How Stronger Together vision is helping city, one year on

The summer marks the first anniversary of a Stoke-on-Trent City Council cabinet led by City Independents and Conservative councillors. As a result, we are taking a moment to celebrate some of the success stories and major initiatives from the past year.
 
As key stakeholders, you have played a vital role in these initiatives and we want to thank you for your continued support as we work towards our Stronger Together vision. With your help, some of the fantastic things to happen during the past 12 months include:
 
• A £473m five-year capital investment programme, which is already seeing an extra £5m invested in highways improvements – an unprecedented level of investment. The programme will go on to see a £55m project developed by the council to build private sector housing.

 
• An environmental taskforce, with a rapid response team clearing dumped rubbish and stiff enforcement action taken on those responsible for fly-tipping. In its first year, more than 5,000 cases have been dealt with proactively.

 
• A £6m rejuvenation of Hanley Park with £4.5m of that money successfully secured from the Heritage Lottery Fund and Big Lottery Fund. 

• Stoke-on-Trent’s year as the UK’s European City of Sport, with a £3.5m investment to create a sporting legacy and raise the health and wellbeing of people across the city for the next three years.

 
• Government approval given to create the country’s first Ceramic Valley Enterprise Zone at Etruria Valley – a £1.5bn development opportunity across six sites in the city and Newcastle-under-Lyme along the A500 corridor.

 
• The securing of 400 new jobs at the new Smithfield development in the city centre, with the creation of the Water Plus joint venture between Severn Trent Water and United Utilities.

We have also seen visitor numbers increase by a third at Gladstone Pottery Museum, pictured, while the number of people using leisure centres across the city has risen by five percent overall. There are also more people receiving NHS health checks in the city than the average for England.
 
All of this fantastic work and more is being done for the good of residents, to support our communities, and to get pride back into our city. This will help to make our city a place where businesses want to come to, where people want to visit, and where we are serious about attracting investment.

For a video and graphic looking at some of the initiatives that have taken place in the city over the past 12 months, please click here.