MEDWAY City Estate is the biggest industrial park in the South East with 530 companies making a huge contribution to the local economy. But the firms on the Strood estate operate separately, organising their own advertising and security and keeping their own patch tidy.

Now estate consortium manager Joan Brown is working to bring the firms together with a classified directory and regular business breakfasts with the Chamber of Commerce.

She wants companies to contribute towards the £10,000 needed to buy new cameras for the CCTV system and a gardener one afternoon a week to keep the grounds up to scratch. But the consortium is funded entirely from voluntary contributions of £22 per month from companies on the estate - and not everyone joins in.

"I get in £25,000 a year and most of that pays for the CCTV, we're just scraping by. Part of the problem is trying to convince businesses who refuse to join that if the consortium wasn't there they would miss it," said Joan, who works part time from Sunderland House on the estate.

"The estate attracts a lot of people from outside Medway - a classified directory would bring more business in and benefit people in the area.

"We thought of restricting the directory to people who contribute to the consortium but then it wouldn't be comprehensive. And I prefer to have a positive outlook and include everyone - maybe the people who are not contributing will eventually realise that the consortium is worth paying for."

Medway City Estate started life as a government enterprise zone with 100 small businesses in 1988. The consortium was set up to improve security, help companies find units or offices on the estate and help move on travellers who settle.