From serving the public to housing it

Catch Up

Kent County Council is taking the government to court over plans to abolish it. The slight complication is that ministers have already paused those plans while they reconsider whether abolishing it was such a good idea after all. We unpicked the legal deadline forcing KCC’s hand, the questions ministers still haven't answered, and why both sides of an increasingly expensive argument may have a point.

The clearance of Hoad’s Wood offered a more tangible example of what happens when public bodies struggle to act quickly. Nearly 40,000 tonnes of waste have finally been removed from the ancient woodland near Ashford, at a cost of £15.5m. We looked at how a protected site became an industrial-scale rubbish dump, why clearing it took 15 months and the other enormous waste sites across Kent that remain unresolved.

For a more encouraging story about institutions and decision-making, Steven met two former colleagues from the Kent Institute of Art and Design. Twenty-five years ago, Kevin Liggett and Phil Gomm allowed a group of students to take over a derelict four-storey school and turn it into a photography exhibition. They discussed the resulting chaos, what happened to the students and why creative education works best when ambition is encouraged rather than managed out of people.

“Their ambition was ridiculous”

What we asked Kevin Ligget and Phil Gomm, formerly of the Kent Institute of Art and Design at Rochester.

Kent CurrentSteven Keevil

From serving the public to housing it

Maidstone has never been short of ambitious housing proposals, but two new applications could add another 654 homes in rather different parts of the town. One involves building hundreds of properties on land around Kent Police headquarters, while the other would turn a former county council office building into nearly 100 flats.

Both involve public-sector estates that have become surplus to requirements, although quite how that happened is a unique story in each case. One has spent years working out how much land it actually needs, while the other has recently been caught up in Kent County Council's enthusiasm for changing its mind about where it wants to work.

The larger proposal comes from Barratt David Wilson Homes, which is exploring the construction of up to 560 homes on land at Kent Police headquarters on Sutton Road and neighbouring agricultural land around Pested Bars Road.

It isn't a full planning application at this stage. The developer has submitted an environmental screening request to Maidstone Borough Council, asking whether a formal Environmental Impact Assessment will be required before the development can progress.

The site covers approximately 50 hectares, incorporating surplus police land alongside fields stretching south towards Broughton Monchelsea. At least 25 hectares would be designated as open space, including a proposed country park east of Cliff Hill.

The plans follow a substantial property deal earlier this year. In June, Kent's Police and Crime Commissioner Matthew Scott completed the sale of surplus headquarters land for £16.2m, following several years of discussions about reducing the size of the police estate.

The land included underused buildings and former playing fields that had more recently been used for parking. Some buildings have already been demolished as part of the work to establish a smaller headquarters site. The force will continue operating from Sutton Road, but on a smaller footprint.

The decision has a lengthy history. Kent Police has occupied the site since 1940, with the headquarters expanding over subsequent decades. In 2020, the force was exploring the possibility of leaving Sutton Road altogether, before eventually deciding to retain a smaller operational headquarters.

The £16.2m proceeds will reduce borrowing requirements for the police capital programme over the next two financial years. They cannot fund day-to-day policing, so the sale doesn't directly translate into more officers on Kent's streets.

Despite the substantial number of homes involved, this isn't an unexpected new development being imposed on previously untouched countryside. Maidstone's adopted Local Plan already allocates both the police headquarters land and neighbouring site for housing, with a combined indicative capacity of approximately 550 homes.

That doesn't necessarily mean the development faces a smooth route to fruition. The Local Plan examination identified existing pressure on the Sutton Road corridor, particularly around the Wheatsheaf and Wallis Avenue junctions. The two sites are expected to be developed in a coordinated way, including appropriate access arrangements and improvements to local infrastructure.

The country park is also an established expectation of the planning framework rather than an entirely new gift from the developer. It could nevertheless provide a substantial public amenity if delivered as envisaged.

For now, the application represents another step towards development anticipated for years. The more significant decisions will come when detailed plans emerge, particularly over how the development is accessed and what infrastructure accompanies it.

A few miles away, meanwhile, another substantial public-sector property could be entering an entirely different phase of its existence.

Invicta House, the distinctive hexagonal office building beside Maidstone East station, could become 94 flats under plans submitted to Maidstone Borough Council by BMR Group.

The proposal would convert the building's office accommodation into residential properties, while retaining space on the lower ground floor for commercial and associated uses.

