‘WE DO NEED MORE PARKING TO HAVE A SUCCESSFUL CITY CENTRE’
701-space car park to replace multi-storey
DEMOLITION work is set to start at a city centre multi-storey car park.
The 461-space Meigh Street multi-storey, in Hanley, is being flattened as part of the wider City Centre Regeneration Area scheme.
Contractors have now moved onto the site to carry out preliminary work, with the main demolition due to start in December. This is expected to take 26 weeks and should be finished by next May.
Stoke-on-trent City Council plans to build a replacement
701-space multi-storey car park on the same site, as the first phase of its regeneration project.
Councillor Dan Jellyman, cabinet member for regeneration and transport, welcomed the start of the demolition work.
He said: “The first stage will see the electricity and water supplies cut off, and all the pay machines removed from the building, before the main demolition work gets under way.
“It’s quite a complicated job because the multi-storey car park is right next to the Goodson Building and the Woodman pub, so it’s not just a case of going in with a bulldozer. It will take a few months to carry out the work.
“Since Meigh Street has been closed we haven’t really missed it due to the pandemic.
“Even if it had been open, there would only have been a couple of cars in it. But now we’re going to have the new Smithfield multistorey, and the replacement Meigh Street car park.
“We do need more parking if we are going to have a successful city centre.”
Council leaders are awaiting the outcome of their £20 million bid to the Government’s Levelling Up Fund for the City Centre Regeneration Area, which includes the former East-west Precinct and the old bus station site.
The final completed scheme could eventually include an indoor arena, a hotel, and hundreds of apartments, in addition to the new multi-storey car park.