Free family days in Twydall on 15 August and Rede Common on 23 August, where residents help shape how up to £20m of Pride in Place money is spent.

Twydall gets the first of three free community days on Saturday 15 August, and the point of it is not just the funfair. Each of the three Medway neighbourhoods in the government’s Pride in Place programme has up to £20 million to spend over the next ten years, and the events are the council’s opening round of asking residents what it should go on (Medway Council, 4 August 2026).

Two dates are confirmed and one is not:

  • Twydall (Gillingham): Saturday 15 August, 11am to 4pm, Beechings Way Recreation Ground, with Naushabah Khan, MP for Gillingham and Rainham.
  • Rede Common (Strood West): Sunday 23 August, 11am to 4pm, Bligh Way Park, with Lauren Edwards, MP for Rochester and Strood.
  • Luton (Chatham): September, with Tris Osborne, MP for Chatham and Aylesford. The council says the date, time and location will be announced shortly.

All three are free. The council lists a funfair, sports activities, family games, arts and crafts, face painting and roaming entertainers, alongside information stands from local organisations and council services, and a consultation element where residents give feedback that feeds into the programme in their area.

Timeline of Medway Pride in Place: March 2026 the government names Twydall, Rede Common and Luton, each with up to £20 million over ten years; July 2026 applications close for the three independent Neighbourhood Board Chairs; Saturday 15 August Twydall community day at Beechings Way Recreation Ground 11am to 4pm; Sunday 23 August Rede Common community day at Bligh Way Park 11am to 4pm; September Luton community day, details to be announced
Graphic by Medway Live.

Where the money comes from

The government named the three Medway neighbourhoods on 20 March 2026, in a round covering 40 more communities across England, each of which “will receive up to £20 million over the next decade” (MHCLG, 20 March 2026). Medway’s three are Twydall in Gillingham, Rede Common in Strood and Luton in Chatham, £60 million between them, on top of £1.5 million the council had already received through the Pride in Place Impact Fund (Medway Council, 20 March 2026).

It is not a grant the council can simply spend. Each area gets a Neighbourhood Board made up of residents, community groups, businesses, the local MP and a ward councillor, led by an independent chair, and the board writes a “Pride in Place Plan” setting out how the ten years of money will be used. The council’s own guidance is explicit that the chair must be genuinely independent, “not employed by, or in a position of conflict with, the council or any delivery partner” (Medway Pride in Place).

Eligible spending is broad: youth provision, leisure and green spaces, arts, culture and heritage, and projects supporting employment and economic growth.

What it means for you

If you live in one of the three areas, this is the stage where the shape of the plan is still open, and the boards are not yet built. Applications to chair each board closed in July, on 15 July for Luton, 22 July for Rede Common and 27 July for Twydall. Board members come next: the council says recruitment for roughly eight to ten members per board starts once the chairs are appointed, and members must live or work in the area, with the boards expected to reflect the age, gender, ethnicity, faith, disability and income mix of the neighbourhood.

So the practical routes in are turning up on 15 or 23 August and putting your idea on the feedback stand, or emailing prideinplace@medway.gov.uk to ask about board vacancies when they open. Naushabah Khan, quoted in the council’s announcement, was blunt about what the Twydall day is for: “This is your community’s investment. Help us shape what it delivers.”

If you are going, both confirmed events run 11am to 4pm on parkland rather than in a hall, so they are weather-dependent. Beechings Way Recreation Ground sits on the Twydall side of Gillingham; Bligh Way Park is in Strood West. Neither the council nor the MPs have published parking arrangements for either site, so walking or the bus is the safer bet.

More things to do across the five towns are in our things to do in Medway guide, and the wider regeneration picture, including the 100 homes replacing Chatham’s Brook car park, is in Medway planning news.