Stoke-on-Trent ““ Sorry Merv, I Agree With Mathew!

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The Managing Director of one of Stoke-on-Trent’s success stories and prized assets Emma Bridgewater, has likened the City to a wasteland and “disaster zone” comparable to London in the 1950s following World War II.

In an article in today’s Telegraph, Matthew Rice criticised Stoke-on-Trent City Council for knocking down historic buildings and former factories instead of using them as a part of the regeneration programme.

As a result of what he describes as the City Council’s feckless planning, the city has been left to resemble Helmund Province in Afghanistan.

“We have got to put building conservation at the head of regeneration and stop demolishing,”

“We have a city here know so well for its industrial past that is has a whole area, the Potteries, named after it.

“The buildings, the factories, the terraced houses; they are the building blocks of the city and represent the inheritance of the people who live and work there, their parents, their grandparents.

“These are the cultural anchors which we need to hang on to whilst regeneration takes place.

“Lose the factories, the civic buildings, the churches and the brick terraces that make up our built environment and we jeopardise the survival of the city itself.”

“If you go around Stoke these days there is lots of bare land where things have been demolished. I’ve no idea what it looks like in Helmand Province but I get a feeling it would look a little like here.

“There is always this idea that we have got to demolish everything to put things right. A blank canvas they call it. But I’d rather see people use the buildings in regeneration and development.”

Mr Rice’s comments seem to have put Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s nose slightly out of joint.

Mervin Smith, Stoke-on-Trent City Council spokesman for city development, responded by dismissing Matthew Rice’s comments.

“Serious regeneration of any city takes more than a couple of years. We have seen this with Birmingham and Manchester for example. Significant projects have already been delivered, such as the new state-of-the-art Sixth Form College and the City Waterside development, amongst others, with work due to start on the new bus station next year and the East West precinct in 2012.

“We are indeed proud of our ceramics heritage which is evidenced by the banners which decorate the Potteries Way, celebrating pride in our local companies, the restoration of surviving bottle ovens and most importantly the biennial celebrating Stoke-on-Trent as the world capital of excellence in ceramics.

“The city council has worked closely with local ceramics businesses, including Emma Bridgewater Ltd, and are disappointed at the attitude expressed by Matthew Rice. He is perfectly entitled to his opinion, which we respect but cannot agree with.”

I think that Mervin Smith has completely missed the point of Matthew Rice’s comments.

I don’t think for a minute that Mr Rice is questioning particular projects, I think he is merely pointing out that the strategy behind our regeneration project is completely flawed and I, for what it’s worth, am in complete agreement with him.

Over recent years we have seen the demolition of countless dwellings and historic factory building that have been replace by absolutely nothing.

The gateways to the various towns that make up our unique City have more holes in them then a 5000 piece jigsaw with half the pieces missing.

No one at our City Council should try and defend the balls up that have been described as regeneration in this city.
We have had to return money that has not been spent for goodness sake.

Don’t even get me started on the debacle of the business district that was fundamentally flawed and only pulled when our new Chief Executive had the wherewithal to admit that after our council had spent some £1.5million, it was never going to work.

The changes in the top layer of the Regeneration Directorate tell us the public that our new CEO was sufficiently concerned about the performance and results to take the bull by the horns and attempt to restructure what was becoming a joke to all who take interest in the socioeconomic development of our city.

Emma Bridgewater is a beacon of hope in a City that has all but lost our traditional and proud industrial heritage and I think the Cabinet Member with responsibility for regeneration would do best to listen and draw inspiration from one of the few examples of success and trend bucking.

The governments Comprehensive Spending Review [CSR] set out very clearly that money for regeneration is going to be very hard to come by indeed.

The formation of the Local Enterprise Partnership [LEP] will see us go toe to toe with Staffordshire County Council for any mere morsel of cash to regenerate over the next 4 years.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council need to form a partnership with people like Matthew Rice from industry and with politicians like Tristram Hunt to help develop and enhance the prospects for Stoke-on-Trent PLC.

Mervin Smith graciously conceded that Matthew Rice was entitled to his opinion, but he made it abundantly clear that his opinion would be dismissed.

What a shame, another opportunity to take an out of the box progressive look at the strategic way that we we deliver [or do not as the case may be in the next few years] the true regeneration of the City of Stoke-on-Trent lost because someone dares to voice an opinion that the City Council may be getting it slightly wrong.

I pity John van de Laarschot if his senior politicians do not have the insight to explore and change direction due to the failings of the past and the catastrophic impact that government cuts will have on the development and regeneration.

We really are doomed to failure if we dismiss the opinions and ignore the obvious skills of entrepreneurs like Matthew Rice and the sympathetic view on heritage and conservation of the Likes of Tristram Hunt MP.

Come on Mervin and the rest of Stoke-on-Trent City Council, get a grip for god’s sake.

Matthew Rice has written a book called The Lost City of Stoke, which was inspired by a visit to the Church of the Sacred Heart in Tunstall in 2008.

