Vision for Access and Movement in Medway

There is no mention of using the river for transport or leisure, there are no public facilities for visiting boats other than the two marinas
very limited access to the river for leisure craft

A2 Watling Street. Ashtree Lane. Chatham Hill always clogged at peak times. People going to work, children going to school. How can reduce this? No other route through this part of Medway. Areas such as Hempstead are just full of cars now, causing congestion as the road are narrow and curved. Families with children could have 3 or 4 cars. Actually every road is pretty packed with cars. Cycling, the kids don't even cycle to school these days as was normal when mine went to school. Not safe to do so, to many parents out dropping them off in cars!

What a load of rubbish. Medway doesn’t have an e-scooter scheme. Much of Walderslade, Lordswood and Chatham are not suitable for cycling except for the fittest. There is no quick direct bus link from Clandon Road area to Chatham (10 mins by car, 30mins by bus) and it’s expensive.
Bus access to any other area is completely impractical. A bus from Lordswood to Rainham, Gillingham or Hempstead Valley is unworkable for most people. If I need to pop to my disabled mum in Rainham, then run a few errands, it would take all day instead of a couple of hours.

You are creating more traffic and congestion through never ending building, and then looking to ‘punish’ existing born and bred local residents for the resulting environmental impact.

The Consultation states there has been reduced car dependency through accessibility, but this is not my experience. The local bus service is unreliable and expensive. The alternative's are taxis/uber or trains. Again these options are expensive in comparison. Not everyone can cycle and most tradesmen cannot use cycles to work.

I would suggest that the vehicle network is not overlooked or investment may be limited. Ido the Council is not contemplating an LEZ which is nothing more than a revenue generating system that would anger the residents.

The river is a glaring ommission here for movement around Medway. The reason roads are inefficient in Medway is because of the river. Use the river for movement - prioritise its development for transport, tourism and leisure - and capacity will be released on roads.

A tram system was successful in Medway in the past. Given a significant proportion of the public's preference for the past rather than the future, a clean tram system could satisfy both.

The river medway can be a transport asset, dramatically cutting road usage, and can be a cutting-edge clean energy source. By 2041 it would be shocking not to be extracting its full potential in these respects.

The UK economy is 80% service sector, 20% manufacturing. Medway's economy does not reflect these proportions, being heavier on manufacturing, light on higher-value services. Moreover, if prime real estate such as the Medway city estate is still acting as a legacy manufacturing and storage area in 2041, Medway will still be trying to compete with cheaper economies further away from London, but with SE England labour and land costs. It makes no strategic sense to preserve this losing position.

The Medway city estate is a massive opportunity for regeneration away from low value (low GDP-per capita industries) to attractive housing, innovative new businesses (research and implementation into energy capture and storage from the river, for example). Setting this out in the plan will facilitate a much stronger Medway economy, while freeing up road and housing capacity. Think about how the Isle of Dogs has been transformed over the past 30 years. If we can achieve a fraction of that progress (without the high-rise building), bringing housing and high-value Research and Development business into Medway, the economic benefit will be enormous and existing road and river transport capacity will be released.

Support

The Capstone Valley needs to be protected at all costs. It’s one of the few remaining open spaces south of the river in Medway authority, and plays an important part in preventing Hempstead and Lordswood being joined in one huge urban mass. It’s too far from mainline railway to be of use to commuters necessitating reliance on cars. The bus network is woeful in Lordswood, esp if you want to get to anywhere except central Chatham in anything resembling a timely fashion.
And the Capstone valley is even more important to the area since Maidstone includes Lidsing in their plan.

New cycle links and footpath links have not moved on for over 4 years. A link across the A289 to Stonehouse Lane should have been provided Circa 20 years ago. Lets hope it can be provided.

The provision for cyclists is very minimal. There's no way I'd be allowing my children to cycle up Canterbury street on their way to school as it's too dangerous and crowded. Dedicated cycling lanes afford greater protection for the cyclist and the number of these should increase if at all possible.

I am of an age where I might consider giving up my car. This I have had to put on hold as the local bus service is not fit for purpose I have been let down on numerous occasions with an unreliable service. Admittedly I use my bus pass but if this was withdrawn I would be one of many pensioners stuck at home. This has knock on effect as being lonely has its own problems which in turn leads to health issues putting pressure on our local NHS

How do you plan to enhance public transport services? At the moment they are dreadfully inadequate. , poorly designed bus routes, infrequent service, expensive

The infrastructure needed for all the new development planned and the extra people coming from outside the area is desperately needed before all this happens. No plan for a new hospital which will take years to build. A better bus service is needed but the bus companies that service Medway are'nt committed to improve the service. We cannot get a bus home after 6pm to where we live in Hempstead as the service stops at that time. My granddaughter can be waiting for a bus home from school and can be waiting over an hour or more. Public transport !!!!

