Maidstone council reveals plans for 220 homes on former Royal Mail Sorting Office next to station

Proposals for a £50m regeneration scheme for Maidstone town centre have been unveiled.

The first artist’s impressions of Maidstone council’s plans to redevelop the former Royal Mail Sorting Office near Maidstone East were shown at a public exhibition at The Kent History and Library Centre yesterday.

The scheme is for two six-storey apartment blocks, plus one six-storey block and one eight-storey block that would both have commercial space on the ground level – in all totalling 192 flats that would be a mixture of one, two and three-bedroom properties.

All the apartments would come with either a terrace or balcony

In addition, the council is proposing the construction of 28 three-storey town-house properties, which would sit in the middle of the apartment blocks.

Public space would be provided in the form of a split-level piazza plus a “pocket park” which would include a children’s play area.

Just 176 parking places are being created to support the 220 new homes.

A council spokesman justified the shortfall because of the site’s easy access to the town centre and railway station, arguing that residents wouldn’t need cars.

The council is not committing to the type of commercial premises that would occupy the 2,000sqm of business space, but suggests shops, a restaurant, a gym or creche might be appropriate.

It also says there is “potential” for a medical centre.

Access would be from Sandling Road and all the internal streets on the 3.5 acre plot would be “shared-surface,” with no separation between the road and pavement.

All the parking would be underground, beneath some of the apartment blocks.

The development would replace the former sorting office, abandoned by Royal Mail in 2013, which itself is three-storeys high, as well as the two large warehouse buildings to its rear, currently partly occupied by the Demelza charity.

The scheme would also replace Cantium House, currently home to Kent County Council’s coroners service, which is due to move to Oakwood House at Oakwood Park later this year.

Maidstone council said the scheme represented an investment of £50m in the town’s future and would help to bring prosperity to a run-down part of the town as well as provide much-needed housing.

Asked where the investment money would be coming from, the council said: “Maidstone Borough Council is able to access a number of funding streams in order to provide investment into development and regeneration projects across the borough.

“This includes the council’s agreed £200 million capital programme and external grant funding, where applicable, from bodies such as Homes England.

“The capital programme is funded primarily from external borrowing and internal resources derived from the council’s accumulated reserves.

“Some £80 million of external borrowing for the programme has already been secured and the remainder of the borrowing requirement is expected to be funded by the government’s Public Works Loan Board.”

Cabinet member Cllr Paul Cooper said: “The redevelopment of the brownfield site at the old sorting office is a good opportunity to create quality housing in a key town centre location close to transport links.

“It is a great opportunity to bring improvement to this sustainable location.”

The site is allocated in the Local Plan Review which is currently being examined by a government inspector.

There is a second chance to view the plans at an exhibition being held tomorrow (Thursday) at the Maidstone United Reformed Church in Week Street, between 5.30pm and 8.30pm.

Cllr Cooper said: “We want feedback from the community and this is an opportunity for residents and businesses to come and speak to us.”

Alternatively you can review the information from the display panels here.

Although referred to as the Maidstone East re-development, the railway station and station car park are not part of the plans.

The council bought the former sorting office for £2.5m towards the end of last year.

Previously, Maidstone council had a shared ambition with KCC to build a £50m joint HQ, but that scheme fell by the wayside following the Covid pandemic, when the practice of working from home cut the need for so much office space..

Earlier plans to attract a major retailer to the site such as John Lewis or Asda also fell through.

Royal Mail transferred its operations to Medway, a move that saw 250 redundancies.