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A leading voice in the regeneration of the Thames Gateway has called for the five Medway Towns to seek City status as quickly as possible.

But Sir Terry Farrell, design champion for the Gateway, said it was important the scheme only went ahead if the local communities supported it.

Speaking at the Thames Gateway Forum in London’s Docklands, Sir Terry said if local people agreed, the towns could be combined, while still retaining their individual identities.

He set out his ideas in a discussion document called Five Towns Make a City.

He said: “The ideas for key public realm projects to stitch together existing centres, create memorable places and provide a strategic framework, would help achieve the ambition of creating one great new place – a new city within Thames Estuary Parklands.”

Among his suggestions is rebuilding the Medway City Estate, the home of the Medway Messenger, as “a new urban heart”.

He believes it can be transformed with high-value engineering jobs, residential developments, a central urban park, cultural facilities and a landscape designed to attract people to Chatham town centre.

“It has the potential to be an extraordinarily beautiful place on the north Kent coastline,” he told his audience of developers, investors, planners and government officials.

“It would change the plan of the city,” he said.

“Medway’s landscape is key to transforming amenity and value in the area. Everyone needs places to relax, breathe, admire the view, the river, the sky, the landscape.”

Sir Terry said: “By making the most of this key asset and joining up the parts of Medway’s landscape, it can become a

much better place, a world-class place in which to make a home, raise a family, grow a business, designed for enjoyment and

fulfilment – a place that sustains human and natural life in harmony.”