The problem with Chatham and why some people think the Pentagon needs to improve – Kent Live

The Pentagon Centre sits at the beating heart of Chatham High Street.

Walking along it, it is difficult not to be struck by the level of homelessness and scattering of empty units.

Medway Council has recently agreed to acquire The Pentagon Centre, in a bid to help contribute to Chatham’s regeneration.

The council has also received over £250,000 from Section 106 funding to spend on the town centre.

That funding will be used, among other things, to extend the Safer Medway Radio Scheme, deep clean the High Street and provide the town centre with a dedicated anti-social behaviour warden.

We spoke to people to find out what they really think about Chatham, its high street and how the town centre can be improved for future generations.

‘You’d probably be better off going somewhere like Gillingham’

Juliet Hatcher

Juliet Hatcher, 43, has lived in Chatham for the last two years after moving from Hoo.

On how the town and its high street has changed, she said: “It used to be bustling down here. It was a place to go.

“No-one thought to go Maidstone or anything like that because you did have a variety of shops.

“It has changed a lot.”

On the offering in The Pentagon Centre, Juliet said: “At this moment, it’s wasted.

“It’s just for people to hang around in really and it’s just got many shops which are all the same but it’s not a town centre place.

Poundland in The Pentagon Centre

“You’ve got one place for food, you’ve got one place for clothes. You’ve got no variety.

“You can’t sort of wander down and get everything you want.

“You’d probably be better off going somewhere like Gillingham or Hempstead or somewhere like that.

“I mean it’s good for like diving in, diving out but that’s it.”

‘Even what they’ve got is not really up to scratch’

She continued: “You’ve got Primark, you’ve got New Look, you’ve got Select but even then they’re not very good.

“You’re better off going to another store because they haven’t got a lot of it here.

“Even what they’ve got is not really up to scratch to other stores that you see, when this is a big town and Gillingham’s a small town but you can go in there and probably get more.

The Pentagon Centre

On what she would like to see come into The Pentagon, she said: “More variety really.

“Less pound shops and more shops you can go in – a small Aldi or somewhere like that you can go and get your food.

“It’s just all little pawn shops, jewellers and things like that really.

“There’s loads of them.”

‘We used to go in Pirate’s Cove for an hour’

She added: “I know it seems silly but they used to have a Pirate’s Cove in there for your little to go in while you were shopping and like a play area – and a nice restaurant area you can sit with your kids and things like that.

“Something like that so families can come down here and go round shopping – things like that could probably be where they spend the money.”

She continued: “We used to come to Chatham a lot. We used to travel down [from Hoo].

“We used to go in Pirate’s Cove for an hour with the kids while I went to the shops.

“Then we’d go round, we’d go up to the Wimpy and make a day of it.

“That was when the kids were smaller and I wouldn’t dream of doing that now.

“There’s just nothing here, it’s just hassle. We just pop in the corner shop and go home.

‘It’s not somewhere I come and breeze down the shops’

Keziah Morgan

Keziah Morgan, 21, lives in Chatham but is studying creative writing at the University of Greenwich.

Assessing the state of Chatham’s high street, she said: “Chatham is sort of the place to go when you have you to get your dire bits.

“You have to grab something quickly or pop into the bank.

“It’s not somewhere I come and breeze down the shops with my friends. That’s something I would go to Maidstone or maybe even Bluewater for.

‘It’s a lot easier to go to one place where they have more variety’

She continued: “A lot of the shops are quite old.

“Probably the best retail shop here is Primark – which, don’t get me wrong is great – but there’s a Primark in Maidstone where there’s also a Top Shop and other sort of retail shops.

Primark on Chatham High Street

“So it’s a lot easier to go to one place where they have more variety, then come here where they just have just one Primark.

“[The High Street] doesn’t look very vibrant and bustling with people when there’s buildings that are just going to waste.

“[Those buildings] could be the new retail shop which brings 20-30 more people a day coming down to do more shopping and just making it look like it’s worth something down here and not falling apart.

‘I’d like to see more retail shops’

On The Pentagon Centre, she said: “There’s just sort of basic shops really which I don’t really go into.

“I pop into like a 99p shop every now and then but I won’t go there for my modern needs.

“[I’d like to see more] retail shops definitely,” she continued.

“I don’t think you’d see many people my age down here going shopping for clothes and things.

Pep & Co

“I know it’s for the audience as well. There’s not many people who live round here who are going to be shopping for designer things but a Top Shop, like a River Island, instead of the Pep & Co you have in the 99p shop would go down a treat really.

“I think you’d get a lot more people my age, like teenagers and stuff, coming down and shopping with their shopping money, which is a completely different retail audience that there isn’t right now.

“If there’s just a different crowd of younger people down here, it’s a whole different influx of money really that they’re going to be receiving.”

‘Try and promote internal growth’

Joe, who asked not to be identified by his full name, grew up in Chatham and has recently moved back to the area from Cornwall.

