Medway Innovation Park development paused
A Medway innovation park - rumoured to host the likes of Netflix - has had its development paused
Last updated 15th Feb 2024
A massive business and research park next to Rochester Airport is to be mothballed, because it's failed to attract tenants.
More than 11 and a half million pounds has been spent on Innovation Park Medway.
But councillors have voted to pause development while a review's carried out into its long-term future.
The original proposal by Medway Council was to attract technology, engineering, manufacturing and highly-skilled support service firms to a bespoke campus next to Rochester Airport.
Big names such as Netflix were linked to the Innovation Park Medway (IPM) scheme, but the tenants never materialised.
Members of the council’s Labour cabinet said the previous Conservative administration’s philosophy of “build it and they will come” set it up for failure.
They also argued previous portfolio holders did not consider possible downsides.
"We didn’t want to continue to throw money at something that wasn’t working"
Portfolio holder for economic and social regeneration and inward investment, Cllr Lauren Edwards said:
“The financial picture meant we had to look at it again because the sums weren’t adding up, and we didn’t want to continue to throw money at something that wasn’t working as the people who originally envisioned the project had hoped.
“The model the previous administration was pursuing and the way they were doing it was just no longer viable and was not attractive to the business community in the way it was meant to be.
“We’ve been having lots of meetings with officers to understand the status of the project so we could evaluate its future success.
“There were a couple of businesses with an interest, but a couple was not going to make this a success".
At cabinet on February 13, members agreed the recommended plans to pause the scheme and use £200,000 of its budget to review possible options for its direction.
A review of IPM will take place over the next few months and the findings will be brought back to cabinet to discuss.