£800,000 TO ‘TRANSFORM’ TOWN’S HISTORIC BUILDINGS
New scheme hopes to repeat success of neighbouring Stoke
MORE than £800,000 will be spent on repairing and restoring historic town centre buildings under a new scheme.
The Longton ‘Partnership Schemes in Conservation Areas’ (PSICA) project will give building owners in the town’s conservation area the chance to apply for grant aid for work to improve the exterior of their properties.
Historic England is set to provide £300,000 for the scheme, subject to a formal bid by Stoke-on-trent City Council, which will add £300,000 of match funding.
And it is estimated that property owners – which could include the council – will contribute a further £203,000 to the improvement works.
Longton’s PSICA, which will run for three years, follows a similar scheme in Stoke town centre, which saw around £900,000 of improvements carried out to buildings including the Sutherland Chambers.
Council-owned buildings such as Gladstone Pottery Museum and Longton Town Hall could benefit from grants, if there is ‘demonstrable need’.
The launch of the scheme, which was approved by cabinet members on Tuesday, follows Longton being awarded Heritage Action Zone status by Historic England in 2017.
Dan Jellyman, cabinet member for regeneration and heritage, said: “This is the Longton PSICA bid for the Heritage Action Zone in Longton, which we were successful in securing about two years ago. It is one of only eight HAZS of its type in the entire nation.
“It’s a special HAZ, a hybrid one, focusing on the town of Longton and the 40-plus bottle kilns across the city.
“This report, subject to cabinet approval, will enable us, along with the private sector and Historic England, invest around £800,000 over the next three years into buildings in the Longton conservation area.
“This follows on from the very successful Stoke town PSICA scheme, which has just been completed, which saw the transformation of the Sutherland Chambers, the shop frontages on Church Street, and the old Barclays bank.
“So we hope to replicate the fantastic success we’ve had with the PSICA scheme in Stoke and apply it to Longton. This will transform a number of buildings in Longton over the next three years.”
According to the report to cabinet, many buildings in Longton’s conservation area are currently in a ‘poor state of maintenance’.
The report says that if these buildings are allowed to continue deteriorating, it could eventually lead to their collapse, resulting in road closures and lengthy enforcement issues – a problem currently facing the old Price and Kensington works in Middleport.
Historian Fred Hughes welcomed the funding for Longton, but says a longer-term solution is needed for the city’s historic buildings.
He said: “I remember the Single Regeneration Budget scheme under the previous Conservative government, where £25 million was spent in the city. This included works in Waterloo Road – and if you’ve been there recently, you’ll wonder whether anything was actually done there.
“It’s one thing to carry out repairs to a building, but you’ve got to ensure it’s maintained in the long-term, and that means making sure they are used. But keeping buildings in use in town centres and city centres is a big challenge at the moment.” The Longton PISCA will mean increasing the council’s capital programme by £600,000, which will need to be approved by full council.