The Civic Society

for Gravesend and Northfleet

5 Myths about the Edinburgh House Development Proposals


Myth 1 - The town centre development will provide 1000 jobs

The developers’ own information indicates that one thousand jobs will be provided during construction. The developers have indicated that roughly 600 jobs will be provided after construction. Given the nature of retail and restaurant work most of these jobs will be part time. A reasonable estimate of the number of full time equivalent jobs created is 300 jobs- mostly poorly paid.

Reality -  The scheme may provide the equivalent of 300 full-time permanent jobs & most of these will likely be poorly paid.

Myth 2 - Parking will be abundant and cheap

The developers state that 1280 public car parking spaces will be created but in a letter to Urban Gravesham, Edinburgh House admits that many of these are not new as only a total of 300 spaces will be created by the latest proposals. It also has to be remembered that virtually all parking will be housed within multi-storey structures which are both expensive to erect & costly to operate.
To date the developers have declined to give assurances that parking charges will be maintained at 2008 levels.

Reality - Car parking may in time be abundant  but charges will be dramatically higher than at present.

Myth 3 - The scheme will be completed in the next couple of years

Not surprisingly retailers are very keen to see the St Georges Centre expanded to provide more modern floor space. Urban Gravesham agrees with the retailers and urges Edinburgh House to update and upgrade the centre at the earliest opportunity. However, the developers’ own construction timetable indicates that the tower will be completed by 2011 with the shopping centre extension not completed until 2013. Independent organisations have commented on the timetable of the scheme. The influential ‘Skyscraper News’ has stated:
   
    ‘Taking into account the current hardening economic conditions, the developers still expect the first phase of the scheme to be completed in 2011 although a concrete finish date is anyone's guess’.

Reality - Retailing in Gravesend will not be improved until late 2013 at the very earliest. Even then there is no certainty.

Myth 4 - The majority of the listed buildings and conservation areas will be subject to negligible effects

This incredible claim is contained within the Environmental Impact Statement which accompanies the planning application. Even if people accept that large scale new development is positive it is difficult to see how a 32 storey tower and 6-7 storey high development elsewhere will not have a huge effect on the historic environment. In a letter to the Council, English Heritage stated:
   
    ‘the proposal will be totally out of context with the prevailing character of the historic core of Gravesend, it will have an overbearing affect, seriously affecting the character of the Conservation Area and this important part of the town centre,

    Urban Gravesham considers that the attractive character of much of the town centre is the reason why Gravesend has weathered the competition provided by Bluewater far better than Chatham or Dartford. This is why we support ongoing change and development provided that it is in sympathy with what is good about the centre. We believe the current proposals will devastate the existing character to the detriment of retail and other businesses.

Reality - The historic character of the town centre will be radically altered. This could have a very damaging effect on town centre retailing and businesses.

Myth 5 - The majority of people are in favour of the proposals for the redevelopment of the town centre. 

Urban Gravesham accepts that there is a range of opinions both for and against the Edinburgh House scheme.

However- you would never guess this from the ‘statement of community consultation’ submitted by Edinburgh House in support of the application for development. This quotes extensive statistics from an earlier consultation exercise and uses these to show that there is support for the scheme. The statement fails to mention that there was nowhere on the forms and website associated with the consultation to register an opinion against the proposals. There is a complete failure to mention that there is any significant opposition to the development proposals at all. This is despite the wide spread concern that is evident through the local press, through letters to the MP and the Council, and through the strong and growing support for Urban Gravesham.

Urban Gravesham acknowledges the right to support the scheme and to campaign for it. However- the Edinburgh House consultation statement is economical with the truth at best. This is not worthy of a responsible professional organisation.

Reality - There is substantial and growing opposition to the scheme.



Urban Gravesham says:
The scheme is massive.  It involves all of the remaining development sites within the town centre. To invoke a popular phrase; the Council has placed all of its eggs into one basket. It's therefore important that any proposed development scheme delivers, not just through superior design or by being especially spectacular but via a complete range of criteria.

Looked at in this context, the Edinburgh House scheme is too big, too brash, too unsophisticated and quite simply not good enough. We feel that whereas there is a  worthy scheme possible through a partnership between Gravesham Borough Council & Edinburgh House the full potential is not yet being realised .  We urge the GBC to think further & deeper by negotiating a simpler, more easily implemented and smaller-scale scheme with their chosen developers.