MESSENGER COMMENT: Station revamp is a
OUTLINING OUR
This week work will begin on Maidstone East, kick-starting a £2.5million regeneration of the town centre station. Preparations first started last September when demolition got underway at The Vic, but with hoardings now covering the derelict pub, it looks like Network Rail can start on a long-standing promise to bring the station into the 21st century.
Soon, what’s left of the pub, which closed in 2011, will be reduced to rubble and work will begin on the station proper. Once complete, it will feature a landscaped easy-access entrance and a new glass front.
A new waiting room, ticket office and staff room are all part of the revamp.
The multi-million pound changes are taking place on Sandling Road, next to old offices we mooted as a new centre for Maidstone’s criminal justice system last week.
Our plan would create a central hub housing crown, county, magistrates and coroner’s courts virtually opposite County Hall,
Maidstone police station - a consolidation befitting the name County Town.
Cantium House is already home to the coroner’s service team, while the old Royal Mail sorting office has other suitors. Liberty Church Maidstone hopes to move into the old sorting office, but even its own application accepts there have been previous designs for the site as a potential gateway to the town centre.
Its application reads: “Whilst this application has been withdrawn, the Maidstone Local Plan still envisages redevelopment of
”
The withdrawn application looks to have stumbled since it was first submitted in 2014.
But with a revamped station on the way, there is certainly room for a change.
Network Rail hopes to have a new look Maidstone East - which notched up 1.4m passenger ‘entrances and exits’ last year - up and running by June 2020. With shops like Marks & Spencer already opting to set up out of town, maybe it’s time to make better use of this neglected end of the town and give our public servants the best resources possible.
is already on site, it would only need to house a handful of ushers and coroners, on top of around 25 people from the magistrates court, plus the sum of police officers and crown court staff and judges.
Then we we can look to our river to provide unique shops to attract business from out of town - and essential housing to sustain demand and maintain a thriving economy.
All we need now is the will of those in power to make it happen.