NEW RESTAURANT ON ITS WAY TO ST. MODWEN’S ETRURIA VALLEY

A planning application has been submitted for a new family-friendly Farmhouse Inn pub and restaurant at St. Modwen’s Etruria Valley, adjacent to Festival Park.

Leading pub retailer and brewer Greene King plans to build one of its Farmhouse Inns, which are typically popular with business users and families.  The good value restaurants are known for serving a traditional carvery every day, alongside classic pub dishes and homemade cakes and desserts. Free Wi-Fi would be available as well as a children’s activity play area and cask ales behind the bar.

The application to Stoke-on-Trent City Council was made after St. Modwen, the UK’s leading regeneration specialist, entered into an agreement to sell the key 1.5 acre site to Greene King.

Should consent be granted, work on the restaurant is expected to begin this spring in order for it to open in summer 2016. The new investment will sit in the highly successful business park, which includes a hotel, offices, factories and warehouses, shops, restaurants, a cinema and leisure uses, as well as new homes, that St. Modwen has already developed on the former steelworks site and surrounding area.

St. Modwen has been working on the Festival Park and Etruria Valley area for nearly 20 years, during which time it has opened up over 300 acres and created more than 1.3m sq ft of space.

Mike Herbert, St. Modwen Regional Director, explained: “We partnered with Stoke-on-Trent City Council in 1988 in order to transform the former Garden Festival site into Festival Park, driving forward investment and employment opportunities. Our work has expanded into the neighbouring derelict and redundant sites including remaining former steelworks site, now known as Etruria Valley.

“The Farmhouse Inns restaurant will be a very welcome addition to the Etruria Valley and Festival Park area, providing a real boost for those who work, live and shop there. Over 6,000 people work in the Etruria Valley and Festival Park area and the Farmhouse Inn will add to the existing facilities.”

Last month, St. Modwen began developing a major distribution centre for international parcel delivery firm DPD in Stoke-on-Trent on the site, safeguarding over 100 jobs and creating more than 90 additional job opportunities.

Mike said: “DPD will join the likes of Vodafone and Hanley Economic Building Society, which have chosen to locate at Etruria Valley. We still have a further 50 acres to develop and plan to continue in the same vein, attracting high quality commercial and light industrial occupiers as well as services to provide for their employees.”

Richard Lewis, managing director for Greene King Destination pubs, said: “It is always exciting when we are able to announce plans for a new Farmhouse Inn. This new restaurant will create more than 65 full and part time local jobs and with our much-loved carveries and take-away homemade cakes, we hope to give customers in Stoke-on-Trent a greater choice of dining.

“We very much hope these plans will be warmly welcomed by both the community and visitors to the area.”

Etruria Valley is extremely well positioned, being adjacent to the A500 trunk road with direct access to Junctions 15 and 16 of the M6 and links to the M1 via the A50, and lying adjacent to the West Coast Main railway line.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s core strategy prioritises this area, located just over a mile from the city centre and its railway station. The aim is to achieve progressive urban renewal and deliver new opportunities for employment, investment and growth.