Spirit of Sittingbourne, Kent

The Spirit of Sittingbourne was formed with a vision of making Sittingbourne in Kent, a better place to live, breathing life into the town centre through innovation and regeneration.

The development is a £100 million Public Private Partnership between U+I Group, Swale Borough Council, Quinn Estates and Essential Land. U + I Group transform areas of towns and cities into thriving communities and neighbourhoods, with a portfolio of mixed-use regeneration projects within London, the south-east, Manchester and Dublin.

The Spirit of Sittingbourne scheme involves remodelling the town centre and introducing of a new highway arrangement outside the railway station, to create a more pedestrian-friendly environment without restricting traffic flow.

There will also be a leisure quarter with new public realm providing a link between the High Street and the mainline train station, a 7-screen cinema and 7 new restaurants (28,300 sq. ft), bringing an estimated 400,000 additional visitors a year to the town.

The plans also include 215 town centre homes, a new multi–story car park and a retail site. Overall the it will deliver a £250 million investment into Sittingbourne in its first 10 years and create 1,100 jobs in the area across phases 1 and 2.

Planning permission for phase 1 was granted on Monday 16th March 2015 by Swale Borough Council and construction began in April 2016.

As part of U+I’s place-making activity, they brought an empty shop on Sittingbourne High Street back to life in October 2015. No. 34 is now a flexible workspace for local business start-ups, which is run by the team at Ideas Test with funding from Arts Council England and Kent County Council. No. 34 provides flexible workspace aimed at supporting local business start-ups and runs a programme of digital and business skills support for emerging creative businesses.