£10 million works could start immediately at Stoke-on-Trent’s flagship Spode site to accelerate regeneration after years of delays.
Controversial plans initially submitted in June 2022 were eventually shelved in March 2023 after the city council launched a “full stocktake of progress” on the historic site.
Next week, Stoke-on-Trent City Council‘s cabinet is expected to sign off a three-phase programme of works to focus on preserving the Stoke site’s significant heritage, making a createch village to attract more creative and digital businesses to join those already on the site.
Work will also improve access from the town centre and greening the whole site with a set of sustainability measures.
The first phase will be delivered between now and May 2026 and includes expansion of office space already provided by developers Dog & Bone – behind the Potbank Aparthotel, the Factory Floor events space and to house creative businesses and what they describe as “other significant tenants.”
Building 4L, pictured above, which leads onto the courtyard and bottle kiln garden, will be the first to see work take place.
Dog & Bone’s Jeff Nash said: “We’re funding this work ourselves because we’re so confident in the demand for facilities on site. Phase 1 is fully let in principle and for some time we’ve had a significant list of companies who would like to relocate to the Spode site.”
Consultants MACE drew up the plans after the original development partner Nimrod pulled out of the project last year.
City Director Jon Rouse CBE, the council’s most senior officer, has apologised for what he called a “wrong turn” in 2022 and said he was much more confident about the new direction.
Unveiling the plan to a meeting of stakeholders, he said: “We didn’t recognise that the success of the site would have to be collective and communal and owned by everybody.
“As city director I should apologise for taking that wrong turn. I’m much more confident about this plan. It has stakeholder engagement and it’s a plan that can evolve over time. We can respond to opportunities and we’ll talk about how we can create collective stewardship of the site rather than being done unto by the city council.”
Phase two will include transfer of the Spode site to a CIC or trust which is “seen as the preferred way to create capacity and focus on Spode, to steward the future of the site and secure its future sustainable development.”
Phases two and three also include refurbishment of even more historic buildings on the site, including the Terrace and China Halls.
Council leader, Jane Ashworth said: “Our city is already home to an established and expanding cutting-edge tech sector, and it is not a coincidence they are congregating in and around the Spode site, Staffordshire University and the train station. The opportunities for this sector can and will continue to flourish in the city.”
