Dartford to see new cinema, hotel and 140 homes
Plans have been revealed to construct a new cinema in Dartford town centre as part of a £75 million development that will also incorporate 140 new homes and 109-bed hotel.
Muse developments are behind the plan which is due to start next year after consultation and planning approval later this year.
The plans incorporate the attractive frontage of the former co-op.
Dartford has been blighted since the 1990s through the Dartford Crossing and an increase in traffic frequently causing gridlock in the town and Bluewater opening which greatly damaged its High Street and shopping centre.
Tesco also helped the stagnation by buying a huge town centre site and sitting on it for years before deciding to sell to Meyer Homes alongside their sites in Lewisham and Woolwich. Meyer are planning 500 homes in Dartford.
But many thousands of homes are now being built, particularly to the north of the station.
New homes may give a boost to the viability of town centre shops and restaurants but does little about endemic traffic problems.
One potential solution is better Southeastern rail services though the franchise consultation isn’t particularly promising.
Crossrail also brings much of London closer yet there could well be no net increase in trains to Abbey Wood to connect to it.
Thameslink services beginning in May do not supplement Southeastern services but merely replace two services resulting in frequencies remaining at four an hour.
A health clinic is also being looked into.
Incidentally I’ve been reading reports of this in the local press and much is basically a cut and paste copy of the press release.
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I’m pleased to see something being developed on the site – and have always loved the frontage of the store. That Co-op was our lifeline when growing up in the 50’s . Many memories of the store when I was young and right up to its closure.
Our son got permission to photograph inside and down in the basement (unseen by the public for many years) just prior to its closure. I still have them on my laptop, external storage drive and disc. Trying to keep them safe! Though to my shame I never printed out our joint attempt to preserve a little record of the store’s building structure!
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