A new road opening up access to more of Kent Medical Campus has been officially opened by the Mayor of Maidstone, Cllr Malcolm Greer.
The £1.5m road, called Gidds Pond Way, links Newnham Court Way with the next phase of the campus to be developed, and connects to the site of the £18m Cygnet Health Care development, where construction is already well under way.
Gidds Pond Way will provide access to the eastern part of Kent Medical Campus, which forms part of the 1,000,000ft2 development. One of the sites on the new road is earmarked for the 75-bed step-down care home that recently received planning permission from Maidstone Borough Council.
Commenting at the official opening, Cllr Greer said: “Kent Medical Campus is a vital part of Maidstone’s future, providing a home for thousands of future high quality jobs and helping to create a stronger local economy.”
Gary Watson of JLL, the property agents and advisers for Kent Medical Campus, said: “It’s great to see the new road officially opened as it demonstrates our commitment to bringing health, science and education jobs to Maidstone. Investment in new roads will continue to help us reach our target of making Kent Medical Campus home to up to 4,000 new jobs.
“In the last few months we have seen an increase in potential enquiries as awareness of what Kent Medical Campus, part of the North Kent Enterprise Zone, offers. We are very optimistic about the coming year.”
The ambition is for the 30-acre site to be the county’s first Academic, Health and Science Centre by providing 98,000m2 of accommodation for medical and life-science companies, specialist residential and rehabilitation care, as well as higher education training facilities for the medical and healthcare professions.
Kent Medical Campus was granted Enterprise Zone status by the Government and came into operation at the 30-acre site is located at Junction 7 of the M20 earlier this year.
The first phase is the recently-opened Kent Institute of Medicine and Surgery (KIMS), the 92 bed independent hospital.
