‘Love Gillingham’ is a campaign launched by Gillingham and Rainham MP Naushabah Khan to bring focus, support and investment to Gillingham High Street. Following a successful launch event last year, we caught up with her to learn about this year’s event and the development of a Gillingham Action Plan.
“The ‘Love Gillingham’ campaign pretty much does what it says on the tin,” says Naushabah, who grew up in Gillingham before becoming a councillor for the area. “It came about after years of me as a councillor speaking to people of the frustrations around Gillingham town centre’s decades of decline.” As a councillor in opposition trying to do something about this, she felt it was like hitting up against a brick wall, “going to the Conservative council and asking them to support Gillingham.” Naushabah thinks it was clear that it wasn’t a political priority for them and “their interests for whatever reasons were in other parts of Medway”.
For local people, that has been an enormous frustration, and when Naushabah became a cabinet member in the new Labour administration, these were challenges that she was determined to address. It was this that launched the ‘Love Gillingham’ concept, which she is now carrying on as an MP. “’Love Gillingham’ is an umbrella term for all the work that we are doing around Gillingham Town Centre.” The biggest part of which is the Gillingham Town Centre Task Force, which Naushabah chairs. This brings together the council, police and other stakeholders with the intention to tackle some of those immediate challenges on the high streets. The focus of the task force has been making the High Street look cleaner and welcoming. “The task force is the vehicle through which we’re trying to drive through that change.”
The other element of ‘Love Gillingham’ is the annual event launched last year. This year’s event is part of a weekend of activity, culminating on Sunday 20 July. “We’ve got more money for it. We’re trying to make it bigger, more engaging, and that’s to celebrate what is happening in Gillingham and reinstil that sense of pride.” The weekend starts with the Medway Mile, which is now going to go through Gillingham Town Centre.
They have also established community panels, with “40 people who are really keen to talk about the future of Gillingham,” and have been running workshops facilitated by external organizers. Findings from these panels will be used to complete an action plan, which will be launched in July this year. “We’ve got this overarching strategic program for the future. The big thing for me is that Gillingham needs investment,” which is an issue Naushabah has been trying to raise in Parliament.
Naushabah has also been talking to the private sector on a broader scale about what high street regeneration can look like, for which she will be setting up an external partners group. This group will include Gillingham FC, Peel Ports, and Gillingham Marina. She describes this group as “people who are doing big things and may have an interest in ensuring that the town centre is thriving.” Naushabah is keen to continue working with the council, and “the ideal would be a design code or master plan for Gillingham.”
The MP recently submitted a report to Medway Council following two roundtables she held with local businesses. One held at the Queen of Bakes in Gillingham on Small Business Saturday and provided an opportunity for her to listen to what they found frustrating, challenging, and where they think the area could be improved. “People are invested in Gillingham. They had either grown up here or they’ve been here for a long time, and they want it to succeed as a place.” Naushabah and her team collated the findings to decide the next steps in the action plan.
Naushabah highlights that people are starting to notice a difference: The area is cleaner, waste is better controlled, and there is development on murals for the area. “It doesn’t have to be expensive stuff.” The Royal Engineers are looking at updating the memorial on Sapper’s Walk, and Gillingham FC are looking at adding signs highlighting that this is their home. She has also been work with local designer Esther Johnson on the ‘Love Gillingham’ logo and designs, which “we’re hoping to get painted in the town.”
The MP sees this as an opportunity to show some love for Gillingham. “We’ve got to be honest about the fact that town centres have changed, how people use them has changed, what people expect from them has changed. The key thing for us now is what does Gillingham need to look like so that people still want to go there, they still want to use it.”
This article originally appeared in the Local Authority.