Having visited Hempstead Valley Shopping Centre on Thursday 29th August to look at the exhibits and to speak to various council officials, including Vince Cable, I do not agree with any of the options. Absolutely every member of the public in attendance whilst there at the same time as me voiced the same concerns regarding the Local Plan, the major issue being infrastructure. Without a new hospital (I was informed whilst there that it is not in the Councils remit to ask the NHS to build another hospital in the Medway Towns but feel there is more that could be done by the Council on this subject), improved drainage/sewerage, additional schools, GP surgeries & GP's, Dentists and improved roads I strongly object to any of the plans.
Medway Hospital has one of the largest catchment areas in the country (I worked there for 12 years so know first hand about the problems) and is really struggling to cope with the number of residents as it is without new residents. People are sometimes having to wait many hours to be seen. Children living locally struggle to find a place at our local schools (because of coach and train loads of youngsters from London attending our schools, particularly grammar schools, leaving no places for local children), we are all struggling to get a face to face consultation with our local GP's and even a telephone consultation can take 2-3 weeks to be available. Many people are unable to register with a local NHS dentist which will, again, be worse by the influx of new residents from these developments. The sewage system in the Medway Towns is not up to scratch for the amount of residents.
If there is an accident on the M2 the whole of the Medway Towns are gridlocked for hours which will be made worse by the influx of additional residents living in these new housing estates.

Until the safely and legal issues around e-scooters have been address, they should not be included in the local plan.

Our community is served by a bus company who offer one bus an hour that stops in the early evening. The roads to Allhallows are dangerous, full of pot holes and very narrow and winding all the way from town. The driving is already atrocious, indeed I was hit by a car at the Fenn Bell Inn several years ago and had both my legs badly broken in a life changing accident. There have been multiple accidents over the years involving many fatalities. Increased traffic will not make this any better. We have also lost our taxi services in Hoo St Werburgh and the London commuter bus leaving the village each morning has been suspended. The promised Railway station at Sharnel street is yet to materialise, access is just getting more and more difficult.

Parents seem to have a tendency to ignore messages from school about parking when dropping off and picking up their children. They also ignore double yellow lines, zig zag lines and residents driveways. They ignore provisions for parking if that provision is not immediately next to the school. I do not know what the answer is but if more school zones are created where drivers are not allowed to drive past school during peak times, then much clearer signage needs to be shown for the motorist as current ones are not clear enough

Railfuture London & South East regional branch endorses, especially “The Hoo Peninsula has reduced car dependency and achieved a higher level of self-containment to facilitate local living in an age of increased remote working, while local employment opportunities are available at Kingsnorth and the Isle of Grain. Travel choice to/from the rural area has been improved through planning and investment in public transport.”

By ensuring we have better mobility people may use cars less, but it needs to actually provide value, be accessible and affordable. Smaller buses that can be cheaper and more frequent can be a way to go. We can also bring back tolebuses for some routes (much cheaper than trams)

Students at Medway would welcome the following initiatives;
Increased cycling routes including rental bike schemes to connect the towns in a sustainable and affordable way
Increased bus routes
Increased traffic free areas to encourage walking and public transport options
Students are generally as a group more dependent on public transport than others. Therefore any improvements to public transport in the area are welcome. Of particular concern are bus services, as well as the effectiveness of services at peak times. This is especially relevant for Medway students, as a significant number commute to the Medway campuses.

--Make neighbourhoods look good and have services & amenities nearby and new residents WILL flock to Medway. It's a simple yet effective strategy.
--Please fix the tarmac on Maidstone road from the Shell gas station to Blue Bell Hill is undrivable and unsafe.
--Garbage collection would be a lot more efficient (and economical) if we had big containers every second corner instead of the door-to-door approach.

I can tell you that the traffic in Allhallows has increased significantly. Stoke school has closed so we have the school traffic from there. The holiday park has increased in size and therefore traffic has. Several children I used to teach now drive also. There is also an increase in vans that people bring home. So I am not sure where you are getting your information from.

I really have to disagree with E Scooters being credible forms of transport.
In some persons hands they are an absolute menace. Even trials of these have proved that they can be anything but credible.
Are they not illegal if not licenced ?
Tell that to the older people who have been injured by reckless driving . They are dangerous and the lithium batteries have ignited and caused fires.I think the wording of this is wrong.
Electric buses ?????

It is concerning that opening points on the vision for access and movement in Medway relate to working from home. It is not appropriate for new residential dwellings to make provision for bespoke working-from-home facilities in residential dwellings where existing areas such as spare bedrooms and other locations in dwellings can be utilised to work from home given the portable nature of professional service work operating in laptops and other devices. We consider that the Council should pursue a policy pursuant to their current adopted policy (Policy ED 10: Working From Home), which sets out that working from home will be permitted provided that it can be demonstrated that there would not be any detrimental impact/effects on residential amenity, it would not impact upon traffic flows, vehicle parking or the erosion of the residential character of the area.

Very aspirational - to be applauded. Requires significant investment in infrastructure and bus and train services. Traffic in Strood and Rochester is a serious problem and needs to be resolved.

The LDP starting point is low for transport infrastructure in Allhallows so developers will have their work cut out. Most people commute outside Medway, to London or Maidstone to work. It's too far to commute by foot or bicycle or wholly by public transport in any sensible timeframe hence the over-reliance on cars. Four-Elms Hill is already an Air Quality Management Area. Much of the analysis is based on distance from bus stops, useless when buses are once an hour, take double the time it takes to drive, and the last bus from Strood to Allhallows is just before 7pm.

There will be no room to move because of all the building you're allowing and roads will be much worse

Until a proper footpath/cycleway is built to modern standards between Cliffe and Mockbeggar Farm there will be little reduction in car use on the B2000. Currently there is no pedestrian link between Cliffe Village, Cliffe Woods (now larger than Cliffe) and Mockbeggar. Many people in the enlarged villages could walk or cycle to Strood station.

I dont agree people should be able to use their own cars for transport without being penalised not everyone is able to work from home facilities should be accessible for all including car use