Relocation of council HQ to Hanley is 'sheer madness', say Save our Stoke campaigners

“Pressed the u instead of the i in idea I put udea”

“I have wrote to Mr Pervez email about this stupid udea of his moving to Hanley, but he just ignored it.
He said they will sell the civic centre and the kings hall to developers that means that the the great building of the kings hall will be knocked down.
He is an utter waste of space as is his follwers.”

“When are we going to get off our backsides and do something about these clowns. If we don't try to do something about this madness. we will be to blame as much as these load of incompetent cretins”

“Dear Mr Pervez,

hardly surprising that I didn't get a reply to my last e-mail. You can't defend the indefensible.

And now you're planning on wasting another £40 million on new council buidlings? That look like a kid's toybox?
Quite fitting, some might say.

After people have lost their jobs and suffered pay cuts in these hard economic times?

And what will happen when the "pie in the sky" economic miracle you are promising doesn't happen? Will you resign?
Anyone who voted for this white elephant should hang their heads in shame - I hope they are all clearly named come the day of reckoning.

You all have champagne mouths, but lemonade pockets. This is OUR money not your plaything. I also note the rather dire financial situation of Genr8. Looks like another "Iceland" balls-up is heading our way.

First the Unity House debacle, then the Civic Centre, and now this - if this wasn't so wasteful and hypocritical, you would be the laughing stock of the country.

Put it to the vote - let us have an e-petition - and then we'll see how democracy doesn't work in this city.

Stoke is a city of 6 towns - Hanley is already short of parking space.
Are you going to provide free parking for your employees who move there? Or just the chosen ones??

Or is that the plan - pump your already hard-trodden employees for parking money?”

“Nobodylistens Realis have now revealed the names of the 11 retailers to have signed up for CitySentral Superdry, H&M, Topshop, bank, JD sports, Next, M&S, TK Maxx, Frankie & Bennys, Chiquito, and nandos

A few more relocations but lookin good, just hope construction can now start when bus station opens”

“Absolute madness!!!! Mr Pervez has some deluded idea that moving the council to Hanley will benefit the Council Tax payers of Stoke-on-Trent. At a cost of £40 million pounds this equates to over £30,000 for every Stoke-based council employee. I am willing to bet that we will not get £30,000 value for money from each employee!
Pervez has a very worrying trait which was prevalent in Germany during the 20's and 30's and he is very quick to ostracise anyone who does not agree with him.
His reasoning behind the move is both facile and pointless, since the operation of the council will not change. His argument is that the Kounsil move to Sitee Sentral will attract other large organisations into the new commercial/retail venture. Does he not have confidence that Sitee Sentral can sell itself? There again who would want to move their organisation into a gigantic spelling mistake (another costly expenditure by our prudent council).
I can think of lots more deserving organisations and council-run establishments previously closed that could benefit from an injection of cash from the £40 million earmarked for this travesty, but of course the people who pay the wages of these politicians don't have a say in how their money is spent.”

“L_Norris

Yes, you are undoubtedly correct in why the council feel the need to move. Obviously Genr8 fell short on commitments and to keep the CBD alive they need to make the move. Recession etc has inevitably played a hand in this.

But we still need a city centre which works. Ideally this would have been kickstarted by the developments themselves, but as it happens, to make it happen there needs to be an injection of inner city workers spending leisure time and money in the city centre. Our social assets need to be pooled together to make a strong successful nucleus which can grow.

It's not easy to swallow. The easy reaction is to bash the council. What the heck, they have deserved a bashing on many occasions. But they aren't doing this just to have a nice new office.

Personally I think it's a mistake to make a new building for them even though I agree they need to move workers to Hanley. I would advise the purchase of unused building assets to be renovated as council offices so we give a new use to the high streets which increasingly find it difficult to find tenants. £40m would make our existing city centre look amazing and those units could be sold off easily as the centre becomes successful. Instead they are banking on building a new part to the city in the hope the connecting parts of the town become more inviting to business. But that won't happen. You'd probably need to go to Berlin for something as sensible as that.”

“Fredbear. "these are the true reasons as to why the council are moving."

Err no had this been the case it would been discussed from outset back in 2009 when Genr8 where choosen. The real reason is that genr8 have failed to get any tenants so the council are jumping in feet first to try and keep idea of CBD alive.

If CBD is success and all units built it will still create the same footfsll into retail Hanley wether the Council offices are there or not.”

“He said the people need to wake up to the reality of the amount of work that is going into the city centre and our city.
Perhaps he should wake up to the fact that if you keep people in the dark about your schemes
and plot behind their backs until everything is signed and sealed, you will get a backlash
How high handed and politically naive can you get.
Big brother knows best, oh really!!!
Stoke will always be the centre of our City by the traditions of our past not just in name alone.
Hanley is the commercial and cultural centre, but Stoke should stay our Civic Centre.
They should be encouraged to come together by expansion, not shrink apart by small mindedness.”

“Moving staff to Hanley
9hours parking at £1.50/hr = £13.50/day = £67.50/week = £3037.50/year (based on 45 wk year taking into account bank holidays & holidays)

£3037.50 x 1300 employees = £3,948,750 either parking revenue collected in hanley is going to hit an all time high or thats nearly another £4million a year it's going to cost to be in hanley if staff parking is free.”