New ways sought to rebrand Medway

Brownfield sites along the River Medway are to be developed

Planning experts from around the UK have been in Kent to discuss inventive new ways of branding the Medway area.

It was part of a £1bn regeneration drive for the towns of Gillingham, Rochester, Chatham, Strood and Rainham.

Medway Council hopes investment in the area over the next 20 years will turn Medway into "a premier European city".

Leading investors were at the Making of Medway conference in Chatham to set out their vision for the area as the main site of the Thames Gateway.

Key speakers included Prof Eddie Friel, who was behind Glasgow becoming the European City of Culture in 1990.

We'll see the Thames Gateway now really taking advantage of the wonderful green spaces and the rivers that surround us Judith Armitt

He said Medway needed to learn that it had to succeed in a competitive environment.

"You must learn to articulate what you have which is better than anywhere else."

'Dickens and Chaucer'

He added that Medway needed to be handed back to its inhabitants "as a place of which they can be proud, rather that a place that they're going to apologise for."

Others attending Friday's event at Chatham Maritime included the renowned architect, Sir Terry Farrell, and travel journalist and broadcaster Simon Calder.

Mr Calder said: "Surely with the Dickens and the Chaucer connections here it ought to be feasible to put something together which will attract people.

"Maybe just Londoners coming down for the day or even for the evening, learning something about the history or the culture. Then they will come back."

A 10-year Medway Renaissance Regeneration Framework includes the building of 16,000 homes and the creation of more than 20,000 jobs with the development of seven miles (11km) of ex-industrial land along the river.

Judith Armitt, chief executive of Medway Council but starting a new post as chief executive of the Thames Gateway area on Saturday, said she hoped to champion the Thames Gateway nationally and internationally.

"We'll see the Thames Gateway now really taking advantage of the wonderful green spaces and the rivers that surround us."