Plans to drastically change the landscape of the main road running through Rochester have been unveiled.

At a public consultation on Tuesday, residents got the opportunity to meet with architects from HTA Design, who have been working with Medway Council for the last six months on the plans for the busy road.

The same firm were hired by the council to develop the plans for 1,400 new homes on Rochester Riverside.

The new plans would see Corporation Street become a tree lined avenue.

Scott Adams, of HTA Design explained: “As the railway station has moved recently, and with the development of Rochester Riverside there will be a lot more people going across Corporation Street.
“We wanted to see how we can celebrate the historic nature of it, create a better pedestrian environment, whilst still maintaining the existing traffic flow.”

The main issue raised by residents at the public meeting this week was car parking.

Mr Adams added: “It makes sense because people don’t want car parking impacting the greater area.

“There were some clarifications on the car parking that every flat in Rochester Riverside does have a dedicated car parking space.”

Residents have previously raised concerns about the development of a hotel in Corporation Street, which the council says is a separate facet of Rochester’s development.

The current plans will inform any future development of the dual carriageway.

Michelle Lees, principal regeneration project officer at Medway Council, said: “This is basically the subtotal of the architects’ ideas so far on how that connection can be made right from the river to the High Street.”

“We are going to create a master plan which will go to the planning committee and when developers want to develop portions of land along Corporation Street, this document will help inform the planning committee.

“The main concerns that came out of the meeting were things like cycling, and the provision for visitor parking.

“We won’t be reducing any of the visitor parking.”

The public consultation, held at The Corn Exchange, was part of a wider programme of meetings and workshops with planning officers.