[ad_1]
Medway Council’s planning committee yesterday (30 May) approved Peel Waters’ plans to redevelop the Chatham Docks industrial estate in Gillingham, Kent, into a new employment and enterprise campus.
CGI of Basin3 scheme, Medway
The Basin3 scheme will redevelop the 18-acre brownfield site into approximately 333,680 sq ft of adaptable workspace. The site’s owner Peel Waters has invested more than £125m in the project to date, including more than £7m of highway improvements, flood defence and land remediation.
Peel Waters will raise the land to improve flood resilience, and all the new buildings will use green technology to make the project energy efficient. Plans also include enhanced connectivity and improved sustainable transport options, as well as a new waterside footpath and cycleway.
Basin3 aligns with relevant policies in Medway’s statutory development plan.
James Whittaker, managing director of Peel Waters, said: “Our vision for Basin3 will create a dynamic, employment enterprise destination that integrates with existing communities while attracting new employers and business to the area, offering much-needed, high-quality new employment spaces for already established Medway businesses, and bolstering Medway’s economic growth.
“Receiving outline planning permission for Basin3 will help attract significant inward investment into Medway.”
However, the approval has come under fire from steel company ArcelorMittal Kent Wire, which has claimed that Basin3 will “extinguish” operations on site and result in the loss of 800 jobs.
Phil Taylor, chief executive of ArcelorMittal Kent Wire, said: “There are many deficiencies within this application and the fact that it was rushed through even with a holding direction in place is shameful. This resolution to grant consent poses a grave risk to our UK operations and the supply of 30% of reinforced concrete steel products to major UK infrastructure projects.
“The fight isn’t over, and we will now be calling on the next secretary of state to do the right thing and call in this application.”
So far, Peel Waters has delivered 237 affordable homes, 391 homes for rent and sale, an ASDA Superstore, a Marston’s family pub and restaurant, retail units and the Waterfront University Technical College in the area, with a later-living scheme set to start construction.
[ad_2]
Source link
