🥨 A word from Helen, editor/writer at The Knot

After watching his father struggle with Alzheimer’s in a care home and acknowledging the high costs that force families to sell their homes, one of Andy Burnham’s big ambitions is to reform our broken social care system. He accelerated Whitehall troubleshooter Baroness Louise Casey's review, which identifies the current failures of adult social care, to report by summer 2027 and plans to put the full blueprint into Labour’s next general election manifesto.

The PM’s focus on social care is being born out locally, with residents, carers and community organisations invited to help shape the future of adult social care through an engagement programme called the Big City Conversation, which will give people who access care and support services, unpaid carers, families, and residents to contribute ideas about how services should be delivered in the future.

Those taking part will be asked to complete an online questionnaire and take part in community conversations and engagement events taking place across the city over the coming months.

Cllr Lynn Watkins, cabinet member for adult social care and all age commissioning at Stoke-on-Trent City Council, said it is keen to support people to maintain their independence and stay connected to their communities. More details on the upcoming programme of engagement events will be published on the council's website and social media channels.

The social care problem has a big impact on our hospitals, as a lack of community care packages and care home beds traps patients in hospital while gridlocked A&E’s tie up ambulances outside. Don’t miss our story on Royal Stoke’s ambulance delays this Wednesday, which includes comment from Stoke South MP Allison Gardner, who has raised this issue in Parliament.

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Good News 🎉

• 👵 Speak up on social care reform. Many of us have been touched by adult social care at some point, usually due to a partner or parent needing to go into a nursing home and the financial worries that brings, with most needing to sell their homes to pay for the cost of the care. If you’ve got an opinion on how the system can improve, the council wants to hear from you. Click on the online survey here.

🏋️‍♀️ THE KNOT’S PERSON OF THE WEEK – Hasan Amjad 🏋️‍♀️

• A computer science student from Keele who took up powerlifting after watching videos of strongman Eddie Hall recently won two gold medals at the 2026 Commonwealth Powerlifting Championships in Canada. Hasan Amjad represented England in the under-105kg junior men’s equipped full-power

  event, covering the squat, bench press and deadlift, and the equipped bench press-only event. Hasan began going to the gym when he was 17, and later met competitive powerlifter and strength coach Ben Johnson at his local gym, who encouraged him to compete. He’s been awarded a Keele University sports scholarship for the 2026/27 academic year. His next ambition is to represent Team GB in 2027, while completing his degree at Keele. Go for it, we say!

  

• ♻️ Kid’s recycling artwork on city bin wagon. Artwork by a pupil from St Luke’s School is helping to spread an important recycling message across the city after their winning design has been displayed on a Stoke-on-Trent City Council refuse collection vehicle after they won a competition held at Potters Patch. The competition formed part of a community open day at the growing space on Bucknall New Road, Hanley. The project, which is supported by Stoke-on-Trent City Council and delivered in partnership with Groundwork, invited children to design artwork promoting recycling and caring for the environment.

  

• 🪦 War memorial for Burslem. A permanent memorial to more than 1,600 people from Burslem who lost their lives in war is finally to be built after work on it first began more than a century ago. £45,000 from the Pride in Place programme has been allocated towards designing and building the memorial. MP David Williams said, “This belongs first to a group of volunteers who have spent 16 years tracing every name, every family and every story.” The volunteers include former service personnel, researchers, former Royal Doulton workers, and families of the fallen.
  

• 🏫 Stoke Schools selected for Enrichment Programme. Three schools in Stoke-on-Trent Central will take part in a national programme aimed at expanding opportunities for young people through sport, culture, volunteering and other enriching activities. Manor Abbey School, Discovery Academy and St Peter’s C of E Academy will receive support from the Youth Sport Trust and its partners to develop stronger partnerships with local sports clubs, charities, community groups and cultural organisations. Work with participating schools will begin in January 2027 and continue until March 2029.

• 🎭 Our Top Five Don’t-Miss Events this Week. Celebrate Black History Month at the Friday Twilight - Black History Twilight Showcase Celebration (06/11, 6pm-9.30pm), which will embrace the theme Honouring Our Community. The evening will give special recognition to individuals whose lives and contributions have helped shape Staffordshire while celebrating the art, music and food of people of African and Caribbean descent; admission free.