On what he would like to see put into The Pentagon Centre, he said: “I think people from Chatham – local businesses.

“Try and promote internal growth and to support the locals that live here.

 

“You need a mixture, you need niche, but it needs to be affordable as well and I think hopefully the council can do that.

He continued: “I think you need to have things that are different as well.

“There’s no point having a Poundland and a 99p shop together because it needs to offer different things.”

‘There’s nothing down here for children and babies’

Jayde (left) and Katie have lived in Chatham for the last 10 years

Jayde Phipps, 26, has lived in Chatham for 10 years and is expecting a baby in September.

On what she’d like to see more of in Chatham, she said: “More baby shops.

“The whole of this town, there’s one baby shop and being pregnant I have to get everything online.

“There’s nothing down here for children and babies or anything, apart from obviously like Primark.

On what else she feels The Pentagon is lacking, she said: “A food place in there would be good.

“Upstairs there’s loads of s*** empty units.

“So that would be good if they could make upstairs a food court.

‘It just needs to be a downsized Bluewater’

Bluewater Shopping Centre (Image: Andy Potter)

Jayde’s best friend, Katie Steenson, has also lived in Chatham for 10 years.

Katie, 21, also feels the shopping centre is in need of revitalisation.

She said: “It should be knocked down to be honest because there’s nothing in it.

“It’s got tacky kids shops like toy shops.

“It just needs to be a downsized Bluewater,” she added.

“That’s what we want.

 

‘The people who are really truly homeless are usually really polite’

On whether she supports the introduction of a dedicated anti-social warden, Juliet said: “Yes, as long as it’s done right.

“I know you can’t really differentiate but the people who are really truly homeless are usually really polite and as you walk past they ask, they say please they say thank you.

“But you have got the other ones that are just wandering around trying to get 50p off you and I’d like to see what they’d do with them really because they’re the ones that will give them crap, where they probably will move the quiet ones along.

Homelessness is prevalent in Chatham’s town centre

She added: “You know what, the bus station’s a waste.

“Let that be for homeless people because it’s just sitting there empty.

“Do that and that would probably be more productive than just chucking them onto another street somewhere else.”

On whether she feels Chatham has a serious problem with antisocial behaviour, she said: “Yes and no.

“I don’t actually find it that bad.

“We live in Chatham now but we’re not from here and it’s not as bad as I thought it was going to be.

“But then I think it’s because the town is so empty, whereas in Gillingham the town is incorporated into the residential area so you get a lot of the kids in the high street. We don’t really have that here.”

‘Maybe that will make people dread coming down here a little bit less’

Keziah also feels that an antisocial warden could make a difference to the town centre.

“I feel like it’s definitely needed around here.

“It’s so chilled around here at the moment and everyone just classes Chatham as that place where homeless people are and drunks are, it’s kind of like they know they can get away with it, so they spend so much time here – it’s their place to go.

“I feel like if they know they’ve kind of got a bit more effort being put in to stopping them being here then they will definitely kind of move away – and maybe that will make people dread coming down here a little bit less, because they know it’s not dirty and worried about getting mugged walking down the street.”

‘I don’t know if it’s really worth it to be honest’

Bin bags piled up on Chatham High Street

Whilst Keziah supports the commitment to cleaning the high street, she feels the council should focus more on making its offering more attractive to begin with.

She said: “People don’t care about the streets if they’re coming down and actually going into shops that they want to buy things from.

“So, maybe everywhere could really do with a clean but if they’re going to spend that much money on it, I don’t know if it’s really worth it to be honest.”

‘I’d never come down here on my own’

On the danger she feels walking down the high street, Jayde said: “There’s always trouble, always, always trouble. Fights.

“There was video a good six months ago, it was right along this bit here, and a guy had come out of Sports Direct and confronted another guy and was chasing him with a knife.

“Then do you remember the other video that circulated on Facebook of the two guys and – you could hear it on camera – he stamped on his head and you heard it.

“I’d never come down here on my own.

“Maybe when I was 14, 15 it weren’t that bad but now I would never come down here on my own.

“You don’t feel safe.

She continued: “I know they’ve got nowhere else to go but there’s homeless people everywhere and just thugs everywhere.

“Especially in the summer, everyone walks down the High Street smoking weed.”

On how she would like to see Chatham change, she said: “The people. Take away all the arseholes and bring in nicer people.”

‘You need to provide more things for people to do’

Joe feels people need to take more pride in the town.

He explained: “I have noticed it can be a bit grubby but if people loved where they lived they would probably have a bit more respect for it.

“I think to address antisocial behaviour you need to provide more things for people to do,” he continued.

“You need to provide more clubs or opportunities. Things to take people off the streets.

“I’ve worked in schools with kids that are probably likely to do that because I’ve worked with kids from permanently excluded backgrounds and I see that there’s just nothing to do

“I think just improve connections. Improve what’s available to youths.

“They’re our future,” he added.