Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire

[DBadger]

Stafford's new Morrisons that was cancelled after building is to be a Just for Pets and a B&M.

http://www.expressandstar.com/news/l...ingsmead-site/

[DBadger]

That reminds me, I've heard Riverside Stafford is absolutely bombing... Nobody wants to walk from the town to it, it's just a little far - like West Brom high street from New Square but the opposite problem.

[DBadger]

Heres an example of silly boundaries. The Rugely Power Station site is half in Cannock Chase and half in Lichfield. As such the Lichfield side is likely to become housing, with the Rugeley half likely to be industrial or leisure - rather than the two being created together as a coherently planned mixed use thing.

800-1,600 homes.

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/...-station-site/

[ellbrown]

Originally Posted by DBadger

Heres an example of silly boundaries. The Rugeley Power Station site is half in Cannock Chase and half in Lichfield. As such the Lichfield side is likely to become housing, with the Rugeley half likely to be industrial or leisure - rather than the two being created together as a coherently planned mixed use thing.

800-1,600 homes.

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/...-station-site/

I went to Rugeley on Sunday and saw the Rugeley Power Stations (or what's left of them)



Church spire and the power station



River Trent view from the train on the Chase Line



Houses and the power station (also from the train)

[djay]

Originally Posted by DBadger

Heres an example of silly boundaries. The Rugely Power Station site is half in Cannock Chase and half in Lichfield. As such the Lichfield side is likely to become housing, with the Rugeley half likely to be industrial or leisure - rather than the two being created together as a coherently planned mixed use thing.

800-1,600 homes.

https://www.expressandstar.com/news/...-station-site/

That is what is happening. I assume what ultimately gets delivered will be down to who owns the site. The housing is likely to fall within Lichfield because the houses are worth more on that side of the line i'm guessing. But i don't know why you think this won't be a coherent mix of the two uses.

[DBadger]

Does anyone remember there being plans for a Marks and Spencer in Cannock (as an extension of Cannock Shopping Centre)? I know the plans were scrapped a while ago, but I can't seem to find any information about them.

It was going to be built on the bus station, at this exit to the shopping centre:


Webb Aviation

We're talking a few years back now though, probably when I first joined SSC.

[DBadger]

Drove through Brewood today (a village near Coven, North of Wolverhampton). Surprised to see a new housing estate of about 20 homes that are all three storey and look like they've always been there. They actually look great, and they're all individual. Offers in the region of £440k!



Rightmove

[DBadger]

Also went to Cannock for the first time last Saturday. Nice place, some great buildings, but absolutely dead even at lunch time on a Saturday. The shopping centre isn't as big as it looks in photos. It's OK, but it looks a bit dated now and is lacking in any shops I'd want to shop in. Love the brick work however.

There are four shopping centres.

Cannock Shopping Centre is redbrick over two levels.


Yellow.place

The Forum is more modern but is very small and Wilkinson have closed down so there's not much there. What you see here is basically the extent of the centre, the photographer must be stood in the entrance.


Acuitus.co.uk

High Green Court is a pleasant, but quiet little walk. This kind of cast iron is all over Cannock.


Kingston CPC

Cannock Newhall is alright for what it is, bit too plasticky and modern inside I guess. Only has a few units and they're the kind of thing you'd go there for, rather than being somewhere to look around - hairdressers, etc.


Express and Star

Finally much of the pedestrian precinct is covered in this beautiful cast iron.


Staffordshire Daily Photo


IMO there is nothing there that would be challenged by the opening of Mill Green Outlet Village nearby. The main features of the town seem to be its two branches of Poundland.

[stokey33]

What's being built across the road?

[Rijowhite]

New Gin Bar For Tamworth.

http://m.tamworthherald.co.uk/hogart...ail/story.html

Hope they sort the Toilets out in this building as they smelt sooooo bad.

[Telfordboy]

Originally Posted by DBadger

Have just been to Lichfield for the first time. An absolute gem, beautiful place. But it strikes me how our precincts are made and shaped by the shops in them rather than their architecture. Three Spires feels like it could be in any neighboring town - Rugeley, Cannock, Stafford - but because it's in Lichfield it has decent shops in it and decent upkeep and maintenance. So it looks and feels nice. I think it goes to show the difference that tourism and prestige make - Lichfield has a massive retail footprint for its size and the whole city is very finely detailed and finished, very clean, and very well kept building-wise.

