Issue - meetings

Background:

This report updated Members on the acquisition of land at the Chatham Waterfront development site.

The site (as illustrated at Appendix 1 to the report) is located at a key gateway to Chatham town centre, facing onto the River Medway, Medway Street, the bus station and the Pentagon Shopping Centre. The acquisition and development of the site was therefore a major regeneration focus, and would be supported by funding from the Growing Places Fund. The Council’s aspirations for the site, together with details of the associated planning policy framework and proposals for redevelopment were set out in the report.

It was noted that three third parties currently owned the land and part was leased to the Council for use as a temporary car park. Previous reports to Cabinet (12 February 2013 and 5 August 2014) had addressed the land ownership issues and Members were advised that negotiations with landowners, to date, had progressed significantly. The Council would continue to seek to acquire the land by agreement, however, in case negotiations were not successful and to allow redevelopment to take place within a reasonable timeframe to meet the Council's aspirations, the Council would continue to promote a compulsory purchase order in parallel should that be required.

Dependent on the outcome of current negotiations, a further report would be submitted to Cabinet, and possibly Full Council, later in the year.

Reasons:

To allow the Council's aspirations for the site to be realised within a reasonable timeframe.