“Yet another pie in the sky idea by local so called planners, Give the council money and promise of more jobs and plans get accepted, but they forgot about the what jobs are lost once the new plans get started.
Regeneration should start with what needs regenerating for example the Town Center, its dying and more empty shop units appear weekly. The ones that are left are struggling to pay rates & rent. Sort the actually town out first before it follows in the footsteps of the rest of the Potteries trades have gone. (Out of the area and the Far East).
I have only lived here for 5 years but have seen the same happening here that happened in my home town once Sainsbury's closed their Town store and moved out of town. My home town is now full of Banks, estates agents and charity shops - the heart has gone.

The ideas above about a Tram excellent, but as norm all excellent ideas get ignored. Yippee the new idea has free carparking - can people still afford to run a car by the time its built. I thought we are suppose to be encouraged to use public transport ?.”

“i like most people dont shop in Hanley. partly because of the parking and the awkwardness in getting there. someone suggested a tram system in an earlier letter which would be an excellent idea. but the worst problem in stoke is that the city has lost its identity. stoke needs something for people to remember the city by. its ok knocking down old buildings but you tend to rip the heart out of its history. you wouldn't believe stoke was the centre of the pottery industry by visiting it. also, the "place" was famous many years ago for rock bands stopping off in stoke on their way down south. give the city something to be remembered by, or the people will think the council are just a load of bores with not a good idea amungst them.”

“The general public have very little opportunity to influence the decision makers. Consultations are limited; it's really not our job to plan developments. Officials are paid to make decisions in the best interests of the area. I quite agree that individuals need to be pro-active in order to find better jobs, but equally the Council needs to ensure that they are providing the very best opportunities to do so.”

“New jobs from shops are better than no new jobs at all. If people want better jobs they should ask industry what sort of skills they want, and then go and get them, then the better jobs might come here. Most urban regeneration has come through private, not public money. If the city is crying out for new ideas then let the people come up with them instead of expecting others to do it for them.”

“Yet again it seems Hanley wants to the cetre of the universe in Stoke-on-Trent, as other contributors have said, it's time to develop the rest of the Potteries and let them grow into modern towns. How many times are we going to "regenerate" Hanley, Some time ago visiting Hanley workmen were ripping up newly laid paving stones to put down even newer ones for the regeneration of the "cultural quarter" and what a waste of money that turned out with the sleaze involved there. It's time to break out of this "Hanley first" mentality and start to re-develop the rest of the potteries to something fit for the 21st century. My visiting American friends were appauled as we came through Burslem and Cobridge at how run-down they looked, so forget the Hanley centre for once and use some imagination into putting some prideback into the Potteries, we have a Premier league football team now, so let's do the same for Stoke-on-Trent.”