Will Wolstanton become the next Hanforth Dean?
Imagine a out of town shopping area such as Hanforthdean's Marks & Spencers outlet, but in the Stoke-on-Trent region?
Well this year after speaking to Tunstall Chamber of Trade chairman, Bill McDonald, I was utterly sold on his concept of turning the Goldendale Valley into such a retail zone. Closer to the Cheshire border than Stoke, with easy access from the A500 and A34, the Goldendale valley would be a prime spot.
Many much needed jobs would be created, other businesses in the area could benefit from knock on sales of such a park as visitors venture further into the region.
Sadly this isn't to happen on the out skirts of Tunstall, but it will be happening in the local area, hopefully boosting the local economy further as it's been announced that Marks and Spencer will be taking up Bill's dream in the North Staffordshire area as planning permission has been given by Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council for construction of a 140,000 sq ft retail store for Marks & Spencer on the Wolstanton Retail Park.
The project will create over 100 jobs during the construction stage and is expected to create 250 jobs within the store.
With all of the plans for new retail parks, supermarkets and brand new shopping Centre, the next big news is the Blue Planet will finally be used as intended and not gathering dust and supply local and far away trade from it's vast hall.
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Comments
From the Web: Mark
From the Web:
@marksporter@MyTunstall no not a chance handforth dean has no traffic problems ;)Mark - I personally think out
Mark - I personally think out of all of the retail parks in the Stoke-on-Trent area Wolstanton is the easiest to get to from the north & with the least hassle.
Let's take for example getting to Longton's retail area. You have to negotiate some of the worst roads in Stoke to get there along the A500 corridor and up to the A50. Once you head up the slip road to the Tesco roundabout, you can be waiting up to 5 minutes as the priority to traffic comes from the other direction.
Through the Hanley into the equation and it's a no brianer for me. I hate driving into Hanley. It's slow going, the A500 leading into it is treated as a B road by many drivers, you get stuck in queues waiting to get into the place. The only saving grace for me at the minute for Hanley is the parking at tesco.
Compare these locations to Wolstanton and in which you have good access to people coming in from the north and central parts of the city, even the south part, with a clean stretch of road from the M6 (j16) along the A500 and other affluent Cheshire areas. It's easy to access for folk in Newcastle-under-Lyme.
Personally, I'm not a M&S sort of shopper. But there is a market for them so lets hope they bring their pennies with them.
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