Stoke City secure midfielder Ben Pearson from Bournemouth

Stoke City has announced the signing of midfielder Ben Pearson from AFC Bournemouth.

The 28-year-old, who had a successful stint with the club last season, has now signed a four-year contract. Person spent the final four months of the 2022/23 season in the Potteries.

The midfielder, originally a graduate of Manchester United’s Academy, had a five-year spell at Preston North End where he played 158 Championship games before moving to Bournemouth in 2021.

Reflecting on Pearson’s permanent return, Stoke City Technical Director Ricky Martin stated, “Bringing Ben back to the club on a permanent basis was a priority in our recruitment this summer.”

Martin further emphasised the player-fan connection, saying, “Ben has already built that relationship on loan last season. The fans responded positively to his quality, work ethic and clear desire to win, something he wears on his sleeve every time he steps onto the pitch.”

Expressing his enthusiasm for returning to Stoke City, Pearson stated, “From the end of last season, I have held a desire to return here, and I am glad that the opportunity has now materialised for me.”

He spoke of his relationship with the manager and his belief in Neil’s successful style and methods in the Championship.

Pearson also expressed gratitude for the support he received from fans during his time at the Club last season, saying, “It has been a nice feeling hearing how much they wanted me to return, and I want to repay them for that because, both personally and collectively, I know we can improve significantly on last season.”

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Conspiracy theorists and green campaigners have been keeping the 15-minute city concept in the national headlines this year – but closer to home people are wondering whether Stoke-on-Trent could lead the way.

While conspiracy theorists may have conflated the 15-minute city idea with people being confined to their own neighbourhoods, the concept actually revolves around having everything you need for your daily life within a 15-minute walk or bike ride.

This should mean easier access to healthcare, schools, shops, workplaces, services and leisure activities without the need to travel longer distances by car.

Oxford City Council has said it plans to be a 15-minute city by 2040, but earlier this year thousands of campaigners staged a protest against a plan to introduce Low Traffic Neighbourhoods, which aims to create quieter and safer streets for residents by directing traffic along busier main roads.

READ: Plans to introduce new city centre ‘ranger’ to patrol streets of Hanley

Other cities including Bristol, Birmingham, Canterbury, Ipswich and Sheffield are also looking into 15-minute city plans.

But could Stoke-on-Trent – formed as it is from six independent towns – be uniquely placed to embrace the 15-minute city concept? And could it in fact claim to be ‘the original 15-minute city’?

Dr Paul Barratt, a senior lecturer in Staffordshire University’s School of Justice, Security and Sustainability, thinks the 15-minute concept could have a positive impact on Stoke-on-Trent.

He said: “The term ’15-minute city’ bundles together a lot of good planning guidance under a new moniker. I came across it during lockdown and thought it fitted Stoke-on-Trent with its polycentric structure. It could be a new way to reimagine the city really positively from the bottom up.

“A 15-minute city is a good thing – it makes places more liveable, it enhances services and draws people in. It’s not about restricting people to a 15-minute area. Some people have got the wrong end of the stick.

“We have a city that has ground to a bit of a halt. It can be more than a 15-minute drive to get to somewhere you could cycle to in less than 15 minutes. Something as simple as somebody moving house and having a removal lorry parked outside can have a big knock-on effect on the surrounding roads.

“We are quite tied to the car but we don’t need to be. We are blessed with some greenways, and there’s the canal network and disused railway lines which could be ideal for cyclists and walkers. There are quite a lot of good routes that we can take – we just need to connect them.”

The keen cyclist, who often pedals to work from his home in Cheddleton, recently worked on a project exploring the idea of a ’15-minute campus’ for university students.

He said: “As part of our 15-minute campus project we evaluated cycle routes and Hanley was a dream to cycle around. Traversing the centre was great because it was pedestrianised with cycle routes. I actually felt a bit like a tourist – but the problem was you couldn’t leave your bike around there.

“You can get to Festival Park by bike but there aren’t places to leave bikes and even if there were, would you want to? There’s a need to build the infrastructure and make people feel safe.

