Canterbury City Council – Kingsmead Regeneration Project

About Canterbury City Council

Canterbury City Council provides district council services to over 150,000 people living in Canterbury, Herne Bay, Whitstable and the surrounding villages. The property development company, Linkcity, was chosen as Canterbury City Council’s preferred partner to oversee the development of a multi-screen cinema, indoor leisure facilities and restaurants, student and residential accommodation delivered in the Kingsmead area of the city. This ambitious project is due for completion in 2021.

For more information on the Canterbury Riverside scheme

Meeting Our Customers’ Needs

The existing properties within the development site were due to be demolished as part of the regeneration of the area, which included a mix of commercial and residential properties.

Whilst Linkcity continued to work on the detail of the proposals and obtaining planning permission, those vacant buildings already under council ownership needed to be secured. Having already experienced issues with anti-social behaviour and illegal occupation, Canterbury City Council required a single provider of property security to help secure their assets and support the project.

Canterbury City Council required a quick resolution to these issues, which Orbis were perfectly aligned to deliver, having immediate access to local teams and backed up by support from a national delivery team network.

Providing Real Solutions

Orbis worked closely with Canterbury City Council to perform a thorough survey of the relevant properties before advising on the most efficient solution. The development site contains a range of different properties, including commercial and residential properties, both of which required different solutions to secure.

Our clients’ commercial properties just needed to be secured up until the point of demolition, so were able to offer our bespoke Perma steel solution. By permanently securing the buildings, we could provide Canterbury City Council with a significant cost saving, as opposed to renting temporary steel screens.

As for the residential properties, these had the potential to be re-used on a short-term basis, therefore we were able to offer a solution of temporary steel screens to secure the properties from any harm whilst vacant. At the beginning of the process, one of these properties was being illegally occupied, so Orbis worked closely with Canterbury City Council to support the eviction process by securing the property on the day of eviction to prevent any re-entry into the property.

Results That Matter

By aligning our customer focus approach to the individual requirements of the client, we were able to deliver quality service along with significant cost efficiencies for Canterbury City Council.

Orbis responded swiftly to our enquiries and promptly attended the site to discuss the security options available to us. The work was undertaken with a very short lead time, minimising the period during which the properties were vacant and potentially vulnerable.  Furthermore, the solutions offered by Orbis were sufficiently flexible to accommodate the potential re-use of some properties, whilst also being reactive enough to deal with the issues caused by one of the properties being unlawfully occupied.  All in all, the service provided by Orbis has been excellent and the council continues to work with them to look at securing further properties as they become vacant and await demolition.

Richard Hall, Senior Regeneration Officer