Of the 94 flats, 90 would have just one bedroom. More strikingly, 76 would be designed for single-person occupation, with many measuring only slightly more than the national minimum of 37 square metres. Only three two-bedroom flats and one three-bedroom flat are proposed.

There is an obvious argument for creating smaller homes in a location like this. Invicta House sits almost immediately beside Maidstone East station, with the town centre and its various services within walking distance. If we're going to build more homes, putting some where people might not need a car for every journey seems a reasonably sensible idea.

Whether converting a large 1980s office building into overwhelmingly small flats represents the best use of the site is another matter.

The building has had a complicated relationship with KCC for years. As far back as 2013, the council considered a £4.5m refurbishment, partly because its ageing heating and ventilation systems were struggling to cope with the demands placed upon them.

More recently, the previous Conservative administration allocated £20m towards making Invicta House the council's principal headquarters. The plan involved selling the neighbouring historic Sessions House complex and consolidating council functions in the newer building.

Then Reform won control of KCC and decided it preferred the opposite arrangement.

As we reported when Reform first announced its supposed savings, the administration claimed it could save £14m by abandoning the headquarters relocation. Last November, it formally reversed the previous strategy, deciding to retain Sessions House and pursue the disposal of Invicta House and its car park.

The change came with an estimated £946,000 in abortive costs, although the council argued that the prospect of local government reorganisation made committing millions to a headquarters relocation difficult to justify.

After years of planning to turn Invicta House into its principal workplace, KCC was suddenly looking to get rid of it.

But the proposed residential conversion has also created complications for Maidstone Borough Council, which has spent much of this year trying to prevent precisely this sort of development from proceeding without greater planning scrutiny.

Following concerns raised by councillors last December, Maidstone began pursuing an Article 4 direction to remove permitted development rights allowing large office buildings to be converted into housing without full planning permission.

The original debate included fears that Invicta House might become a large house in multiple occupation or a temporary accommodation facility. Neither is what the current application proposes, and the permitted development right being discussed would not authorise converting the offices directly into an HMO.

The borough's concerns eventually developed into a wider attempt to protect commercial accommodation and improve oversight of major residential conversions. Its supporting research identified an association between concentrations of office-to-residential conversions and deprivation in parts of the town centre, alongside concerns about housing quality.

The proposed restrictions cover five large office sites, including Invicta House.

The direction was formally made in September and is intended to come into force on 30 October, subject to confirmation.

The timing is particularly interesting because BMR's application was signed on 30 September, exactly a month before that proposed commencement date.

The developer is seeking approval through the existing permitted development process, which limits the matters the borough council can consider compared with a conventional planning application.

Whether the Article 4 direction will affect this particular proposal remains unresolved. Its legal position will depend on the relevant planning procedures and timing, rather than simply when the application was signed.

It nevertheless leaves Maidstone Borough Council in a rather awkward position. After months spent trying to secure greater influence over the future of buildings like Invicta House, it now faces a proposal to convert the very building that helped prompt the exercise.

Neither development has secured the necessary approvals yet, and the planning processes they must navigate differ substantially. But together they illustrate how Maidstone's public-sector estate is changing.

Kent Police has decided it can operate from a smaller headquarters, releasing land for hundreds of homes. KCC has decided it no longer needs a building it was recently preparing to spend millions refurbishing. Both decisions create opportunities to deliver much-needed housing, although one comes with the usual complications of building on the edge of town, while the other has become tangled in a political argument over who gets to decide what happens to Maidstone's empty offices.

For two sites that have spent decades serving the county's public institutions, their next chapters are looking decidedly more residential.

In brief

🪾 'Illegal tree felling' is being investigated at a Boughton Monchelsea site earmarked for housing.

🏥 The closure of a specialist elderly care ward at Maidstone Hospital has been postponed after councillors scrutinised it.

🗳️ Tunbridge Wells' Lib Dem administration has u-turned on setting up a Tunbridge Wells Town Council, despite a small rebellion in their ranks.

🚛 The government is cutting 300 lorry spaces from Kent after creating them to prepare for delays at Dover but never using them.

🚄 Good news everybody, the government is 'looking into' bringing back international rail services to Ashford.

🏭 An AI data centre in Canterbury has been granted planning permission.

