APCM Recreation Ground

The village recreation ground, now inside the development site and owned by Trenport Investments — which the group’s own title research dates to 2001. Residents had it listed as an Asset of Community Value in 2022. Medway received the owner’s notice of intended disposal on 18 December 2024 and the community had until 30 January 2025 to ask to be treated as a bidder; the group registered its intention to bid within that window. The owner had also asked Medway to treat the sale as a part-listed disposal, which would be exempt. On 3 March 2025 Medway’s Director of Place confirmed that it was an exempt disposal under section 95(5)(e) of the Localism Act 2011, so the moratorium did not apply and the owner was able to proceed with the disposal. Medway’s notice records that the remainder of the site stays on its list of Assets of Community Value. Separately the group is assembling the evidence on Medway’s historic and current property interest — a deed dated 17 January 1975 and a licence dated 6 February 1975 and whether a statutory trust or public open space status arises — along with a historical document said to show the field was left to the village in 1972. Public use is already well evidenced; the legal character of the council’s interest is not.

• A recreation ground used by several sports clubs
• Whether a statutory trust over public open space survives
• Medway ruled the 2025 disposal exempt, so the moratorium did not apply