  Classically Kate Bush will champion the music of the 80s icon (08/11, 7.30pm) with a live band and an 18-piece orchestra at the Victoria Hall; tickets from £38.76. Get ready to be transported to a magical Christmas Eve inside a traditional Irish pub with Christmas in Ireland at the Regent, with songs including Dirty Old Town and, naturally, Fairytale of New York (13/11, 7.30pm); tickets from £27.50.

  Let’s end with a couple of bonfire night events like the Trentham Rugby Club (01/11; gates open 5.30pm, fireworks 7.30pm); tickets £5 and there’s a kid’s Halloween fancy dress competition. Over in Fenton, the Lions Club (05/11) annual display also features Stanworth’s funfair and food trucks; tickets £12 each, family ticket £40; kids age 5 and under go free.

🥨 Most popular stories from the last week on The Knot

🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 What does Staffordshire Patriots stand for?: The new group says it wants to make our streets safer. What does it really stand for and who is its leader in Stoke?
🛍️ Middleport Artisan market is back: It’s 28 & 29/11, 10-4pm; more info here
🤵🏾‍♀️ Finding the first Black Britons: This event on 04/11 also got a lot of interest

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Sat 🌧️ 12° (5°) Sun 🌧️ 11° (5°).

Sunrise 26/10: 06.54 ☀️ Sunset 26/10: 16.50 🌅

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In an embarrassing episode for the council, deputy lord mayor Chris Robinson, accepted an invitation to an event from the newly-formed far-right group Staffordshire Patriots to support homelessness and discuss town centre crime earlier this month. After learning of the group’s links, he issued a statement distancing himself from them.

“I had no idea that this event was connected to the Staffordshire Patriots group, and would not have attended had I known. I was told this was an event to help homeless people, a cause I keenly support, organised by a local gym. The Stoke-on-Trent I am proud to represent is a welcoming, tolerant city with no place for division or hatred.”

Established just last month, the group is part of a wider network featuring 28 affiliate groups, including Derby and Coventry in the Midlands and another in Greater Manchester. It has already built up a sizeable following, with 24,000 followers on Facebook and 17,000 on Instagram, with some of its reels getting upwards of 480,000 views. Its content promotes free self-defence lessons, veteran support events and walks in parks where trouble has been reported.

Members wear hoodies featuring a mounted knight, English and British flags and a cross, alongside local symbols including the Staffordshire knot and bottle kilns.

The group is led by Mike “Micky” Dickinson, a van driver and former amateur boxer posting under various social media accounts including “Time to Talk Mike”, which claims to offer “real talk” about Britain, mental health and community. Searchlight Magazine notes that he has quickly pivoted these platforms into a “relentless digital engine to promote far-right content”, and in one recent post in which he talks of “relentless attacks” and “my family home being doxxed”, he asks people to donate “to help veterans and struggling families.”

Dickinson is a close associate of Daniel Thomas (“Danny Tommo”), widely known as Tommy Robinson’s primary right-hand man, who is due to stand trial next March over an alleged incident in which he livestreamed himself apparently stabbing and slashing a dinghy in the English Channel.

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Early morning marches in Muslim communities

Staffordshire Patriots is a regional offshoot of Patriot Platform, for which Dickinson acts as a key regional recruiter. The network has recently organised anti-immigration marches in Dover and Portsmouth. On 11 October, supporters marched again in Sheffield, with Stoke’s Dickinson leading the protest against Lindburg Coach Travel, which the group suspected was transporting asylum seekers.

The coach company had initially put coaches on standby for occasional Home Office operations, but following the subsequent backlash, it pulled out on 7 October, four days before the Sheffield depot protest took place.

Dressed in black with some wearing balaclavas or face paint, around 100 people marched through the streets of Darnall, a predominantly Muslim community, from 5.30am to 7am. They left graffiti on the ground claiming the company had “blood” on their hands. Lindburg has reported that its staff has replaced “significant abuse” from members of the public following the targeted action.

A day after the march, Stand Up To Racism (SUTR) organised an emergency unity meeting in Darnall that was attended by 200-300 anti-racists and community members. South Yorkshire Police said they had received no prior notification of the march. The force subsequently confirmed that it was investigating whether statutory requirements had been met and whether any criminal offences had been committed.

