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Stoke Town Regeneration is all about transforming the area to make it a place where people really want to live, work, shop and spend their leisure time.

The Stoke Town Regeneration Team is working on a masterplan for a revived Stoke Town, building on the redevelopment possibilities offered by the site of Spode Works.

In the meantime a series of projects to kickstart the regeneration process are underway. The £3 million local service centre and library (the ‘greenest’ building in the city) has recently been opened, the £18 million ‘West End Village’ housing project is starting to take shape on London Road thanks to a partnership with Staffordshire Housing Association and a series of smaller but no less important projects are underway, including the Summer Street Community Garden.

The next stage in the regeneration process is developing a 'masterplan' for Stoke Town.

This work is being done on the back of a detailed assessment of the town, and the opportunities and challenges it presents, undertaken in 2008.

Key themes and issues the masterplan will consider include:

• A flagship re-development of the Spode site, with an emphasis on mixed use
• Transport, traffic and pedestrian movement
• Linkages with Stoke Station, the University quarter, hospitals, the A500 and the city centre
• Gateways to Stoke Town
• Potential development of London Road as a ‘Green Boulevard’
• Development of the role of the town market
• Potential development of a district park
• A development brief for key sites in Stoke Town, including the Victoria Ground site and Spode
• A design approach for Stoke Town that ensures a consistently high quality of new development with an emphasis on sustainability

The potential to develop a tourism offer through heritage, Stoke Minster and an intelligent development of the history of the Spode site

It is envisaged that the Masterplan will be developed through 2009 with a preferred option in place by December 2009.

Funding for the masterplanning process is currently underwritten by the city council. The Regeneration Team is working together with the other town centre regeneration teams to develop a funding package from Advantage West Midlands (AWM) and European Funding to continue the masterplanning, and support the capacity and work of the regeneration teams.

Alongside the master-planning work a project is underway to develop a feasibility study for a district park within Stoke town which, allied to the new library and local service centre and a remodelled town centre with its high quality public realm, would make Stoke town a great place to live.

The masterplanning budget includes for extensive public consultation. The selection of the preferred option for Stoke Town and key development sites will very much be made together with the community and key partners; including Stoke Minster, traders, the Primary Care Trust, schools, police, Staffordshire Housing Association, developers and local councillors.

Once the preferred option for the masterplan has been agreed, funding packages will be assembled.

Meanwhile, work is underway to deliver some ‘early successes’. Examples include:

• “Welcome to Stoke Town” signage
• Artwork to brighten the windows of empty shops
• Bringing artists to work in vacant shop units to animate the street scene
• Developing and diversifying the market to offer specialist goods including local food and work by local designers
• Work with traders to develop a student discount card and/or other local workers' discount card – Civic Centre, hospital etc
• Support for traders through enhanced business support
• Low cost, high profile public realm works – e.g. refurbishing Kingsway seating
• Improvement works to bridge underpasses through to the University Quarter and Station on Leek Road and Stoke Road
• Working with Woolworths administrators to try and ensure a positive future for what is a key store in the town
• Marketing work to help promote Stoke town as positively as possible

Regeneration work is already underway in the town. As well as the flagship local service centre and library (already the busiest library in the city) a number of projects are underway:

• The creation of the London Road/Summer Street Community Garden - part of the process of developing London Road as a boulevard gateway to Stoke town
• 100 plus ‘Extra care’ dwellings about to start on site through Staffordshire Housing Association in a £18 million development at West End Village on the former Bilton Works site off London Road
• Improvements to Stoke Town Market including European-style market stalls to back up existing stalls