Housing estate could be built as part of Wedgwood's redevelopment plans
UP to 270 new homes could be built as part of pottery giant Wedgwood's £25 million redevelopment plans.
Parent company WWRD revealed more details of the scheme at a consultation event at the Wedgwood Museum, in Barlaston, yesterday.
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HOMES PLAN: WWRD chief financial officer Anthony Jones. Picture: Malcolm Hart
The housing development would help fund the overall scheme, which includes new factory facilities to more than double the site's current manufacturing capacity.
The Sentinel revealed in June that WWRD was planning a major overhaul of the 281-acre Wedgwood Estate, including new manufacturing facilities, new offices and an expanded and upgraded Wedgwood 'visitor experience' to safeguard 500 existing jobs and create more than 100 new ones.
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And on Thursday the Government revealed the scheme had been awarded £5.1 million from its Regional Growth Fund.
WWRD has identified three potential sites for housing behind and to the side of the current factory.
The sites are divided into:
Site A which would feature 25 to 30 five-plus bedroom detached homes, worth £500,000 to £800,000;
Site B which would feature 70 to 90 detached and semi-detached four to five-bedroom homes, worth £350,000 to £500,000;
Site C which would be home to 110 to 150 mews, semi-detached and detached houses, with two to four bedrooms, worth £160,000 to £300,000.
WWRD chief financial officer Anthony Jones said: "We know from the first consultation that people think there is a need for high-quality housing not only because it befits the estate but because the region needs it."
The factory currently makes 1.2 million top-end pieces a year but the new facilities will enable it to make up to three million pieces of fine bone china tableware and prestige Jasperware. Mr Jones added: "Once the development is complete we would increase production immediately to 1.5 million because the demand is there, which will help create 35 to 40 new manufacturing jobs. But this is something that is going to last us for many years to come and we have very ambitious growth plans for the Wedgwood brand, so I hope we will be able to move up to that three million mark."
Residents were invited to view WWRD's latest plans yesterday.
Keith Gracie, aged 74, of Trentham, said: "I think housing does need to be part of the overall plan, I'm just concerned about the effect on the surrounding nature."
Linda Horton, of Barlaston, said: "I've lived here 42 years and I worked for Wedgwood many years ago, so I applaud their efforts to keep it here. "My concerns are probably the same as everyone else's – the traffic, the housing situation and the trees."
Comments
by gengar1
Sunday, October 21 2012, 9:23PM
“Exstokie...gooling? Not sure what you mean old chap...and ginger1?...oh wait, i see what you did there hahahaha, oh i havent had a laugh like that in ages, you sir, are a comic genius and should definitely take to the stage...ginger 1 hahahaha oh how i laughed.....”
by NOONESHOME
Sunday, October 21 2012, 5:18PM
“Senseisteve.
I suppose when you say "i work with the home office", you mean you are a landlord, Housing, and making a fortune from our super immigrants.I don't suppose you have any property in Stoke itself,do you?ask the people in stoke what they think of our immigrant population,Them along with the scroats from the sally army,lovely place to live and work.Perhaps they could build the houses at wedgewood and rent them to the undesirables of Stoke, and give us some peace and quiet.”
by exstokieinoz
Sunday, October 21 2012, 3:45PM
“So glad you spent the time gooling that ginger1 ! very smart”
by exstokieinoz
Sunday, October 21 2012, 3:42PM
“Oh of course Steve these houses will be snapped up at these prices, I am sure that there will be many people waiting to buy these houses at those prices. I dont suppose you work for the council ?”
by senseisteve
Saturday, October 20 2012, 9:10PM
“gengar1 .... if only eh! .... if only the exstokieinoz's of this world could back-up their comments - where are these people ? .. how many ? .. where ? ...
we have asylum seekers - only a few hundred in Stoke (i know - i work with the Home Office)
we have an unknown number of illegal immigrants - but our streets are hardly overrun are they!
we have less than 10-12,000 migrants from Europe - Poland, Slovenia, Romania etc - less than 5% of the resident population.
That's before we get to the 5,00 empty houses in Stoke - the cheapest average house price in the region - and a deluge of fast-food outlets only because people eat their rubbish.
... We need these houses .. and fast .... to attract high earners to live here, spend their cash, and give our population something to aspire to - rather than more of the same cheap and nasty houses we've had over the last 10-15 years.”
by gengar1
Saturday, October 20 2012, 3:02PM
“ah right, cos i thought you could be an asylum seeker, or an illegal immigrant, didnt know you could combine the two....what an education this site is.”
by exstokieinoz
Saturday, October 20 2012, 2:54PM
“Yes ginger1 : )”
by gengar1
Saturday, October 20 2012, 2:20PM
“is there any such thing as an illegal asylum seeker? doh”
by exstokieinoz
Saturday, October 20 2012, 12:18PM
“Worth or costing they are two very different things, I am sure there are plenty of local jobs paying wages high enough to afford these joke houses. "We know from the first consultation that people think there is a need for high-quality housing not only because it befits the estate but because the region needs it" what a joke ! what the region needs is affordable housing, jobs that are nor minimum wage, less high class kebab houses and less illegal asylum seekers.”
by hardnose
Saturday, October 20 2012, 11:25AM
“Hope they can get the mortgage's,I live quite near Wedgwoods,and nothing is selling at the moment.”