Plans to support business growth and town centres are among priorities identified by Staffordshire Moorlands District Council before it is abolished in 2028.
The local authority has created a Legacy Plan to ensure that priorities set out in its Corporate Plan are effectively delivered up until the council is abolished as part of local government reorganisation.
A major of the plan is exploring the potential development of new enterprise units, as well as working with partners to refresh town centre plans for Biddulph, Cheadle and Leek.
Other key outcomes include a partial review of the Staffordshire Moorlands Local Plan, major capital projects for Leek Leisure Centre, the Nicholson Institute, Cheadle Market, Cheadle Leisure Centre, and plans formulated to improve Biddulph Leisure Centre.
Leader of the council, councillor Mike Gledhill said: “To create our legacy plan, we have basically assessed all scheduled transformation activity projects and re-prioritised them, and reviewed capital and revenue projects that were scheduled to be delivered or completed prior to April 2028.
“We have been engaging and consulting with residents, businesses, town and parish councils, third sector organisations and place-based public services to understand their priorities and ‘what good looks like’ in 5-10 years’ time.
“About 20 sessions have been held with these important stakeholders to understand in detail the attributes and needs of localities, as we work towards the future. We have also been considering the Government’s plan to increase neighbourhood working when the new unitary council starts life in April 2028.
“Creating a ‘place leadership narrative’ and having plans in place will assist discussions with the other existing councils during the development of the new unitary council, which will be informed by ‘place-based profiles’ for each of the six localities we have identified in the Moorlands.”
Those localities cover North Moorlands, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest, Rural Moorlands (Peak District), and Semi-Rural and Churnet Valley.
The Legacy Plan can be found here.
- The existing ten county, city, district and borough councils across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent will be replaced by two new authorities from April 2028. Read the announcement, and find out more about how the county will be split, here.
