Council approves Hanley city centre masterplan

Council bosses have signed off on a "masterplan" for Hanley to make it the "city centre" of Stoke-on-Trent again.

The planning vision includes a programme of redevelopment on brownfield sites, aiming to provide enough housing for an additional 1,800 people to live in the city centre by 2030.

It would also involve setting up a regeneration body to oversee the project. Paul Williams, the director of Stoke-on-Trent's Business Improvement District, said this would be crucial to delivering the plans.

"There's clearly scepticism because of the masterplans before, which have promised so much and delivered so little in the past."

Williams explained the body, known as an urban development corporation, would have the "sole focus to bring forward what's set out in the masterplan in the years ahead".

The latest grand plan for Hanley follows previous regeneration efforts that have not always delivered.

Etruscan Square is a seven-acre brownfield site that has stood empty since it was cleared in 2013.

It was once the site of Hanley's old bus station, which was demolished to make way for a shopping hub known as "City Sentral".

It was then earmarked for an arena and hotel, but those plans were scrapped after Labour took control of the city council in 2023.

The site is now included in the masterplan, which would see it transformed into 110 homes.

Councillor Finlay Gordon-McCusker is the labour cabinet member for regeneration at Stoke-on-Trent City Council.

He argued that the latest scheme would deliver: "The key thing about Etruscan Square, and the whole of the regeneration in Hanley, is that people have been promised stuff in the past. People were promised an arena; people were promised a shopping centre.

"These things never had a penny behind them. This is all fully funded in terms of Etruscan Square Phase 1."

McCusker went on to say there would be visible changes on site within the next 12 months.

Reform councillor Daniel Jellyman, who was the previous cabinet member for regeneration at the city council, accused Labour of being "asleep at the wheel" over Etruscan Square's failure to be developed.

Jellyman argued that the administration had inherited £56m in government funding and planning permission but had chosen to do "nothing" with it.

Shoppers in Hanley shared their thoughts on the plans.

While several welcomed the prospect of empty buildings and brownfield sites being "sorted out" and redeveloped, they said they also wanted the "drug problem" in the centre to be addressed.

A retired councillor Elaine Blake said she believed Hanley was crying out for development, as it looked like it was "in retirement, without any funds, without a pension".

A man who lives in Hanley said he thought more housing in the city would help: "They might as well flatten it - job done."

The masterplan has been signed off by the city council's cabinet.

The next step is to secure backing from public and private investors to make it happen.

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