£60m 'big tech' park project may become care home

Plans for Innovation Park Medway in Chatham have been scaled back and the site could now house a care home

A £60 million development aimed at attracting the likes of Netflix and Google to Kent could now include a care home and retirement homes rather than office space.

Innovation Park Medway (IPM) wanted to attract big tech and media firms when the development in Chatham was first proposed in 2017.

But plans were paused in February 2024 and the site is now set to include a 70-bed care home and 16 retirement units alongside, as well as industrial units and office space.

Former Medway Council leader Alan Jarrett said the project had been "ruined" by the Labour administration but councillor Harinder Mahil said there were "no serious proposals from businesses to move onto the site".

The project, which was supposed to create 3,000 high value jobs, will now be scaled back in both parts of the park, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

The southern site is recommended to house the care home and retirement units, rather than office and commercial spaces, while the northern section would move from primarily office space to a mix of industrial units and "mid-tech" units.

Medway Council previously agreed to construct a residential care home on council-owned land, but it is not yet known whether the two proposals are one and the same.

A report on the future of the project is set to be discussed at a cabinet meeting on 11 March.

Mr Jarrett said: "I am disappointed for the fact that in almost two years Labour ruined a ground breaking project which could have created jobs and been a showpiece for Medway."

But Mr Mahil, portfolio holder for economic and social regeneration, said: "At the point of taking over Medway Council [in May 2023], we discovered there were no serious proposals from businesses to move onto the site."