Brownfield site reinvigorated

When NHS Stoke on Trent identified Shelton as the location for a new integrated primary care centre to be commissioned under the LIFT programme, this presented a valuable opportunity not only to tackle the community’s major health inequalities by providing better access to more services, but also to revitalise the neighbourhood and give it new hope. The proposed site for the development was on land formerly occupied by a pot bank – the traditional bottle kilns that could once be seen in their thousands, belching smoke across the skyline of the Staffordshire potteries. The site was owned by British Waterways which, as part of its own residential development aspirations, was keen to restore a section of the Cauldon Canal which ran alongside, and also to rescue and preserve the historically significant Wharfingers Cottage, a derelict residence once occupied by the wharf keeper. Prima 200 worked very closely with, NHS Stoke on Trent, British Waterways, Stoke City Council, and local regeneration agency RENEW North Staffordshire, to develop a scheme that would meet the objectives of all the parties and be acceptable to the planning authorities. The good relationships established over many years between Prima 200 and Stoke City Council helped to resolve any design and technical issues as they arose. The development work encompassed the past as well as the future: an archaeological survey was commissioned to establish the site’s historical pedigree.