New bus station on the way

A new bus station is to form part of the £500 million regeneration of Stafford town centre over the next five years.

The lack of a central bus station has been seen as a major factor in encouraging the growth of the county town.

Cabinet member for planning and regeneration Councillor Doug Davis told the borough council’s planning and regeneration scrutiny committee that a bus terminal for the town centre formed part of the growth scheme being prepared between the borough and Staffordshire County Council.

He said that they were also considering introducing a park and ride scheme.

Councillor John Francis said that councils had to ensure the infrastructure was in place before the major development schemes were completed.

He said it was vital people could get in and out of the town easily and park and ride sites at the north and south ends of the town and a bus station were essential.

Councillor Davis said that one problem with building a bus station was that the bus companies did not want to contribute towards the costs of construction and maintaining one.

He said that a traffic management study was to be carried out as part of the regeneration project.

This would take in car parking needs.

Head of regeneration Ted Manders said the next five years would see the biggest transformation in the history of Stafford. He said that the town centre schemes needed to go hand in hand with the growth in housing being proposed in the town over the next 20 years.

“There is a need to improve facilities in the town centre,” he added.

Mr Manders insisted Stafford was bucking the trend of major developments being put on hold because of the credit crunch.

He said this was because of the large public sector involvement in the schemes.

At Tipping Street the 17,000 sq metres of offices being proposed would be for the county council and the Kingsmead car park site was owned by the borough council.

Councillor Davis said that the investment would see Stafford make a “quantum jump” into one of the principal county towns in the country. The various projects will add 377,816sq ft of retail space, 262,103sq ft of leisure including a cinema, two hotels and restaurants and 221,599sq ft of office space.

The number of parking spaces will increase by more than 2,000.