The City needs to achieve the kind of high-quality landmark schemes that other cities such as Manchester and Nottingham have achieved in recent years. Benchmarking against other cities is required. Educational initiatives, CPD events and training all contribute to local knowledge of the role of design in changing structural economic change. The dearth of good architecture The City has only 183 listed buildings and there has only been a small handful of very high quality new buildings in the last few decades. There has been a handful of very high quality schemes recently, in particular the new extension to the Victoria Hall, which provides an exemplar for design quality in North Staffordshire.
Few spaces are hospitable to pedestrians and invite people to linger and interact.
The spaces that are potentially of good quality are significantly harmed by traffic intrusion and poor infrastructure. Enhancement schemes have recently been carried out or are being formulated for major spaces in the City. But more emphasis is needed on removing vehicular infrastructure from the public realm. The low standard of design in new residential developments New residential areas especially suffer from poor design, few amenities, poor pedestrian access, a lack of public facilities and a failure to integrate with the City s urban character. Hierarchical road layouts and off the peg design have characterised much recent housing development, resulting in poor permeability and legibility.