Stoke shopping street to get six figure revamp
A TOWN centre is to receive a £280,000 makeover designed to boost trade by making it more appealing to shoppers.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council has confirmed it will spend the cash on sprucing up Campbell Place in Stoke with new pavements and street decor.
But traders and residents said the investment was overshadowed by the authority's planned relocation to a new £40 million headquarters in Hanley in 2015.
They fear an exodus of 1,300 council staff will put them out of business, while the authority insists it can sell the Civic Centre, King's Hall and Spode as a joint package to a major developer to fill the void.
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The improvements in Campbell Place will be funded using Section 106 funds paid by developers in exchange for planning permission and are set to begin next spring.
John Cooper, owner of Centre News, on the corner of Campbell Place and Church Street, said: "It feels like they are just trying to appease us.
"Obviously this kind of work will brighten the place up a bit, which does need doing, but it's not really going to help the traders.
"Our main concern is that, just as all of the shops on Campbell Place have filled up, the council is going to take all of the footfall away again. It is going to hit me very hard and a lot of us are very worried."
Shopper Irene Hill, aged 78, of Oakhill, said: "It isn't going to do a lot of good putting in new pavements if all of the shops are closed.
"Everything has gone to Hanley and Festival Park and when the council offices go there won't be anything left. They're leaving us to rot."
Harold Evans, aged 71, a retired pottery worker from Stoke, said: "It is far too little, too late for the council to try and sweeten the blow of moving the civic centre by giving us a tiny bit of cash. The money makes no difference."
Janet Dale, aged 52, a shop assistant from Longton, said: "I don't think the council should be moving out of Stoke so the money is beside the point."
Councillor Ruth Rosenau, city council cabinet member for regeneration, planning and transportation, said public consultation on the work would start in the new year.
"The area was identified for improvements in the Stoke town masterplan and works are now proposed to take place in spring 2013," she said.
"The work could include new pavement surfaces, wider pavement areas, better control of traffic flow in and out of Church Street and improved definition of the pedestrianised areas."
Comments
by warren-lloyd
Monday, December 03 2012, 3:57PM
“No Nicky, to work we with the council for the good of the area I live in. I'm not afraid to speak what I feel is the truth and a few don't like that. It don't bother me any, do you think mist people in Stoke read this rubbish.”
by Nicky_Davis_
Sunday, November 25 2012, 1:48AM
“They took a long time to come up with just that didn't they? It's almost as if they didn't really have any plans for Stoke but had to spin something.#
mole10 - reason to shop in Stoke - convenient whilst visiting the civic centre... oh wait...
gerbstoke - the reason he has to go to the civic centre could be (I am speculating here) to work towards standing for election as Labour councillor in 2015. Given the number of red arrows he's well on his way.”
by stevenweiss
Wednesday, November 21 2012, 12:13AM
“Campbell Place is really just where you queue in your car when going somewhere better. Get rid of all the traffic lights. It's like negotiating some sort of bizarre obstacle course.”
by Jobeeone
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 5:39PM
“What the!!!
Stoke has a railway station and no bus station. A taxi rank and no phone. It has a university and now a sixth form college and a subway sandwhich shop. I hate driving through Stoke and can't wait until I am out of the bloody place. The town hall is an adequate peice of history(church across the road is better) and the civic centre has always been a wart on the face of what is good and Holy. Stoke has a few places to shop which I could find on any main road in any area. Its a foul name for some really fabulous people. A Stokie! Ay up Stokie! Just because we move on doesn't mean that we leave those who made us behind. We owe it to them to move on.What about the 6 towns as just that. We have so much to give but are all over the place, literally.
Anyway, a dump is where third world kids live and die. I am so fed up with reading the same old .”
by Adampenkhull1
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 3:45PM
“A programme to spend £280,000 improving the pavements and street furniture in Stoke seems like a cruel joke when the town is about to be eviscerated economically.
In cash terms the money on offer is pretty paltry and the improvements it produces will be cosmetic at best.
What Stoke needs is more people living and working in the town, more small businesses bringing in jobs and more shops on its high street.
This will not be produced by a dribble of Section 106 cash or the semi-mythical 'master-plan' for the town the council invokes whenever asked an awkward question. It will only come about through a genuine, open partnership between local residents, the council and the business community.”
by FredBear
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 3:09PM
“Bit pointless really,
If they do have a strategy of concentrating development and business in Hanley and letting the other 5 towns naturally degrade till they find alternative uses then they shouldn't jump in immediately with changes.
Save the money until a use starts to develop on the horizon, then spend the money on moving towards that.”
by rubythursday
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 1:44PM
“it doesn't seem that long since the paving and street furniture in campbell place was updated. I can't be certain but it must have been done within the last 10 years.”
by Juzzah
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 1:42PM
“Sign this http://tinyurl.com/d9u4nyt”
by bemused_stare
Tuesday, November 20 2012, 6:24AM
“I'm always impressed by the current "street decor" and pavements at Campbell Place. It's a shame this money can't be used to offer low rates / rents as incentives to businesses. £280,000 - £30k more than the cost of the car park attached to the soon to be abandoned Swann House. This car park was built after the decision to move to Hanley.”
by Anon_mow_cop
Monday, November 19 2012, 9:36PM
“As said before this is to just satisfy the gulity concience of the city council. This idea like the other stupid ones the council comes up with, has come from the Ruth Rosenau office of the terminally bonkers.”