News Release

Contractor appointed for High Street works

Maidstone’s eagerly anticipated High Street regeneration works will start by the end of the year.

Ringway has been selected as the contractor to carry out the works. Ringway were chosen out of 23 companies and Cabinet Member for

Regeneration, Cllr Malcolm Greer, is pleased with the choice and is looking forward to work starting later in the year. He said: “Ringway, who are part of the Vinci Group, is a well established construction company specialising in surfacing projects in town centres and highways. It has a turnover of approximately £350million a year and employs some 3,000 staff in the UK so we have really picked a good company here, they have a good track record and will complete our High Street to the highest possible standard.”

Over the past two years Ringway has successfully undertaken a number of town centre redevelopment projects including Brentwood Town Centre which the evaluation felt had many similarities to Maidstone council’s own scheme.

As well as submitting the lowest price Ringway outlined further areas of possible cost reduction to be investigated during phase one, which will include calling upon the resources of their materials laboratory to investigate the benefit of alternative materials technology. Ringway are also offering a potentially shorter works programme with associated cost savings and reduced disruption.

Ringway will complete the work in two phases. Phase one relates to early contractor involvement which is a period of design development, finalisation and confirmation of the specification and budget for the construction works.

Phase two, covers construction of the agreed design.

Confirmation to proceed to phase two of the contract will depend on the contractor successfully completing phase one and sufficient funds being available to the council for construction work to actually commence.

Town Centre Manager, Bill Moss, said: “This is a once in a lifetime opportunity for Maidstone and Town Centre Management congratulates the Borough Council, and particularly cabinet member Malcolm Greer, for their drive and foresight.

“The regeneration works will undoubtedly cause some short-term problems for traders, but the end product will be well worth the wait and will undoubtedly reinforce Maidstone’s position as the premier town centre retail centre in Kent. It is precisely this type of inward investment that makes Maidstone so attractive to the major high street retail names, and obviously our very strong independent offer will benefit from increased numbers of customers the regeneration will attract.

“In the last few years Maidstone town centre has undergone some radical changes, and this latest work will further improve the County Town’s outstanding appeal.”

Work is due to start towards the end of the year.