Council leaders have agreed to produce the first masterplan for Stoke-on-Trent city centre in 14 years. But how much of the previous plan has actually been delivered since it was drawn up in 2010?

Stoke-on-Trent City Council produced the City Centre Area Action Plan (CCAAP) as part of its local development framework. The aim of the document was to enable 'consistent, rational and transparent sustainable planning and investment decisions' over a 15 year period.

It included a list of 'key deliverables', setting out targets in areas such as housing, office space and transport, which council chiefs hoped to achieve by 2026.

Since 2010, Stoke-on-Trent and the country as a whole have experienced major changes affecting how we live, work, shop and relax – all of which has impacted on the city centre. And so it will hardly be a surprise that a plan drawn up 14 years ago has not aged well in many ways.

The council produced the City Centre Area Action Plan as part of its local development framework (Nub News).

Here are some of the key deliverables from the 2010 CCAAP, and how they compare to what was actually delivered:

A minimum of 500 dwellings

This is perhaps one area of the CCAAP where the city centre is on course to over-deliver.

The first phase of the Clayworks apartment complex, on the Smithfield development, opened in 2020, providing 151 flats in an 11-storey block. Planning permission has been secured for another block with 126 apartments.

Fortior Homes, the city council's housing company, and Smithfield developer Genr8 have worked together on the Clayworks scheme.

Various other plans have come forward for new housing in the city centre. The city council itself, which sees city centre living as a way of boosting footfall in the area, has planning permission for 292 homes on the Etruscan Square development.

Plans have also been submitted for 130 flats at Blackburn House, 101 at Hanley Library and 218 student flats at the former Hanley Police Station. An application for 56 apartments at the former Chicago Rock Cafe were recently approved by councillors.

If all these schemes go ahead, they would provide over 1,000 new homes in the city centre.

Plans have been submitted for 130 flats at Blackburn House (Pete Stonier).

120,000 square metres of additional gross comparison retail floorspace

Expanded Primary Shopping Area

Delivery of East West Centre

The continuing decline of high street retail has been one of the biggest changes to city and town centres since 2010. Out-of-town shopping and online retail have made things increasingly difficult for the high street.

Today, the idea of building a brand new, £350 million, 60,000 square metre shopping complex in Hanley would seem absurd, but that it what Realis Estates were proposing with City Sentral 14 years ago. These plans were scaled back before being abandoned altogether in 2018.

Hanley is now struggling to keep hold of the retail floorspace it has, never mind adding more. Marks and Spencer and Debenhams have been among the big names to disappear from the city centre in recent years.

New plans are being drawn up for Etruscan Square, on the East West site previously earmarked for City Sentral. But it is safe to assume that it will not be a retail-led development.

New plans are currently being drawn up for the Etruscan Square development (Pete Stonier).

85,000 square metres of additional gross office floorspace

New, large scale Central Business District

The first two office blocks on the Smithfield development (originally called the Central Business District), providing 19,500 square metres of floorspace between them, were completed in 2015.

One and Two Smithfield were originally intended to be the city council's new headquarters, but after these plans were scrapped the offices have been occupied by various public and private sector organisations, including Water Plus, Davies Group, the NHS and the Home Office.

There are plans for more office blocks as part of the Smithfield development, one of which will accommodate the Home Office's 500 Stoke-on-Trent-based workers.

But so far, no new office buildings have been built in the city centre since 2015. The pandemic and the rise of working-from-home have reduced demand for office space in recent years.

Improved Evening Economy

This is another area where Stoke-on-Trent, like many other city centres, has regressed since 2010, with the pandemic playing a key role in this decline. Some previously popular venues in Hanley, such as Chicago Rock Cafe, closed at the start of the first lockdown and never reopened.

Hanley's Cineworld opened as part of The Hive extension of the Potteries Centre in 2015. The Hanley multiplex was not on a list of Cineworld sites set for closure, announced last month, but it is not known if more will be shut.

New Bus Station and better quality bus connection

Hanley's £15 million bus station opened in 2013 (LDRS).

Hanley's £15 million bus station opened in 2013, freeing up the old bus station site for redevelopment as part of the City Sentral scheme (see above). But bus travel in Stoke-on-Trent has continued to decline since then, from 12.7 million passenger journeys in 2013 to just 6.7 million last year.

In 2020 the city council was awarded £29 million from the Transforming Cities Fund for a raft of schemes aimed at boosting public transport. Improving the bus connections, including the route between Stoke Station and the city centre, is a key part of this project.

Strategic network of perimeter quality public car parks

The city council opened the £15 million Smithfield multi-storey car park in 2022. Earlier this year the council reduced parking charges at the facility after finding that it had made a £15,794 deficit in 2023/24.

Labour council leaders had previously scrapped plans for a 645-space car park to replace the demolished Meigh Street multi-storey. A review of parking in the city centre will be included in the new masterplan.

The city council is set to pay consultants up to £200,000 to draw up the new city centre plan. Council leaders say the city centre is 'not fulfilling its role as the main centre for high density living, congregation and trade'.

According to a council report, the new city centre plan will provide 'radical but deliverable change'. The success of the last plan, or lack thereof, indicates that 'deliverable' will be the key word.

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