Vis Unita Fortior (Part 2)

“United Strength Is Stronger”, the regeneration of Stoke On Trent & Staffordshire

“Comedy is acting out of optimism” — Robin Williams

The idea of failed projects is nothing new to the people of Stoke On Trent. In fact I dare say its practically become a way of life. These failed projects have bred cynicism, a deep cynicism, that spreads across generations. We have all seen the successful regeneration projects in East London, Liverpool Docklands and Manchester Northern Quarter. More locally Stafford Town centre is adding a new shopping quarter and a cinema and Newcastle Under Lyme is building a new council headquarters and again creating a new shopping quarter.

Projects locally however have had nothing like the same success. There has been a shameful amount of ‘glossy artists impressions’ plastered on the front of the local rag (The Sentinel), promising some hope to the city's occupants, only to be dashed away as they never come to fruition. Even worse however, there is little the local press do to hold the individuals for these failed schemes to account.

There is little point going over old ground, especially as some of these projects have morphed into either different or far smaller projects. Some though either never happened or were a complete failure. But see how many you remember:

Stoke Links Project, Ring Road Completion, City Sentral, Renew North Staffordshire House Building Program, Pathfinder House Building Program, City Waterside, Central Business District, Parliament Row Development, Smithfield Development, Spode Redevelopment, Victoria Ground House Building, ‘Glass Kilns’ public realm, The Casino/Sheds for ring road completion, UniQ — University Boulevard/Media Building, City Waterside, ‘City Slipway’ — Homes Of The Future, Marsh Street Development, The Culture Quarter. This list comes entirely from memory, the real one was is considerably longer.

Given the mixed success of these schemes, the failure to recognise and resolve the issues discussed in Part 1 of this series. Is there any surprise the people of the city are cynical? Combine this with the sheer disdain with which the people of the city are treated by national politics and it creates a breeding ground for disengagement with both politics as a whole. Not only that, it has made people feel helpless. Recently the area was shunned when it as asked for a HS2 station, even though by the majority independent it would deliver far more positioned in North Staffordshire. Who remembers David Cameron's most recent visit to the area where he seemed to all but guarantee a ‘City Deal’ for the area, but then reneged on that promise, twice no less?

One thing I should mention that I haven't so far, is the banking crisis. Striking just after the large plans were announced. Just as the city was thinking about its future to escape the problems of its past, it was knocked back. Again. As we all know, the resulting recession meant massive cuts to the public sector (the biggest employer in the city), retail was hit hard, house building ground to a halt (especially homes with smaller profit margins) and the vast majority of people had far less money in their pockets to put back into the economy. Businesses struggled to survive, many didn't. Those who did all had to tighten their belts.

On top of this, quangos were the first to be cut, this meant the previous masters of the masterplan, Renew North Staffordshire were scrapped. Housebuilding projects for the city centre were stopped half way through. The city struggled to keep vital services open, let alone spend the money required to rebuild a city, re-train its population, re-tool its economy and re-examine its infrastructure. This task was difficult enough during the good times, now the city was fighting on two or possibly three fronts when you consider how society had been in flux since the dawn of the Internet.

I’ll be honest, during this period, hope was sparse.

However, despite all this, things were still about to change.