Latest news with #Chatham
BBC News
11 hours ago
- Business
- BBC News
Chatham Docks residential plan outlined in council's local plan
A controversial project to build 2,200 homes at Chatham Docks has been outlined in Medway Council's local draft document, published on Thursday, also details the council's intention to build 690 homes on enterprise zone Medway City Estate and over 1,000 homes on what previously was green belt land on the outskirts of Strood. The Chatham Waters residential-led development plan has been campaigned against by the group Save Chatham Docks since it was approved in November, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service. Councillors will discuss the proposals at a special full council meeting on 26 June and vote on whether to put it out to the public to get their views. Chatham Docks is owned by Peel Waters, which has intentions for regeneration of the site through redevelopment, but this has faced major opposition from the Save Chatham Docks campaign, supported by former Rochester and Strood MP Kelly Tolhurst. Housing targets Medway City Estate will also see major changes as it is to become the Frindsbury Peninsula Opportunity Area (FPOA), meaning approximately 690 homes are to be draft Local Plan believes the high occupancy by businesses in the estate is only because there are a lack of alternative would mean an almost total change to the site since it began in the 1980s, when it was created as an enterprise zone. Elsewhere, the Capstone Valley is another location allocated for residential-led development across four sites, totalling up to 3,938 will also see changes to the green belt boundary, as the government's new 'grey belt' designation comes into to 1,280 would be allowed across three sites on the edge of Strood on what was previously green belt land, should this version of the Local Plan be approved. As part of national housing targets, Medway council is required to provide 1,636 homes a year until council's planning department budget increased by £320,000 to cover the anticipated cost for the preparation of the Local Plan and it received a £227,962.50 grant from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government in March 2025.
CTV News
2 days ago
- CTV News
Employee sprayed with noxious substance during business robbery
Chatham-Kent Police Service cruiser in Chatham, Ont., on Monday May 13, 2024. (Chris Campbell/CTV News Windsor) Chatham-Kent police have charged a 36-year-old man after a robbery at a local business. Officers responded to the incident at 6:14 p.m. on Monday. A 22-year-old male employee from Chatham, was approached by a 36-year-old man from Chatham-Kent, who sprayed him with a noxious substance. Police say the victim was able to retreat to a secure area in the store while the suspect accessed the cash register and removed cash. No other items in the store were stolen. The victim sought medical attention for exposure to the spray. Through investigation, officers identified the suspect using surveillance footage. On Tuesday at 12:44 p.m., officers located and arrested the suspect in connection to the robbery. The individual has been charged with the following: Robbery with Violence He was transported to the Chatham-Kent Police Service Headquarters where he is currently being held for bail.
Daily Mail
3 days ago
- Business
- Daily Mail
New B&M boss scoops up £523k of discounted shares ahead of starting the job
The new chief executive of embattled discounter B&M Retail scooped up almost 200,000 shares in the group ahead of his first day on the job. Tjeerd Jegen took on the top job from interim boss Mike Schmidt on Wednesday, having previously help leadership roles with Tesco, Australia's Woolworths, and more recently, Accell Group. He joins at a tough time for B&M, which has seen profits come under pressure from a weak consumer environment and growing competition from other discounters. Regulatory filings published on Tuesday show Jegen bought 197,900 B&M shares in total between 10 and 13 June at roughly £2.61 to £2.70 each, building a stake worth £523,559.60. Retail industry veteran Jegen is considered an effective turnaround specialist. His B&M stake could prove lucrative if he manages to right the ship and improve the group's fortune, with its value having plummeted 55 per cent since the beginning of December 2023. B&M shares were up 1.8 per cent to 260.4p by late morning on Tuesday. Group revenue rose 3.7 per cent to £5.6billion last year, largely thanks to new store openings, but profits fell 13 per cent to £431million. B&M's margins have come under pressure as it has cut prices after its lower income customers have been squeezed by inflation, higher household bills, and lower wage growth compared to higher earnings Britons. The group still hopes to open 45 UK stores this year, with new locations including include Bridgend, Chatham and Cromer, after 45 were opened last year.
