The Medway Labour and Co-operative Group are concerned that Chatham could stand to lose over £1 million worth of infrastructure funding. This is due to developers trying to pull back from previous commitments on funding for our local community.

Cllr Vince Maple, Leader of the Medway Labour and Co-operative Group said: 

“For the second time in a handful of days we are seeing developers reneging on their deal with the community regarding contributions. What makes the latest proposals more galling is that it’s Medway Council’s own development company now proposing to rip off residents. It cannot be right that developers proceed with building in Medway without making the right contributions to our infrastructure.”

Cllr Harinder Mahil, Medway Labour and Co-operative Group Member for Chatham Central added:

“I’m sad to see this coming to planning. Especially so soon following on from the disappointing decision from the developer to sell the Trafalgar Centre with planning permission as soon as they got it.

“This is a huge loss to the centre of Chatham, the money would have been used for education and the provision of a nursery, a big contribution towards the Town Hall Gardens greenspace, and the new healthy living centre. This would’ve totalled £645,000 and this proposal to planning would mean losing most of that money. If Peel’s intention to plan to halt their funding to Chatham would’ve gone through last week, Chatham had the potential to lose over £1 million worth of infrastructure funding in one week just to maintain the profits of developers at the expense of the community.”

ENDS