What is the history of Sideway?

• The 64-acre development area is next to the A500 in Stoke-on-Trent and close to junction 15 of the M6
• It is a site associated with Hem Heath Colliery, which closed in the 1990s. Sideway has recently been used as a sewage works and an unlicensed tyre dump
• Cleaning up the site ("remediation") has been managed by the regional development agency Advantage West Midlands (AWM)

What is the aim of this development?

• Sideway will provide hundreds of jobs on a flagship industrial park, built to the highest environmental standards
• Having bought the site, Advantage West Midlands
  wanted to set new standards in “sustainable” development. Sideway must go further than ever before
  in energy-saving, recycling and the preservation of plants and wildlife

What happened with the last application?

In 2006, following local consultation, the council granted planning permission for two warehouses of 320,000 and 210,000 sq ft and ten smaller units on the site. Since then, important advances have been made in sustainable industrial design.

In order to further improve the environmental performance of the site, it was decided to submit a new application for a revised scheme.

Who commissioned the Sideway project?

• Advantage West Midlands (AWM) bought the site,
  co-ordinated its remediation and defined the
  development brief
• In its brief, AWM sought “a development of the highest possible quality in design and sustainable construction.” The agency demanded a scheme which would fit well into its setting and set high standards for building design and sensitivity to the landscape.
• AWM wanted to set new standards in “sustainable” development. In other words, Sideway must go further than ever before in energy-saving, recycling and the preservation of plants and wildlife
• Other sustainability issues included building materials, building use over time, energy consumption, air leakage, water use and a “green” transport plan to discourage the use of private cars.