£30m technology centre being built in Stoke-on-Trent

A £30m building project at Staffordshire University is getting under way.

Business leaders hope the Science and Technology Centre at the University Quarter in Stoke-on-Trent will attract new companies to the area.

Plans for the centre were dealt a blow when Advantage West Midlands withdrew £8.9m funding.

But the university said it had received an £8m grant from the Higher Education Funding Council for England.

The new centre, which will feature specialist laboratories, a psychology suite and lecture theatres, will be used by science students from the City of Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College and Stoke-on-Trent College.

The funding from Advantage West Midlands was withdrawn when the Agency had to cut £14m from regeneration schemes in Staffordshire following the announcement that regional development agencies were to be scrapped.