Martin Hall
(Director)
Greening the Gateway Kent and Medway
Tel: (01634) 337593 | E-Mail
Joanne Smith
(Cluster Study Officer)
Tel: (01634) 337713 | E-Mail
Address:
Innovation Centre Medway (Phase 2) Maidstone Road Chatham Kent ME5 9SD
Dartford Greenheart
This project focuses on where the River Darent meets the town, bringing the countryside into the urban setting and thus providing the town with a ‘green heart’.
An extra 13ha of publicly-owned yet inaccessible open land will be incorporated into Central Park by making it fit for public enjoyment. This will also provide a link for townspeople to explore the landscapes of the Thames Gateway via the Darent Valley Path – the Darent Valley to the south, the Thames Marshes to the North and the Kent Downs.
The project includes clearance works, creation of habitats, areas for public enjoyment, access points and a visitor centre. It will result in a bigger park in the centre of town, with links to the wider countryside, which will improve quality of life for residents as well as improving the environmental standards of the Thames Gateway.
In addition to the new open space, the project will:
- provide 2.5km of new improved path for cyclists and pedestrians, as well as facilitating access and connections to more than 13km of existing paths;.
- promote access to the park and to the Darent Valley to some 50,000 visitors a year through the new visitors’ centre;
- improve and extend 2km of degraded cycle and pedestrian paths to the south of Brooklands Lakes towards South Darenth;
- restore and improve 2km of chalk river habitat;
- restore and enhance 0.5km of inter-tidal river;
- open up 1ha of new open space on a peninsula on Acacia Hall land to the public;
- improve the accessibility, management and utility of a wet woodland complex to the north of Dartford;
- provide new access point and improve existing entrances that will bring green space into the daily experience of up to 14,000 residents and 22,000 visitors per week to this part of the Thames Gateway.
Dartford Greenheart is a project that will bring green space into the daily lives of thousands of people in Dartford, including residents, visitors, working people and those travelling through the town.