Stoke-on-Trent City Council has said it is preparing to steam ahead with major regeneration projects – including a new skills centre and city centre masterplan – as part of a £20 million package of improvements.
The city council announced last night that it has been given the green light by Government to move ahead with projects set to benefit all six towns of the Potteries.
Ten projects have been identified for progression subject to being passed by the council’s cabinet at a meeting on Tuesday, 8 October.
They include a major investment to deliver an Advanced Green Skills Centre – a new facility to help students take their first steps into the construction and engineering industries – at Stoke on Trent College’s Burslem Campus.
There also plans to support the ongoing development of the Goods Yard scheme in Stoke, the development of a new City Centre Masterplan and a study for Chatterley Valley to understand its potential use as a centre of green energy.
Other proposals include:
- A multi-million pound package of public realm improvement scheme to Tunstall, Longton and Stoke Town Centres;
- A project to be delivered by the Canal and River Trust to enhance the local canal network and green corridors, including making them more accessible for residents;
- Investment to enable the delivery of works to Burslem Indoor Market;
- The development of a leisure campus at Vale Park which will provide more facilities the local community and for the club along with updated recreational facilities in deprived residential communities; and
- Extension of the Safer Streets initiative to design out crime in a number of our town centres.
Councillor Finlay Gordon-McCusker, cabinet member for transport, infrastructure and regeneration, said: “This is fantastic news. The funding will give us the chance to make valuable investments in our city and address some key issues.
“We have listened carefully to what people have told us; they want to feel safer on our streets; they want to ensure the next generation has the skills they need to get on and get a good job; they want more community facilities for all to use; and, critically, they want to protect our heritage and build on it as our city enters a new era.
“All of these projects have been designed with local people’s feedback at their heart, and I am incredibly pleased that we have been awarded £20 million of funding to help us make our ambitions a reality.
“The projects which have been chosen align with our key priorities of making our city a healthier, safer, greener and cleaner place to live for all. The work to enhance the local canal network and green corridors will also complement the work we are already carrying out to improve transport in the city, helping to promote active travel and ensuring everyone can move around the city quickly and easily.
“We have an excellent track record of working with partners and I look forward to seeing these projects progress and get off the ground. I am confident that we can achieve great things in a short space of time.”
The go-ahead has been given by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG).
Once agreed by cabinet members, the council will sign up to a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which outlines its commitment to the projects being delivered.
The city council will be responsible for the delivery of the majority of the projects alongside partners, including the Canal and River Trust, Stoke on Trent College and the Port Vale Community Trust.
This investment follows £20 million of Levelling Up Partnership funding awarded last Autumn with a major focus on the towns of Tunstall, Burslem and Middleport.
Burslem is a town Middleport is a residential district I believe.
I see an exclusion of Hanley in the town center improvement areas listed in the first bullet. The place is a derelict dump full of drug addicts and aggressive vagrants, that doesn’t attract many people from outside of the area. What happened to the ripple effect? We’ve been there for 20 years and are now relocating due to the complete collapse of the place and lack of investment in cleaning the place up. We have a multimillion pound empty car park though so not all bad!!
These projects have been on the agenda for the past 17 years. £20m will not scratch the surface. It looks like we’re going to be using canals to get around the city – might take a while, but not as long as these promises are taking. And why is Vale Park getting funding? They’re a private enterprise. I’d like some funding for my business please. Burslem Market alone would eat up that money. Why can’t we just accept that people don’t want to go shopping in towns all the time – they shop ONLINE. The successful market towns in the UK are nice places, with boutique shops, most of the shops in our towns are closed and the ones that aren’t do a damned good job of staying open despite all of this. I would dearly love for Stoke on Trent to be a better area, it’s where I’ve lived all my life but stop telling us stories of what could be with little or no budget, every on is sick of it.