Follow the link below to find out more and to to purchase it.

I have a copy and in my humble opinion it will make a great Christmas present.

Have Your Say

  • web monkey

    Good write up here, hats off to Matt & Tony for their views.

    Recently Urban Vision put forward the exact same arguments saying that instead of bull dozing all that has gone on in the past, how about rejuvenating and reusing what we have.

    For example, take a look at some of the wonderful old buildings in Longport/Middleport by the canal side. Charm and character pours out of them. Some of the old factories have been turned into flats and are amazing to look at.

    Stoke on Trent CC really do need to look at the Barn conversion model before they bull doze the charm out of an area.

    On that note, I would also like to bring to your attention a fabulous old building, that not only provides a well used service, but is one of the only surviving Victorian baths in the country, and a fine old structure, that has many more years in it yet.

    But due to years of neglect, the upper floors have been left to rot, reducing the possible income the building could have provided thus dooming it to closure.

    Tunstall Pool

  • Andi

    Sorry Merv I too agree with Mathew

  • Anon Council Employee

    Well done Mr Wol. Back on form and true til the last.
    Of course you excellent article will go without a response from our ‘feckless’ cabinet member!
    Keep getting your opinions out there Tony, your articles have a huge amount of support within the civic.
    The Labour party could do with recruiting you and ridding themselves of some of the nodding donkeys who see it as their role to support officer decisions whether right or wrong.

  • doolallytapped

    Pretty much a no-brainer – just look around you…and clever marketing too on Matthew’s part to proclaim his views at the launching of his book and not before.

  • Alex Swann

    I agree completely with Matthew – most of it is bloody stupid.

    As for private sector people giving input – see NSRP…

  • Bill Cawley

    How do you regenerate a place like Stoke on Trent? Its the same question that could equally apply to other places in the country with whom Stoke is placed with such as Burnley and Hull. I tend to agree that in these straightened times we have to use what we have and our own inner resources

  • Adam Colclough

    He might have overcooked things a little with the reference to some parts of Stoke resembling Helmand Province, but Matthew Rice’s comments regarding the demolition of so much of our city still have about them the reassuring clunk of a nail being hit squarely on its head.

    The trouble with the regeneration of Stoke-on-Trent is that it never seems to actually get started. We’re great at bulldozing buildings, but we never seem to think about what will go in their place.

    Why could this be? Maybe it has something to do with the ease with which developers tend to hoodwink the council with grand plans that turn out to be unaffordable, unworkable; or both.

    Perhaps the answer to the problem is to give local people a real say in the regeneration plans, particularly where they relate to the built environment. Unsurprisingly most people, like Matthew Rice, would want to see buildings they have known all their lives re imagined and reused rather than torn down.

    Admitting this might require a little humble pie to be eaten down at the Civic from time to time, but it would cut down on the number of costly mistakes made.

  • terry turbo

    Its taken Mathew Rice stating the bleeding obvious to a bunch of incompetant morons.
    This council for years has operated a deliberate cut, close and demolish policy in Stoke-on-Trent which as left the city like a slag heap.
    Any one with half a brain cell could forsee the devastation that this lunacy would leave the city looking like.

  • webby

    The problem with giving the local people the choices is that it would be met by a swell of apathy.

    How do we get ordinary people to actually step forward and vote on such decisions.

  • Bill Cawley

    The Policy Exchange suggested this

    “Stoke might want to build on its reputation
    for tree care to make itself literally the
    greenest city in the region. City parks
    could be well funded, and imaginatively
    landscaped, city streets could be festooned
    with hanging baskets. We are not saying
    that Stoke ““ or any other city ““ should do
    this. But we are saying that they should be
    allowed to do this”.

  • Andi

    And still not one response from our glorious leaders at the civic, telling us all we are wrong !!!!!

  • mikefire

    We have our representative from the southern part of the city, (although he is a strug) springing to the defense of the city, our city, not his,saying that negative comments do not help. It seems in an MP’s mind, and didn’t we all know it anyway, that lying is the way forward. Tell everyone that everything is “hunky dory’ and they will be flooding here to set up businesses, and employ the well educated, out of work, ex potters and miners, who have re-invented themselves, and acquired new skills.Not to mention the ones who have never had a job, and no doubt been bettering themselves in the interim learning how to read and write. These are the “clean slates” not moulded, ready to be moulded to these new industries that will come flooding in if we follow Flellos advice, and lie through our teeth.
    Time someone considered opening up the mines again, while we still have some expertise. Time we built some town gas works before we held to ransom, by the Russians and any continental en-route to here who can throw the switch or close the tap, and leave us high and dry( or wet and cold and very low).Don’t ask where the money is to come from, we pay more to the common market than almost anyone else ( we do get a small, getting smaller refund) We give aid to third world countries who are better off than we are,were it not for corrupt governments syphoning off our aid to their own bank accounts. They could give us much needed aid. They never will.We must be the softest touch in the world. Before the bleeding hearts spring to the defense of our policy with regards to aid, Remember it is NOT, as in many things, OUR policy, its the policy of which ever government happens to be in at the time. The majority of the people would stop it i’m sure, had they had a say.

