by Alan Watkins

awatkins@thekmgroup.co.uk

Last ditch bids are being made to block the council approving a new bus station for Chatham.

Councillors meet tomorrow (Wednesday) to consider officers’ latest recommendations to approve a bus station in the wooded riverfront outside the Pentagon Shopping Centre.

Two groups of local residents this week demanded the discussions should be delayed or rejected.

Chatham objectors delivered a letter to the council’s chief executive, Neil Davies, and the council’s legal officer, Deborah Upton, accusing the regeneration director, Robin Cooper, of possible conflicting interests.

They believe Mr Cooper is compromised after recommending the original plans in August. The committee rejected his original proposals.

Three months later the council told him to decide if anyone objected to his alternative bus station site.

The six residents claim Mr Cooper cannot be independent.

Today they were joined by Frindsbury and Wainscott Community Association. It is demanding the Pentagon Bus Station should be updated, and the riverfront left alone.

The chairman, Ann Wade, said the new site did not conserve area’s open space.

“A few trees in the Paddock may be saved but within the whole site many more will be destroyed,” she said.

They criticised the lack of protection for passengers, poor toilet planning and traffic dangers.

“The sheltered Pentagon Bus Station should remain, be upgraded, refurbished and made more secure, to suit the needs of the users,” said Mrs Wade.

The chairman of Medway Regeneration Board, Rodney Chambers, said a £6 million government grant would be lost if work does not start shortly.