Pr1uk, as much as I'd like to disagree, I can't. The Medway Towns have become a commuter dormitory, where the people who live here and earn good money work elsewhere. They use out of town shopping centres and on the whole, contribute little to the local economy. In Lower Gillingham where I live, the place seems to be infested with Jeremy Kyle fodder, migrants from all manner of places and students, all of whom bring their own problems and not much benefit to the area, apart from to the landlords who charge extortionate rents (£100+ a week for a room in a shared house), thus driving hard-working families out.
The closure and demolition of Kitchener Barracks is sadly a symptom of a number of malaises affecting our nation, which are caused by the fact that our politicians know that the 'something for nothing' culture which follows our bloated welfare state wins votes, whereas Defence doesn't. This has resulted in our armed forces being run on a shoestring and constantly struggling to do more with less. Medway Council are unlikely to object to more brownfield development proposals as more people means more Council Tax receipts and more subsidies from the Government.
Brompton will be next, as more and more of the RSME is relocated to Minley in order to make better use of already meagre resources. I would lay money on Brompton being closed at some point in the next ten years. The barracks is already privately owned and rented back to the MOD by the Holdfast Group, who entered a PFI contract on the promise of massive returns from the sale and development of the training areas and former barracks at Lodge Hill and Chattenden as well as Kitchener Barracks. The work of clearing the site at Lodge Hill, the site with the most potential for development, has all now been stopped because of discoveries of rare wildlife there, so Holdfast are losing money on managing the barracks at Brompton, meaning that they're unlikely to want to renew the contract. Not renewing the contract and being unlikely to find someone else to take it on will give the MOD the excuse for closure and someone to point the finger of blame at.