  • Potteye

    I want to know how somebody found Mervin Smith for a quote??!!!!

    Joking apart, I think I actually agree with both Mathew and Mervin in parts.

    Firslty, and sadly, Mervin says Mathew is entitled to his opinion. Well he needs to convey that to his Cabinet colleagues, two of whom, to anybody who would listen, were saying

    “How dare Mathew Rice attack our City. After all that we have given and done for them and their business.”

    Oops.

    I have some sympathy with Mervin’s comments – it has taken years to bring Stoke to where it is. Much of what would have benefited Stoke in terms of building heritage was knocked down a long, long time ago.

    Even then I would imagine they didn’t do it out of malice but a misguided belief that it was taking us forward. I also think it is, and was, as much the private sectors fault as the City Council’s.

    I know its a matter of taste – but, in my opinion, so much modern architecture is souless, sterile, short term and disposable. It almost seems as if its built to be knocked down. Tossed aside when its served its purpose.

    Mervin cites Manchester and Birmingham as example of regeneration over many years – much of the charm and character of these two great cities are its imposing, sympathetically restored historical buildings.

    Key to their success, seems to me, to be not just grasping the value of keeping and restoring these buildings, but restoring them in a sustainable way by finding valuable current uses, and a real place for them in a modern setting.

    Keeping buildings, protecting them and restoring them is only half the trick – because without imagination and forthought they can quickly become a burden or a drain on resources.

    Restoration should go alongside function, and be vibrant and active.

    Lets be fair. There are actually some examples where this has been achieved as well as failed.

    The Hothouse in Longton (Longton Library and surrounding buildings) is a marvelous example of successful, sustainable historical preservation, that is thriving in its new purpose, and continues to expand.

  • Pat Smith

    It is well known that the Community Schools Action Group have long opposed the destruction of the Mitchell building and preferred the refurbishment by local contractors instead of the proposed Discovery Academy building that will not beenfit local contractors.There is a rumour that the traffic congestion that will ensue from the relocation will be eased by a new road. As they cannot use BSF money for this, where will the money come from unless from repair of existing potholed roads?Is this regeneration?
    Mervyn Smith knows that the current Mitchell building is sound. There was a time when he supported its refurbishment. Will he support a new use for the building and not leave it empty for the vandals or demolished to wait how long for reuse?

  • Allan Skerratt

    I agree with much of what has been said about the destruction of buildings without what seems to be a coherent development plan. Some of the areas of Stoke may look like Helmond Province but a friend of mine likened then to Dreseden at the end of WW2. As for Mervyn Smith you can tell when he is lying it is when he opens his mouth.

  • Ian Reilly

    Mike Barnes:
    For your information, if you would like a quote from Mervin Smith on any subject regarding Stoke-on-Trent, please telephone my office and I will issue you one on his behalf.
    Ps. And that goes for any other Labour Councillor up in that sh**hole.

  • Nicky Davis

    It’s no surprise that Mervin Smith, cabinet portfolio holder for degeneration, takes the same Mark Meredith approach; bulldoze everything in sight. But it doesn’t really take a Matthew Rice to point out what ought to be done, reclaim beautiful old buildings and renovate and modernise the insides, most of us ordinary people know that.

    Adam says “Perhaps the answer to the problem is to give local people a real say in the regeneration plans” – quite right but a labour council is never going to do that. Webby says “The problem with giving the local people the choices is that it would be met by a swell of apathy.” – That’s right too, because local people know the likes of Mervin Smith don’t care one iota what they think. What beats me is how comes he gets votes off these people – no actually I do know how – making false promises on his election literature.

    Mike Barnes says “so much modern architecture is soulless, sterile, short term and disposable. It almost seems as if its built to be knocked down.” Well yes, obviously, that gives extra chances for all those consultants and architects and designers who spend many months flooding us with ridiculous pictures of new bus stations and the like instead of just getting on and laying the bricks to make a packet out of the poor old public.

    Pat Smith say “Mervyn Smith knows that the current Mitchell building is sound. There was a time when he supported its refurbishment.” … er … that was BEFORE the election…

    Allan Skerratt says “As for Mervyn Smith you can tell when he is lying it is when he opens his mouth.” – like that one!

    But the best summing up of this whole degeneration fiasco is given by Terry turbo, it’s so good it can be repeated:
    “It’s taken Mathew Rice stating the bleeding obvious to a bunch of incompetent morons.
    This council for years has operated a deliberate cut, close and demolish policy in Stoke-on-Trent which as left the city like a slag heap.
    Any one with half a brain cell could foresee the devastation that this lunacy would leave the city looking like.”