Colonial House, built at a cost of £35m as the grand headquarters of insurers Colonial Mutual Life, is to be flattened and replaced with housing.

Medway Council’s Planning Committee met on Wednesday night to discuss the scheme, which would wipe one of Chatham’s most recognisable landmarks from the map and alter the skyline of Chatham Maritime.

But while most have agreed a housing development is the only logical future for a building regarded in business terms as a white elephant, members of the committee were not overly impressed with current plan.

Four members, including Cllr Nick Bowler, who said he “could not support a scheme that provides no affordable housing”, voted against the application, but others noted the scheme would bring much needed housing and more than £1m in contribution to nearby schools and services.

“This will make a significant contribution towards the amount of housing we need to supply in a year,” said Cllr Adrian Gulvin, adding: “if we don’t build here on what is a classic brownfield site, this is going to increase pressure on greenfield sites and gardens in the area.”

Cllr Diane Chambers, who chairs the group, said she was “not comfortable with the situation regarding affordable housing” but said the plan before the committee was better than converting the building into flats - an alternative which the planning committee would have less control over.

“I would support this outline application, “ she said. “As sad as I am to see Colonial House demolished, because I think it was a beautiful building, and it’s not in my view the way forward.

“But we are where we are.”

Some amendments were made to the conditions of the scheme, including a contribution of £103,522 towards “Greenspace Services improvements to The Strand”, while contributions already agreed from developers towards nursery and primary schools will now be directed specifically at St Mary’s Island.

Outline planning permission was granted after a vote was won in favour by 10 to 4.
Part of Chatham Naval Base from the early 19th Century, the application site was redeveloped as part of the Enterprise Zone in the early 1990s – with Colonial House, also known as The Big Blue, intended as the headquarters of Colonial Mutual Life (Unit Assurances) Ltd.

Staff arrived in 1994, welcomed by none other than the Lord Lieutenant of Kent, but left a few years later - and the applicants say attempts to find a business to move in had found “little or no market interest,” demonstrating “there was no single occupier for a headquarters office building of this scale.”