‘WE CAN’T CARRY ON LIKE THIS’
Shoppers welcome removal of city graffiti
GRAFFITI is to be cleared from buildings on a city centre street and replaced with artwork as part of a new project to improve Hanley. Buildings on Clough Street, a popular walkway between Tesco and the city centre, have been defaced with graffiti. Now as part of a new action plan by business leaders to spruce up the city centre the graffiti is set to be replaced with ‘eye-catching artwork’. Dubbed Operation Sparkle, the idea is to bring back footfall post pandemic by tackling issues such as boarded-up buildings, homelessness and antisocial behaviour head on. Stoke-on-trent BID will be working with We Are Culla, a creative industry located on Piccadilly, to make the buildings vibrant with new artwork. Artists will be replacing the graffiti with ‘eye-catching’ patterns on the former Rockermans unit and the unit closest to Tesco car park. Shoppers have welcomed the plans.
Lorraine Broadhurst, 67, from Etruria, said: “It’s a good idea, this street needs something as it is a busy walkway, but it looks run down.
“We need something to welcome people back to Hanley after lockdown because they won’t want to come if it looks a tip.
“It would be great to remove the graffiti and replace it with art relevant to us such as bottle kilns and canals.
“They’ve got to make it look attractive to people. We need something that says ‘let’s go to Hanley’.
“I’m pleased they are going to do something about it. I’d like to see Hanley returned to how it was when I was young because at the moment it’s changing for the worse, not the better. “We can’t carry on like this.” Husband and wife Roy and Pauline Morrey say the street needs ‘tidying up’.
Pauline, aged 76, from Sneyd Green said: “Removing the graffiti is a nice idea and replacing it with a mural will look better as this is an important walkway.
“It definitely wants doing up and tidying the place up doesn’t need to cost a lot of money.”
Roy says he remembers when Hanley was ‘beautiful’ in the 1960s and say it is a shame to see it how it is today.
The 73-year-old said: “It’s gone right downhill and it’s such a shame because a lot of money has been spent on it.
“Now OAPS from places like Leek are scared to come up to Hanley because they have been abused by beggars as they won’t give them money.”
And Jacqueline Charlesworth, aged 59, from Biddulph, said: “I think it’s a good idea. I have been to other towns where they have removed graffiti and replaced it with modern artwork.
“Clough Street is a busy main walkway and it would be good for it to look nice and the artwork can be a talking point.”