Stoke-on-Trent has received a £250,000 slice of a national funding pot to help boost heritage regeneration opportunities and lever in further money.
The city is one of the first nine places in England to benefit from a share of The National Lottery Heritage Fund’s £200 million Heritage Places initiative.
The money will be used to develop a Heritage Collaboration Framework for the area, to build on its world renown for ceramics, as well as award-winning museums and visitor centres.
The funding will support extensive community and stakeholder engagement across Stoke-on-Trent to map out and develop heritage needs, current activities and future opportunities.
Fundraising advisory sessions will also be provided to help groups prepare funding bids and business cases for heritage projects.
The goal is help guide future heritage regeneration funding and programmes. This will aim to bring together community, heritage and cultural leaders to create a long-term plan.
Councillor Jane Ashworth, leader of Stoke-on-Trent City Council, said: “We are incredibly excited and honoured to be one of the first places in the country to benefit from this programme.
“We are blessed with a huge amount of heritage in the city and are making it a priority to restore and repurpose as much of it as we can to benefit local communities.
“This funding will allow us to develop a Stoke-on-Trent Heritage Collaboration Framework through engaging with residents and organisations at the heart of our local communities, across all six towns, to find out what is truly important to them when it comes to our heritage.
“We want to create a city-wide vision which will see us secure investment in key historic sites to restore pride in our city and create activities and programmes to promote the positive impact our heritage will have on the city’s future.”