🏌️ CapX's NIMBY Watch has picked up the story we previously reported about a former Sevenoaks golf course being refused planning permission as a mixed-use, residential-led development.

🛍️ Tesco and Oliver Bonas are set to move into a new development on Sevenoaks High Street.

🪧 Protestors campaigning against dog racing in Sittingbourne were 'pelted with eggs by masked youths.'

🚓 Rural crime officers in Kent have seized £120,000 in stolen property.

🚌 Margate now has a self-driving bus.

🖼️ A Munch print found at a home in north Kent is set to fetch up to £80,000 at auction, a lesson in exactly why you should check your cupboards.

🧝 Frodo Baggins visited Thanet over the weekend.

Council matters

Meetings this week

• Medway: Cabinet will meet on Tuesday to discuss Medway's new council-built care home, compulsory purchase of a building in Intra, heritage signage, and more.
• Sevenoaks: Cabinet will discuss parking fees, homelessness, housing, and more on Tuesday.
• Tonbridge & Malling: Council gets together on Tuesday to discuss planning appeals, leisure centres, and more.
• Kent: Scrutiny Committee will discuss the revenue and capital budget forecast outturn on Wednesday.
• Ashford: Planning Committee will decide on 180 new homes in Willesborough on Wednesday.
• Gravesham: Planning Committee decides the fate of 120 new homes in Meopham and 154 in Istead Rise on Wednesday
• Maidstone: Cabinet meets on Wednesday to talk about the Local Plan, improvements to Earl Street, and more.
• Tunbridge Wells: Planning Committee will decide on 90 homes on the former gas holder site in Tunbridge Wells on Wednesday.
• Canterbury: Council meets on Thursday to debate DBS checks for councillors, rights for the River Stour, and more.
• Tunbridge Wells: Cabinet will discuss the Royal Victoria Place development and more on Thursday.

New planning applications

• Maidstone: Screening opinion for 560 homes on land at Kent Police headquarters.
• Maidstone: Conversion of Kent County Council's Invicta House into 94 flats.
• Swale: Padel and leisure facility in Borden.

Property of the week

This three-bedroom cottage is in Folkestone’s historic Bayle, where £499,995 buys you a Grade II listed house with plenty of character and some interesting interior design decisions. Spread across three floors, it has wooden floors, a large kitchen with an old-fashioned range cooker and a bathroom that appears to be roughly the size of a small flat. Downstairs, the cellar has been converted into a music room, decorated almost entirely in red, presumably to ensure nobody mistakes it for somewhere to relax. There are sea views from the upper floors, although outdoor space is limited, but the house is just around the corner from Folkestone's Creative Quarter and Harbour Arm if you need to get outside.

Check out this 3 bedroom terraced house for sale on Rightmove

3 bedroom terraced house for sale in The Bayle, Folkestone, Kent, CT20 for £499,995. Marketed by Reeds Rains, Folkestone

Rightmove.co.uk

Events

👻 20 - 24 Oct - Paranormal Activity // The long-running film series moves into theatre to find new ways to scare people. Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury. Tickets from £19.

🎬 22 - 25 Oct - Folkestone Documentary Festival // Four-day festival of feature and short documentaries, artist films, filmmaker events and an industry day. Various venues, Folkestone. Ticket prices vary.

🪕 Fri 23 Oct - Alabama 3 Acoustic // Legendary band plays a stripped-down show. Booking Hall, Dover. Tickets £25. Also at Swale Assembly, Sittingbourne on 24 Oct.

🎬 23 - 26 Oct - Deal Film Festival // A particularly strong four-day programme featuring the UK gala premiere of Dover Unlocked, Brenda Blethyn in conversation, director Aleem Khan and Oscar-winning costume designer Sandy Powell. Astor Theatre, Deal. Individual events from £10.

🏎️ 24 - 25 Oct - Formula Ford Festival: Centenary Edition // The 55th running of Formula Ford’s knockout competition forms part of Brands Hatch’s 100th anniversary season. Brands Hatch, West Kingsdown. Day tickets from £17.

🎤 Sun 25 Oct - Nish Kumar: Angry Humour From a Really Nice Guy // Existential angst and political disquiet from one of the UK's best comedians. Marlowe Theatre, Canterbury. Tickets £29. Also at Assembly Hall, Tunbridge Wells on 22 Nov.

Footnotes

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