Medway Local Plan (Regulation 18, 2023)

I think the bit about 'Investment in new services and infrastructure....' is not strong enough and suggests housebuilding comes before these services and may not happen at all if the 'investment' doesn't materialise. Services and infrastructure such as schools and healthcare should be the first consideration for housing plans and developers should be required to build these things first rather than an afterthought.
Should we also go further and imagine a Medway where residents are in housing sufficient for their needs - for instance older residents in larger properties are encouraged/supported to downsize for both energy efficiency and to provide houses for growing families.
The vision should also go further on waste and explain what is meant by the waste hierarchy as most won't understand this. We should be envisaging a Medway where people are encouraged/supported to re-use and share items rather than just buy and chuck them away. Residual waste levels reduce and we have streets free from litter and other types of antisocial behaviour.

The last point is a bit odd with reference to the 'main Town' ...which one would this be? If the idea is , say Rochester would be designated as the 'main Town', then this idea should probably be mentioned earlier in the plan. Or if you mean that Strood, Rochester, Chatham, Gillingham would each be a 'main Town' (perhaps that's what's meant by 'in the context of the distinct towns..' ) then perhaps this should be made clearer.

I'm not sure these points really demonstrate how they would help 'boost pride in Medway'. The last point is good (although I don't understand what 'design of the public realm' means) but in order to boost pride you need housing developments which encourage the residents to respect and look after them. There is such poverty in some areas of Medway that actually I think you also need to recognise what can be done in those existing areas where the housing quality is poor and neglected, not just in 'new development', otherwise, the extent to which you are able to 'boost pride in Medway', will be limited to the pockets of new developments.

Seems largely toothless then. I don't understand from this who uses it or how it is used to 'direct and manage growth'. Should it be the first benchmark used to assess planning applications?

It should also be open to change based on other trends/patterns that emerge. It seems there has been a drop in birth rates in Medway over the last couple of years. If this continues as a longer term trend then potentially the need for houses in the future may be less