Also had a proper nosey around Rugeley which I've driven through literally hundreds of times but never actually been to. It's a fairly pleasant place. Dead, and not many shops, but a larger retail core than I expected to be honest. It has some quaint miniature versions of big shops such as a New Look that's the size of a corner shop. Morrisons being on the High Street is very useful too. The market is so grotty though.

I always leave these places with an idea in my head for how to improve them, but I think both of these places are fine as it is. The only thing I'd change in Rugeley is the market and bus station. I would move the market to Brewery Street Shopping Centre which appears to have closed (think it was an In-Shops type thing). I'd then relocate Rugeley Town station to be on the viaduct over Horse Fair, and build a new bus station somewhere nearby, probably St Paul's Road. While keeping a couple of stands where the current bus station is, I'd turn the rest and the old market into a small park.

As it is the station is miles from the town, and the bus station miles from the railway station.

Lichfield has a very attractive centre. You can tell there is quite a lot of money in the area. Your points about its retail footprint being bigger than it would normally be for the size of the city is a good one. I imagine it serves a wide hinterland for the affluent further afield.

Rugeley I have never been to other than to a meeting at the power station. It will be interesting to see what the impacts of the redevelopment of the power station might have. Part of it is quite close to the town centre I believe.

[DBadger]

next to the power station and probably half the size of the massive site is a golf course, which the Trent runs alongside, which is closing soon. They (I forget who "they" is) want to turn it into a huge park. Those two developments together will completely transform the town.

[Telfordboy]

Not many places have the opportunity to transform themselves in such a massive way.

[Rijowhite]

I hate to say it (with local rivalries and all that) but Lichfield just feels more complete than it's neighbour Tamworth. It's a pretty place while 'The Ancient Capital Of Mercia' suffers from too many 'modern' buildings such as the Snowdome, Ventura Park and the Cinema spoiling the original Town. These buildings are simply too big for the landscape they are built within.

[DBadger]

Tamworth is one of increasingly few places I haven't been. I've been trying to chip away at all the nearby towns. Still need to see Nuneaton, Redditch and Bromsgrove too.

[DBadger]

Something a bit different now, delving into the heart of Staffordshire.

Uttoxeter Town Centre

Uttoxeter is booming at the moment. With a population of around 10,000 people yet having both Fox's biscuits and the JCB world headquarters, it has a near 100% employment rate. So what we get is a pleasant, and fully occupied town centre.

The town has been bookended now by two new supermarkets, one with more shops around it.

Waitrose occupies the site of a former JCB factory and is fully on stilts.



ASDA is the other end of town, accessed via this arcade:



There are a few new shops here such as Costa and Home Bargains.



And the new ASDA:



And then here's just a few shots of the town.

[Telfordboy]

It looks very pleasant. I haven't been myself I have to admit.

[ReissOmari]

Primark in Tamworth would be a great start. And rather than being on Ventura Park, in the town centre would pull more people in. The closest is The Fort atm.

[Butterfield]

I don't think I know anybody who has ever been to Uttoxeter. I've been past a few times on the way to Alton Towers or wherever, which I think might have been the bypass/ring road, but I've never set foot in the town or seen the town centre.

[ROYAL BLUE]

Originally Posted by Rijowhite

Check out my proposal for Tamworth on my blog page - 'Tamworth, What Do You Want?'


* see my signature as I cannot get a link working this morning...

I own a business in Tamworth Town Centre, I'm not sure how much I can post but there is a lot of work underway behind the scenes to improve the Town Centre amongst the Business community. Including Stores at Ventura who are genuinely trying to help the Town Centre.

We have a ballot this October, which I am able to take part in, for the implementation of a B.I.D.

Needless to say it has my backing.

https://bidtamworth.wordpress.com/

Here's the prospectus:
https://bidtamworth.files.wordpress....inal-web-3.pdf