£100m development grinds to halt
Plans for the £100 million pound development at the site of Stafford's former Riverside leisure centre have ground to a halt.
Developer Trent City Securities (TCS) has reportedly gone into voluntary liquidation and Stafford Borough Council has confirmed it is now in talks with Woodhouse Butler, the owners of the land which is currently being used as a car park, to see how the regeneration project can be moved forward.
The plans for a retail and leisure complex on either side of the River Sow had also involved demolishing the former Tesco store in Bridge Street and multi-storey car park above it and building a multi-screen cinema and hotel in its place.
Trent City Securities received the recreation centre site and council houses in South Walls from Stafford Borough Council in return for building the £15 million Stafford Leisure Centre in Lammascote Road.
Will Conaghan, a spokesman for Stafford Borough Council, said: "In the current economic climate we have seen many schemes grind to a halt across the region. The council is now in talks with the owners of the land to see how we can move any development forward.
"We remain committed to securing the redevelopment of the Riverside site so that Stafford residents get the retail and leisure facilities they deserve. The position of TCS does not affect the building of affordable houses to replace those lost on the site. These have now got planning permission.
"We have worked successfully with the developers to deliver the new £15 million leisure centre that is in council ownership and that is not affected by the financial position of TCS."
Trent City Securities had announced in March that the project would be put on hold blaming the economic downturn saying it would be years before the plans could come to fruition.
Borough Councillor Barry Stamp said: "I think it is easy to make negative comments about this but we have now got to look to the future and how we get out of this mess. My worry had been if we were going to be left with a great hole in the middle of Stafford. The only good thing is at least this has happened after the leisure centre was completed, otherwise we could be in a worse situation."
