Council leaders have agreed to release £2.6 million of funding so three town centre regeneration projects can move forward.

Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council is working with developer Capital and Centric on the York Place, Midway and Ryecroft schemes in Newcastle-under-Lyme town centre, which together will provide hundreds of new homes and commercial space.

Cabinet members have now approved spending to take each of the projects through to the last design stage – a final decision to start construction will be taken by full council at a future date. Funding for the schemes is coming out of Newcastle's £35 million allocation from the Towns Fund and Future High Streets Fund.

The plans for York Place will see the former shopping centre converted into around 50 flats and ground floor commercial unit. There are also plans for a live music venue next to the Bulls Head pub.

York Place is set to become around 50 flats and a ground floor commercial unit (Google).

At their meeting on Tuesday, cabinet members agreed to spend a further £836,843 on the project, taking the total expenditure so far to £2.1 million.

Council leader Simon Tagg said: "Anybody who has been into town recently would have seen that the work has started on York Place. The hoardings are up, there's work going on. It's great to see the building being stripped back to its core so we can start the next stage of the redevelopment. And that's why this report is coming to us.

"I think it's an exciting proposal to bring back a building back into use that's been in a very sorry state for a number of years. With the way that Capital and Centric run their buildings after they've been built. we should hopefully see a really dynamic place within our town centre."

Deputy council leader Stephen Sweeney added: "Part of Capital and Centric's ethos is that they don't just flatten buildings like some people might. They will save what they can save.

"What we're doing now, is taking this scheme all the way up to the point where we can sign a building contract."

Cabinet members also agreed to spend a further £854,117 on the proposals to turn Midway multi-storey car park into 114 flats, and £923,249 on the Ryecroft project. This will take the total spend on these schemes to £1.6 million and £1.8 million respectively.

The Ryecroft development is set to feature homes, including affordable properties from Aspire, a hotel and a retirement complex developed by McCarthy and Stone. A new multi-storey car park, which will replace the Midway when it closes early next year, is nearing completion on the Ryecroft site.

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