Our Etruscan Square design combines a modern, bright multi-storey carpark with a micro mobility hub. It includes areas for scooters as well as bike storage and bike repair, allowing people to drive in and then take a scooter or their bike into town. Electric vehicle charging points will make up 10% of the overall parking spaces.

There will also be a shopmobility centre and a large Changing Places toilet, for those with limited mobility who need additional assistance. We want to make it as easy as possible for everyone to get around, while also providing everything needed to help reduce congestion and pollution in the centre of Stoke.

But we are not just building for the needs of the people and their city today. We have incorporated future-proofing design elements on the ground floor level to offer greater long-term flexibility. The building has an unusually generous 2.6m height clearance on the lower two levels so that high sided vehicles can come in. This will be able to accommodate first and last mile logistics, allowing vans to bring local deliveries here and transfer them onto scooters for the final part of their journey, keeping roads clear of vans and reducing pollution. Its next purpose has already been factored in.

This multi-storey car park is part of a much larger masterplan to revitalise the central Hanley area of Stoke-on-Trent. Backed last year by a £20 million investment from the government’s Levelling Up Fund, this new development will also include shopping, restaurants, a new arena and housing.