“A 15-minute city is also about having the right mix of services, community centres, churches and green spaces – things that improve the quality of life.

“It’s great from a student’s perspective, particularly in the cost of living crisis – knowing where the nearest budget supermarket that you can walk to is really vital. It’s also important when planning decisions are made to make sure budget supermarkets are on bus routes.”

Dr Barratt called on Stoke-on-Trent City Council planners and residents to ‘dream a bit bigger and be more optimistic’ about Stoke-on-Trent.

He said: “I do feel optimistic but I fear Stoke-on-Trent will be left behind a bit. It’s vital that people from the council get to see other cities that are making changes and reaping the benefits – places like Copenhagen, Barcelona and Amsterdam.

“We have a good foundation to build on here in Stoke-on-Trent. We need to attract funding and have some joined up thinking. Every time a new bit of infrastructure goes in we need to be thinking about the 15-minute idea. Making the city more live-able could draw people in and improve economic prosperity.

“I don’t think we are being ambitious enough. We need to dream a bit bigger and be more optimistic about where we live.”

Dr Philip Catney, senior lecturer in politics at Keele University, agreed that Stoke-on-Trent could be ‘an ideal model for a 15-minute city’ if the area’s reliance on cars could be overcome.

He said: “Originally Stoke-on-Trent would have been a good model for the 15-minute city – when each of the towns had their own butcher, baker and candlestick maker – and in some ways it was ahead of its time.

“However, the tragedy of Stoke-on-Trent is that it’s a very strange urban form – a polycentric linear city. It’s long and thin with multiple centres. It could be an ideal model for a 15-minute city but it doesn’t have good internal urban connectivity.

“Theoretically someone who lives in Hartshill could walk down to Stoke and find everything they need. But when I moved to Wolstanton from Sheffield I had to buy a car for the first time because it took an hour-and-a-half to get Keele on the bus.

“You can’t get by in the Stoke-on-Trent area without a car – and that’s a fundamental problem.”

Dr Catney, who lives in Madeley, added that Stoke-on-Trent was ’20 years behind’ other major cities who had been investing in their public spaces.

He said: “Places like Sheffield, Manchester and Birmingham have invested a lot of money into the public realm to make people want to hang out there – whereas we have situations like the paving in Hanley being ripped up. We are 20 years behind other places.

“And this is the problem – if we are struggling to sustain Hanley, the city centre, how can we sustain somewhere like Longton? We need to start thinking about the type of businesses we want to attract, such as bakeries, and thinking about how we can encourage them.

“In theory there is potential but even towns with a clear urban centre are struggling. You can’t just demolish all the housing and build it all in Hanley, so we need to figure the ways of drawing people to Longton, Burslem and so on. It’s hard to sustain retail in the context of Amazon.

“It could still be done here – there are assets that we have such as an abundant green space. We see some local authorities taking back control over bus and transport, and if there was a devolution deal for Stoke-on-Trent and North Staffordshire we could try to create the local services that people need.”

Local historian Fred Hughes said that Stoke-on-Trent could be described as the original 15-minute city thanks to its six towns – but that those days had now gone.

He said: “Like most industrial towns, the six town of Stoke-on-Trent were pretty much built as 15-minute experiences. First you had the places of work, such as potbanks and factories – Royal Doulton alone had 1,600 workers in Burslem, and there were a host of others – and then for convenience you had the houses that accommodated the workers.

“You also needed other industries supporting the people who were working in the factories, so you would have a family doctor, shops and leisure activities such as cinemas. Each town was governed by itself so you had six town halls and six centres of administration.

“By the 1960s and 1970s more and more people had cars so they were starting to leave their own town more. And of course most of the factories aren’t there anymore which has also seen much the workforce leaving the town centres.

“I don’t think we could ever go back to that 15-minute experience now. We can’t re-tread the past even if we yearn for it. The more technology develops the less chance and need we have for these 15-minute facilities. It’s all part of evolution and we should move on and find something else special and unique.”