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🥨 A word from Helen, editor/writer at The Knot

When masonry dropped from its ceiling back in 2003, Burslem Market Hall was deemed unsafe and has stood empty ever since. As we’ve reported widely in The Knot, it is one of 20 projects receiving funding from the Heritage at Risk Capital Fund, part of the Government’s £1.5 billion Arts Everywhere Fund.

As we already know, the council is investing around £4 million to make the building safe and open it for markets, events, and community use, but it was announced late last week that the government awarded it another £1 million through the Heritage at Risk Capital Fund, supporting further works needed to bring it back into use.

While its its long-term future remains decided, the public engagement phase earlier this year generated plenty of food for thought. In the core online survey, which drew more than 700 responses, a popular theme was the need to diversify Burslem's town centre beyond food, drink, and barbershops. Many would like it to become a multi-use hub that brings people back to the high street.

Once structural scaffolding is down and the roof is made watertight, temporary activation uses are planned to get people back inside the doors while the final commercial model is finalised. Property and place-making consultancy Next Phase, which focuses on turning historic spaces into commercial and community destinations, is currently identifying the most appropriate management structure and approach to programming and tenant mix.

Bringing it back into use is a key part of the wider regeneration of Burslem town centre, with other initiatives including the Wedgwood Institute, Queens Theatre Conversion, and Burslem School of Art.

We hope you have a great week ahead! Watch out for a story this Wednesday about Royal Stoke University Hospital’s failure to curb waiting times as MP for Stoke-on-Trent South, Dr Allison Gardner, turns up the pressure on the Trust.

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Good News 🎉

• 💷 What next for Burslem Market Hall? The building’s return use has received a major boost after a £1 million government funding award. The funding will build on the major programme of repairs already underway, supporting further works needed to bring the Grade II-listed building back into long-term use. Current works include stripping back and replacing the roof, retaining as much of the original Victorian ironwork as possible. Essential repairs are also being carried out to make the building watertight and structurally sound. The council also announced on Friday that the old market hall will feature two new murals, which are being funded by £18,000 worth of Pride in Place funding.

🏃‍♂️ THE KNOT’S PERSON OF THE WEEK – Spencer Cartwright 🏃‍♂️

• A final-year Sports Business Management student at Keele, Spencer was the first British athlete across the line in his race and recorded the second-fastest swim split in his age group at the 2026 World Triathlon Championship Finals, where he was representing Great Britain in the 20-24 age group. Spencer trains for 15-18 hours a week, fitting sessions around his lectures with support from Keele’s Talented Athlete Programme. He told The Knot that swimming is his strongest sport and most of his training is done at Stone Leisure Centre, with bike training completed around Cannock Chase. “Working towards my professional license is something that really motivates me, as it’s a long-term goal that keeps me focused, with the next step to qualify and compete at the Ironman 70.3 world championships.” Next September he’ll take part in the Standard World Championships in Hamburg. Good luck, Spencer, very impressive!

• 👷‍♀️ Safety works at Wade Building and Lord Nelson Pottery Works. Safety works have started at the Wade building in Burslem after the council issued an enforcement notice. Unsafe sections of the building, including unstable overhanging brickwork, are being dismantled to protect public safety. At Lord Nelson Pottery Works, planning and building control officers have been on site, as part of the upper floor was identified as being at risk of falling into the canal. The unstable section now needs to be removed to protect public safety.

• 🏞️ Revamp for Cobridge Park. Cobridge Park is the latest park in Stoke-on-Trent North to benefit from the Labour government’s Pride in Place programme.  

  Both the football court and the basketball court will be remarked, while new basketball hoops are being installed for people to use daily. Cobridge joins parks in Ball Green, Brindley Ford, Fegg Hayes and Sandyford, which are already being improved through the same fund.
  

• 🥨 We Are Staffordshire gets international recognition. Staffordshire is a finalist in the Place Brand of the Year category at the City Nation Place awards, which recognises excellence in place marketing and branding. The submission highlighted the breadth of work delivered during 2025/26, including launching Made in Staffordshire, celebrating the 10th anniversary of Staffordshire Day, and the first anniversary of Screen Staffordshire, the county’s first film office. This year’s awards attracted a record number of entries from 31 countries across all seven continents, with finalists selected by an international panel of place leaders.