BBC News
4 days ago
- General
- BBC News
Medway Council rejects flats plan for Chatham school building
An application to turn an Edwardian building into 11 flats and build eight homes in its garden has been of the former St John Fisher Catholic Comprehensive School site in Chatham, Kent, was the subject of a planning application to create a mixture of one and two-bed flats, and eight three-bed houses towards the back of the plot on Maidstone the application has been rejected by planning officers on the grounds that the eight houses represented an over-development of the site, according to the Local Democracy Reporting also raised concerns that the entire application failed to "adequately address the impact of the development on heritage assets". In a report from Medway Council on 9 June, officers said plans "would result in a cramped over-development of the site, with poor living conditions for future occupants and harmful to the site and its surroundings including the conservation area".In relation to the historic elements, officers say although the plans protect the exterior, they represent a significant internal change, including the removal of the main staircase, which would harm its historic also said building eight homes on what were the gardens of the house showed no recognition of their historical all of the former gardens would be needed to be built upon for the homes and associated infrastructure, such as roads and parking spaces, the report objecting to the plans raised concerns about the impact on the building, the new homes being overcrowded and out of keeping with the area, and the impact of new residents on local amenities and the road Victorian Society also objected, saying the plans would likely mean the loss of historical elements inside the house and negatively impact the Maidstone Road Conservation report said: "Whilst no overriding objection in raised in principle to the reuse and possible development of the rear of the site for residential purposes, the current submission is not acceptable."The rest of the site, where there are more modern school buildings, is the subject of another, separate application for an Aldi supermarket which was submitted in June.
Daily Mail
5 days ago
- Daily Mail
EXCLUSIVE Inside Britain's most BITTER school-run row: How grandfather has been fighting 'selfish' parents and 'useless' council for 11 years... but finally the battle might be over
A grandfather locked in a never-ending parking war against school-run parents has lost a battle to turn his him into a 'migrant hotel'. Furious John Walsh claims to have spent £7k on an 11-year solo crusade against 'selfish' mums and dads using his street as a rat run. He has sent more than 200 letters to his 'useless' local council in Chatham, Kent begging them to install speed bumps, bollards, gates and signage to crack down on nuisance motorists who he says have ruined his life. But after a hard-fought campaign resulted in silence from council chiefs, Mr Walsh launched a bizarre quest to turn his home into a HMO in an effort to get revenge on the council and his neighbours. The pensioner believed potential anti-social behaviour and anxiety caused by future tenants at his tidy suburban home would give his 'wokerati' enemies the ultimate payback for their lack of support and ridicule. He told MailOnline: 'After ten years I'm f****** fed up with it. I've been mocked and ridiculed enough, I don't really care anymore. The parents don't give a s***, they're selfish b*******. 'I'm not a NIMBY, I'm a working class person who has worked hard all their life who thinks he deserves a bit of peace. Why should I put up with the world's traffic? 'I want the council to think: 'F*** it, let's put in a couple of humps to shut him up'. 'I'll be moving to Russia at this point, I've got a Russian wife. It's like England was 50 years ago, I'm not even kidding.' John's ordeal began in 2014 when he contacted Medway Council's highways department about the behaviour of motorists and condition of Lambourn Way, the road he has lived on for decades in the Lordswood area. He alleges that parents of children at St Benedicts Roman Catholic Primary School - which has around 210 pupils - were a 'constant nonsense', blocking drives, obscuring vision for motorists and parking on the pavement at drop-off and pick-up, causing major issues for residents. 'I had a stroke three years ago, my wife drove me to hospital and we were stuck on our drive for ten minutes because a car was parked across it', the 72-year-old claims. Other issues include what he claims was a substandard road surface full of potholes and the street being used as a rat-run with cars racing down at around '40mph' which he says creates 'deafening' noise and adds to the traffic. Sick to the back teeth and wanting to simply 'live in peace', John brought it upon himself to lobby the council. He requested changes be made to the area, including the installation of parking measures, such as road gates and bollards to prevent noise, disruption and access issues. But the grandfather-of-15, whose detached five bed home was recently valued at £478k, said he was met with a wall of silence. He remained resolute as he found himself confronting parents on the school run, filming their poor parking and even being told to 'f*** off' by people allegedly dancing on his drive. The issues culminated in 2022 when, along with 84 other signatures from neighbours, he submitted a petition urging officials to resurface the road, which stretches around 250 metres. He wound up at the council's regeneration, culture, and environment overview and scrutiny committee at the end of February last year but was quickly dismissed. The council argued their traffic survey, carried out over 220 hours during school holidays at a cost £10,000, proved no work was needed. They also dismissed John's concerns that Chatham residents would use Lambourn Way and adjoining Knole Road as a rat run to dodge traffic on North Dane Lane and Albemarle Road, which are both arterial routes. John branded the exercise as pointless and evidence Medway Council 'don't have the money or can't be bothered' to deal with the concerns of residents. He believes they are more interested in spending 'hundreds of thousands on DEI projects'. 