The Interim Land Availability Assessment identifies a number of different parcels, but the FD Attwood and Partners land is the only one that offers a long-term master planned solution for such an extensive area covering the whole of the Capstone corridor.
There are a number of references of positive outcomes to be achieved, as embodied in the vision and strategic objectives from a strategic and comprehensive masterplaned approach (including paragraph 5.28 for the riverside), however this is realistically more difficult to achieve where land ownership is fragmented. This places the F D Attwood and Partners land opportunity on a different level to other options, both in terms of the visioning, but also in terms of the certainty of viability assumptions and delivery.
The message from the landowner/promoter is that:
• The totality of the land identified on the attached plan is available and deliverable and improved land use planning benefits can be delivered by a comprehensive approach which will provide certainty to all parties.
• Building blocks of development within the corridor and landowners’ control e.g. Lidsing (open space, 2,000 dwellings and 14ha employment), Gibraltar Farm (450 dwellings) and East Hill (800 dwellings), have already been approved and the opportunity exists now to masterplan the whole corridor and provide collective certainty of infrastructure provision, open space and public access and transport improvements and job creation for all. Planning in this way will ensure the maximum benefits for Medway are delivered as part of a collaborative approach and working with Maidstone BC on the development of the Lidsing masterplan framework, which will commence in early 2024.
• Medway’s planning team and members of the new administration can be confident that a comprehensive masterplan would deliver a wide range of land uses including housing, employment, recreational space and community and retail uses to meet future Medway’s needs at a sustainable location. These land uses within the site would all (via the masterplan process) be well related to existing employment sites such as the Gillingham Business Park and planned employment within Lidsing (14 ha employment hub is proposed here) the retail hub of the Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre and recreational assets such as the Capstone Country Park. It will also be demonstrated through the ecological baseline information already undertaken for this area, that significant biodiversity net gain can be secured within this development scenario and that climate change will be at the heart of decision making.
• There are benefits of a permanent and comprehensive growth strategy for this corridor where Medway residents, near and far, have certainty about what will be delivered. We believe the planned scale of green infrastructure for this corridor, alongside the development areas and linkages with the existing communities, will provide comfort to residents living in this area who have in the past, perceived that sanctioning some development in this area will destroy its character or function in a piecemeal fashion. This concern will not be relevant if the opportunity of a comprehensive masterplanned approach is taken, because of the single land ownership of the Attwood family, as evidenced on the attached plan.