This site – once home to one of the largest collieries in Europe – has been transformed into a vibrant, sustainable development, containing a business park, 350 new homes and leisure facilities, including Stoke City Football Club.
This site – once home to one of the largest collieries in Europe – has been transformed into a vibrant, sustainable development, containing a business park, 350 new homes and leisure facilities, including Stoke City Football Club. When complete, this £250 million development will provide 300,000m² of building space and 5,300 jobs.
Hem Heath Colliery was acquired by Stoke-on-Trent Regeneration Ltd between 1995 and 1997 and renamed Trentham Lakes.
Over a period of 13 years working with Stoke-on-Trent Regeneration, our role has covered the entire development process and includes all master planning, and environmental, infrastructure and sustainability services.
Halcrow Yolles has provided land and building transfer advice, and a range of related services incorporating building engineering, geotechnics, landscape design, and construction monitoring.
The 162ha derelict site contained old colliery buildings and vast areas of spoil heaps and lagoons. Prior to our involvement, it was considered impossible to develop the 30m-deep spoil heaps. Halcrow Yolles was able to design the remodelling of the spoil heaps and lagoons to allow for redevelopment.
A key challenge was to ensure the master plan and site infrastructure was robust, yet flexible, to accommodate changes and opportunities that may arise over its 20-year development programme. We actively pursued negotiations with utility providers and regulators to ensure such changes do not constrain the project’s overall objectives.
Building long-term relationships with local planning, regulatory and development control officers has helped to ensure the process runs smoothly.