'When a whole road of people, with very few exceptions, sign a petition that they want something done and all the council does is ignore it, you haven't got a democracy anymore have you?', John, a father of five, who restores old 1970s Honda CB motorcycles, said. 'We were strung along for months and months and months, it's just councillors doing what they want.' Last year, as tensions between John and Medway Council hit breaking point, he announced plans to turn his house into a House of Multiple Occupancy and start a 'migrant hotel'. He said the move was a 'leverage' threat to get the council to pay attention to him and his concerns, and perhaps play them at their own game. Some of his neighbours, however, take a different view on how the saga has unfolded. 'I read what he was writing and thought it was all really over the top - that's just my opinion', says Richard Thurston, 77, who has lived on the road for over 40 years. He added: 'The school was here before him. The parents start arriving at 3.20pm, 15 minutes and they're gone. I've been blocked in once or twice in 40 years.' Another neighbour branded John a 'well known whiner' and 'NIMBY', an acronym for the phrase 'not in my back yard', considered a derogatory term to ridicule local level anti-development campaigners. While one resident laughed at John's 'idle threat' of turning his home into a migrant hotel and said his behaviour was 'just attention seeking'. While acknowledging the school run parking is 'atrocious', they added: 'You move here, you know there's a school on the road. You check out where you live. If you don't like it, just move!' Another local added: 'From my perspective, I've lived here 20 years. There are problems with parents with parking. The issue is an hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon. It's all over the top. It's common knowledge the school is there. If you live 'I have been blocked in a couple of times. I've made it known to the school. Yes it's annoying but it's down to the council to enforce it. It's a minor inconvenience. It's not a regular inconvenience. It's annoying but it's down to the council. I haven't supported any petitions.' Another resident, who also wished to remain anonymous in order to keep the peace on the street, added: 'When I bought the property I knew there was a school. We've been blocked in a couple of times.' But some do sympathise with John, including Mrs Freeman, who said: 'I am definitely in sympathy with him. People park right up to my drive, I have had great difficulty getting out. 'I used to have to leave at 2.30pm to avoid being blocked in. I have been hit side-on by oncoming traffic. It is a problem. However parents do not intentionally block people's driveways, I feel they have no alternative. I don't want speed bumps because they're a real pain. They damage cars.' 'It has inconvenienced me to leave much earlier. But they don't have much option.' Hitting back at the accusations from neighbours, John said: 'Quite a lot of people around are what you might loosely call professionals, lawyers and other useless wokerati people, who don't make anything and don't do anything, just work for other people, they can call me what they like.' Asked why he doesn't just sell up and move, something many residents who spoke to MailOnline suggested, he added: 'Why should I have to move because of an intransigent bloody Council.' But the prospect is not totally out of the question and he admits the eleven year ordeal left him and wife Irina considering something along the lines of an A Place in The Sun-style lock-up-and-leave villa in Spain or Italy to spend the winter in. His frustration has grown so much about the 'state of the country and where it's headed' that Irina's motherland of Russia is also on the cards. To claw back some control over his ordeal, John has spent £600 installing a cherry laurel hedge around his drive to cut noise and give some privacy. He said: 'It's to buy back my privacy. We have dog walkers who piss up the lamppost. You've got no privacy here. You've got everybody and their dog looking at you. 'Out of sight, out of mind.' A spokesman for Medway Council said: 'Medway Council takes the concerns of residents seriously, and makes every effort to respond to issues raised in petitions. In response to the petition led by Mr Walsh, the Council undertook a range of work, which included conducting numerous surveys to investigate traffic movements in the area. The surveys were carried out during school term time (June 2023), so school traffic was captured, and the outcome of this work was reported to the lead petitioner following conclusion. 'The matter was considered at the Regeneration, Culture and Environment (RCE) Overview and Scrutiny Committee in February 2024, following referral to that committee, and was discussed in full. This petition was therefore taken very seriously, duly considered, and followed democratic process. 'One element of the traffic study, conducted in response to the petition, investigated the impact of introducing a single point closure at Knole Road, which was part of the petition request. The study also considered the likely impact of displaced traffic, and the impact on vehicle speeds. 'Once completed, the study did not identify clear benefits in terms of network capacity or road safety of restricting the use of Knole Road.'
