problem, indicating very clearly that they have not the slightest concern for the safety of residents, in this case those living on the Davis Estate: their only interests lie with the (highly profitable!) business of land dealing with large, rich and powerful investors.
Before the R A G E group was created, DERAC wrote to Medway Council's Investment & Development Manager, as here.
DERAC surveyed their residents using a simple letter and "tick box" form approach; and the result has shown very clearly that the Davis Estate residents very much wish to retain the airport in some viable form with over 99% in favour of keeping an airport. There have also been posters put up around the estate and the surrounding area.
Several respondees have quoted the fairly recent instance of the above-mentioned similar exercise at Kings Hill, Malling, where again an airfield was developed on and turned into a technological site, but is now a partly derelict and certainly very much down-market area, showing very little of the benefits that were claimed such a development would bring.
The R A G E Secretariat continues to receive contacts from all around the Medway Towns area, by telephone, fax post or email, and we are very grateful for all of these. The (very nearly unanimous) tone of these is strongly in favour of keeping the airport and there is much barely-concealed contempt for Medway Council, who like their predecessors do not have that good a reputation among their clientèle, the residents. Some of the comments received even go so far as to describe the planned closure of the airport in such strong terms as "vandalism", for example.
It had already become clear to many living in the Medway Towns that the recently-created Medway Council was becoming far less representative of its residents, and this has been confirmed through information given to R A G E . The elected representatives are being excluded from more and more of the Council's decision-making processes, and Council officials have (allegedly) their own "secret agenda" that represents only their own interests. Certain Councillors have come forward and admitted as much to us, and the evidence of this shift in local government in the Medway Towns area is all around us.
Unfortunately the Councillors for the Horsted Ward that includes the Davis Estate appear to have gone along 100% with the Council's proposals, which shows that they are not representing their electorate. They have given their excuses for this, but the truth is clear enough for anyone to see—their interests lie elsewhere. It is just about possible that they are being misled and are incapable of seeing this, so at best they are incompetent and at worst are just as bad as the prime movers of this plan.
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