New restaurants and cinema to open by 2014

Capital Shopping Centres (CSC) today announced that its plans to invest £14m in The Potteries Shopping Centre have been granted planning approval by Stoke-on-Trent City Council.

The scheme will bring hundreds of new jobs and create a multi-screen cinema complex, new family-friendly restaurants and a pedestrian boulevard at the centre. The £14m investment will re-develop an underused brownfield site, will harmonise with the surrounding area through landscaping and will promote sustainable transport through a Green Travel Plan.

Paul Francis, General Manager of The Potteries Shopping Centre, said: “Stoke-on-Trent is crying out for investment of this nature and the Council’s decision will be welcomed by residents and the millions of people who shop in Hanley every year.

“Our plans will create much needed new jobs and provide a real boost to the city’s economy, not to mention offering a great place for families to come and enjoy. As a long-term partner to this great city, we’re proud to invest in its future and can’t wait to start delivering this plan.”

Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s ‘Mandate for Change’ strategy aims to make Stoke-on-Trent ‘the place to bring business’. By bringing in new restaurants and cinema facilities, CSC is supporting this strategy by contributing to growth, jobs and investment in Stoke-on-Trent city centre.

CSC, which has owned The Potteries Shopping Centre since 1988, hopes to start construction on site later this year and open the leisure extension at The Potteries Shopping Centre in early 2014. Later this year, CSC will announce the operators who will be opening new restaurants in the leisure extension at The Potteries Shopping Centre.

The proposal which has received planning consent includes:

o The reconfiguration of the multi-storey car park ground floor to accommodate restaurant uses
o Building a further stand-alone restaurant and cinema building on the site of the existing adjacent surface car park to the north
o Converting the existing shops on the first floor of the multi-storey car park to restaurant accommodation
o Creating a new pedestrian boulevard

A public consultation at The Potteries Shopping Centre in September showed overwhelming support for the proposals. 99% of those who filled in consultation postcards at the public exhibition agreed with the need to build leisure facilities within the city centre. 97% of respondents also felt that the economic benefits of the scheme are an important feature of the proposals.

To visit The Potteries Shopping Centre website, please click here: http://www.potteries.uk.com