A four-year plan to improve Medway and boost tourism in the Towns has been called into question after a decision to axe its visitor centre.

Medway Council is developing a new plan, known as the One Medway Plan (OMP), which sets out the authority’s ambitions to improve the conurbation up until 2028.

The document sets out how it wants to make the area a great place to live, work and visit and covers aspects such as as housing, education, the economy, health, and tourism.

The OMP acts as a framework for guiding the direction of everything the council does in order to reach the goals it has set itself.

It was scrutinised by members of its business support and digital overview and scrutiny committee last Thursday (April 4).

Cllr Gary Hackwell questioned about some of the priorities set out in the plan.

The Tory councillor suggested some couldn’t be delivered as they sat outside of the council’s control, and in some places he claimed, the authority was saying one thing and doing another.

Specifically, cllr Hackwell questioned Medway Council’s priority of ensuring good quality, affordable housing across the Towns, saying house prices were not something they could really influence.

He added if the authority was successful in making Medway an attractive place to live, it would draw people towards the area, pushing up house prices and making homes unaffordable.

Cllr Hackwell, who represents Rainham South East, added: “It’s admirable to have this as a top priority, but how can we have one of our top priorities as something we can’t really influence?”

He also asked about the plan’s ambition to attract tourism to the Towns, which, he said, didn’t bear out in the authority’s actions.

He continued: “You’ve also said you want to make Medway an attractive tourist destination, but one of the first things we’ve done is shut the Visitor Information Centre (VIC) in Rochester.

“There’s also things in the plan about celebrating the individual towns, well the only festival we’ve cancelled is the one in Rainham,(The English Festival).

“It just seems like we’re saying one thing in the documents and, by our actions, doing other things - it doesn’t sit well with me.”

He also asked for reassurances the OMP wouldn’t be just another attractive document which is agreed and not followed up on.

Medway Council’s chief executive, Richard Hicks, said he could guarantee this would not be the case.

He told the meeting: “This is absolutely something which will set the strategic direction of the council for the next four years and on that basis I will be expecting us to be delivering against it.”

Mr Hicks agreed with Cllr Hackwell that if the council was successful house prices would likely rise, however he said part of the plan was also to ensure wages rise as well through attracting high-quality jobs.

He also said the council could in some part influence affordability of housing through growing its own stock of council housing via a new-build programme.

On Cllr Hackwell’s point about tourism, Mr Hicks said it was important to get the tourism offering of the Towns right, as it represented £360 million per year for the local economy and supported 7,000 jobs.

He added: “It was a really difficult decision around the VIC, and the team there do a fantastic job.

“But actually some of the changing patterns in the way tourists access information around areas isn’t always around face-to-face setting and, with the financial setting, it was a very difficult decision but necessary.

“I do think it’s important to maintain that ambition to celebrate our individual towns because that’s what makes us proud of our place.”

But other councillors were more positive about the plans.

Cllr Louwella Prenter (Lab) said the outline of the authority’s ambitions and the evident enthusiasm from Mr Hicks gave her hope for the future.

She said: “I’m feeling positive about this and I think anyone who reads this document will learn a lot about Medway and, when this plan comes to term, we’ll all see Medway is better for it.”

The plan went out for public consultation in January and February and better education, jobs and growing the economy was listed as the top priority of the 318 respondents.

The full One Medway Plan can be viewed on the council’s website here.

Residents also said social care, community safety, and improving general health and well-being should be among the council’s main focuses.