URBAN REGENERATION IN STOKE ON TRENT

Urban regeneration - not the most easy subject to teach A level students. However, at Biddulph High School the geography department have tried to create a more accessible approach to a subject that, taught in the correct way, can be both interesting and topical.

Both within the town of Biddulph and the city of Stoke on Trent there are many areas of urban regeneration which have been success stories and also dismal failures. By bringing the study of urban regeneration to close to the doorsteps of our students we feel that the issues are more relevant, by making the students realise that these schemes have a major impact on the economy of the area and therefore affect the lives of local people and quite possibly even themselves.

There is no doubt that Festival Park is one of our best local case studies. The students know the area well, either socially or indeed as a result of working at the site. As a result debates on the success or failure of the site can be generated. All students obviously feel the site to be a major success, but after debating the site in more detail feel that there are more problems facing Festival Park than they at first realise. Similar issues can be raised regarding other regeneration sites within the region.

To reinforce the issues raised Professor Rick Ball was invited to the school to discuss various local regeneration issues. Rick Ball is a lecturer in economic geography at Staffordshire University. His research background is the derelict buildings of Stoke on Trent and what to do with them. A recent newspaper article in The Sentinel, looking at the problem of derelict buildings based on Prof. Ball's work, inspired the invitation.

He raised a number of issues for the students to ponder and discuss. Particularly interesting was his attitude towards Chatterley Whitfield Colliery. Obviously a very local and well known landmark the mine has gone from a colliery, to a museum but now lies mainly derelict, with some of the buildings being used as small workshops. Clearly there is potential to use this site for the benefit of local people in order to boost the local economy. An advantage that Prof. Ball has over teachers is his ability to be able to supply up to date information to the students. Whilst we try to do this, time constraints and difficulties of access, inevitably mean that we are unable to provide students with this information. We therefore welcomed the opportunity to read proposals for the site which have literally just been published. The information is interesting and is available to any one who sends me a sae.

Other sites which came up for discussion were the Gladstone Museum, quite rightly highlighted as a success story. What I learnt from the talk was that the site was also being developed as a series of small workshops for specialist potters. The Johnson Brothers site in Hanley, currently lying derelict, gave students the opportunity to think of ways in which the site could be used in the future. Finally the Single Regeneration Budget came up for discussion, with Twyford's highlighted as a major problem area.

The lecture and subsequent resource materials gave the group issues for further debate and hopefully reinforced case study materials already taught. Perhaps in the future such a talk could be incorporated into a full days lecture to include other local well known speakers such as Sue Warne and John Bale. Certainly local universities are keen to promote their courses to local students in these times of such severe competition.

Ian Mutter

Mutts66@yahoo.com

This page last updated 16 July 2007