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business
passengers annually and ferry services
to Calais and Dunkerque operating 24
hours a day, 364 days a year. The Port
of Dover is expanding with a £200m
capital programme including £80m
to transform the Eastern Docks ferry
terminal and £120m to redevelop the
Western Docks to provide new cargo
berths, a port-centric distribution
facility, new marina/waterfront
development and over 600 jobs.
Dover Harbour Board, working with
Bride Hall Real Estate Partners on a
mixed-use waterfront development, has
plans to link up with the £60m St James
town centre scheme being developed
by Dover District Council and its
development partner, Bond City Ltd.
Demolition of Burlington House in
Dover for the St James’ development is
now virtually complete and is symbolic
of the town’s regeneration. In its place
will be 11,150 m
2
(120,000 ft
2
) of retail
and leisure space, a six-screen Cineworld
cinema and a 108-bed Travelodge.
Next, M&S, Bella Italia and Frankie &
Benny’s are already signed up for the
development which will create over
500 new jobs.
Investment in skills and training is also
being delivered to match employers’
needs. Construction of a £6.5m
Maritime Skills Academy is currently
underway in Dover. Viking Recruitment’s
facility will feature state-of-the-art
training including a survival pool, bridge
and engine room simulators, hospitality
training and conferencing. East Kent
College has invested £2.9m in their
Dover campus for vocational training
in engineering, construction trades
and tourism.
East Kent College is also developing its
science curriculum at Discovery Park,
Sandwich, and Canterbury Christchurch
University recently opened a new life
sciences industry liaison laboratory.
Discovery Park is now home to over
125 companies and 2,400 employees.
Alongside Pfizer, a myriad of life science
and biotech companies are supported
by an ever growing business services
community in an innovation cluster.
Facilities include research and develop-
ment laboratories and specialist niche
manufacturing facilities, commercial
office space and warehouse solutions.
The town centre remains key for the
council, with the new Ashford College
Campus and a focus on equipping
students with relevant skill sets to work
in the specific jobs that will drive the
borough forward in future. The Council’s
decision to acquire the long leasehold
on Park Mall shopping centre is intend-
ed to transform its fortunes with new
businesses moving in and an emphasis
on quality, independent retailers. The
vacancy rate is now down to 5 units
from 12 units. The Ashford International
Model Railway Education Centre
(AIMREC) and the Ashford International
Space Science and Discovery Centre
projects are also progressing.
The portfolio of development is
indicative of a town that stands for
business, location and innovation. The
advantages of Ashford’s geography and
connectivity are being fully capitalised
upon – a blue-print for encouraging
integrated and sustainable growth.
For information on what Ashford
Borough Council can do for your
business visit:
www.ashford.gov.uk/economic-development
Canterbury
The Canterbury District Local Plan
Publication Draft 2014 was formally
submitted to the Planning Inspectorate
in November 2015 for examination.
This proposes 15,000 new houses,
100,000m2 (1,076,391ft2) of employment
space and community facilities across
ten strategic sites.
Bouygues Development has been
selected as Canterbury City Council’s
preferred partner for a mixed-use
development at Kingsmead/Sturry
Road. The area has been a focus for
regeneration for over a decade and
proposals for the 3.92ha (9.69 acres) site
include a multiplex cinema, restaurants,
indoor leisure, student accommodation
and other residential development.
Pre-application consultation on
the scheme design will take place
in 2016.
Elsewhere in Canterbury proposals to
redevelop the former Slatters Hotel
on St. Margaret Street were approved
in August 2015. Plans include retention/
renovation of listed buildings and
redevelopment of ground floor
commercial space with a 130-bedroom
hotel and rooftop restaurant.
In Herne Bay, Aldi is set to build a
1,665m
2
(17,961 ft
2
) store on King’s Road
car park. Building work commenced
in 2015 to provide a single storey
supermarket and an 80-space car park.
In addition, a joint project between
Canterbury City Council and the
Heritage Lottery Fund to restore and
preserve the historic seafront clock
tower – the oldest known freestanding,
purpose built clock tower in the world
– was completed in July 2015.
Canterbury City Council approved plans
for a new 10,000m
2
(107,639ft
2
) Sains-
bury’s store at the Altira Business Park.
This will also see surface infrastructure
including a pedestrian footbridge at
Blacksole Bridge, a new bus route to the
town centre and 2,500m
2
(26,910ft
2
) of
industrial space. Work on the store and
the spec industrial units is expected to
be complete later in 2016. Developer
Terrace Hill is actively seeking business
tenants for these units and to develop
the remainder of Altira for office,
industrial and warehousing.
Permission was granted in September
2015 for a residential complex and new
sporting facilities on the former Herne
Bay Golf Club. Quinn Estates plans
include 572 homes, 4,181m
2
(45,000ft
2
)
of commercial office space and
football, hockey and cricket pitches
for the 41ha (100 acre) site.
Dover
The Enterprise Coast – Dover, Deal
and Sandwich – is being transformed
with multi-million pound investments
in town centre and waterfront
regeneration, major development
of Dover’s Western Docks, a master
plan for further development of the
Discovery Park Enterprise Zone and
the creation of the Betteshanger
Sustainable Parks near Deal. Alongside
plans for 10,000 new homes, it represents
the biggest investment in a generation
and just an hour from London by
high-speed train.
Nowhere is closer to European markets,
with the Port of Dover handling £100bn
worth of trade and over 13 million