• 🎭 Our Top Five Don’t-Miss Events this Week. Alicia’s Amazing Adventure to find the first Black Britons is at St Mark’s Church in Shelton on 03/11 at 4pm. Tickets are free and audiences can just drop in on the day. It’s the first solo production by acclaimed actor and theatre-maker Alicia McKenzie, who has previously worked with the RSC and the National Theatre.

  Celebrate Oktoberfest at Keele Student’s Union (24/10; first session 3pm-7.30pm; second session 8.30pm-12.30am) with a live oompah band and funky Bavarian DJ; tickets £29.70. Shop festive gift from local artisan traders at Middleport Artisan Markets (28/11 & 29/11; 05/12 & 06/12; 12/12 & 13/12, 10am-4pm) for live music, festive food, kids’ crafts, a market and more; admission free.

  Over at the Westminster Theatre in Newcastle (24/10, 2pm-3.30pm), the Reginald Haggar Memorial Lecture Fund is putting on a talk by Paul Atterbury, who will be speaking about the legacy of the Art Schools of the Potteries and the world-renowned designers who trained there, including Clarice Cliff, Susie Cooper and Charlotte Rhead. Another event on the same day include The Potteries – Crockery Importers and Dealers (11.30am-12.30pm) by academic, researcher, museum curator and author Neil Ewins.

  Britpop legends Shed Seven (08/12, 7pm) celebrate 30 years of their album A Maximum High and their defining anthem 'Chasing Rainbows' with this date at the Victoria Hall; tickets from £48.22.

🥨 Most popular stories from the last week on The Knot

😠 Stafford Borough’s new balaclava rules: There will be fines for anti-social behaviour coupled with face-coverings following a public consultation this summer
☃️Trentham Winter Light Trail: it’s on from 20/11-03/01; tickets available here
🎤 G4 set to perform at Stoke Minster: It’s on 03/12 – get your tickets here

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Mon 🌧️ 13° (8°) Tue 🌧️ 13° (7°) Wed 🌧️ 12° (6°) Thu 🌧️ 13° (9°) Fri 🌧️ 14° (8°)
Sat 🌧️ 13° (6°) Sun 🌧️ 13° (9°).

Sunrise 16/10: 07.42 ☀️ Sunset 16/10: 18.05 🌅

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Targeting face coverings when they are being used in connection with anti-social behaviour, criminal activity, or behaviour causing harassment, alarm or distress, Stafford Borough Council’s “balaclava ban” is set to be introduced through its Public Spaces Protection Order (PSPO) this December.

The move follows a public consultation this summer, with 92% of respondents supporting the face-covering provision. The council announced that the new measures are set to be introduced in December, meaning those who refuse to remove a face covering in those circumstances may be hit with a £100 fixed penalty notice.

The renewed PSPO also addresses behaviour such as climbing onto buildings or rooftops and street drinking, alongside existing public-space rules.

After a significant rise in reported anti-social behaviour, with incidents increasing by approximately 54 per cent over the latest 12-month period, Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council announced a consultation on a new PSPO for Kidsgrove town centre this week. It focuses on anti-social behaviour, including intimidating groups, street drinking and drug-related activity but does not mention a specific balaclava restriction.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council leader Jane Ashworth has said she would consider introducing a restriction on face coverings, including balaclavas. She said the idea needed “exploring”, in response to concerns about masked groups and anti-social behaviour. Last month, the council announced that the Hanley PSPO order had been extended until October 2029 and its area expanded to include Bucknall New Road and surrounding streets.

While the PSPO has been extended, crime is nearly 25% down, from 14.1 to 10.6 cases per 1,000 population, according to the council’s August 2026 State of the City report. The Knot approached Stoke-on-Trent City Council for further comment regarding any plans to restrict face coverings, including balaclavas, but had not received a response at the time of publication.

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All local councils urged to curb anti-social behaviour

Staffordshire Commissioner for Police, Fire & Rescue and Crime Ben Adams told The Knot that communities across Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent have informed him that a big concern for them at the moment is individuals, mostly young men, causing anti-social behaviour while covering their faces.

“This behaviour is highly intimidating, and is often coupled with riding bikes, e-bikes or e-scooters illegally or in breach of local Public Space Protection Orders. It discourages residents from enjoying our public spaces or in some cases venturing out, resulting in negative impacts on their health and wellbeing, and our local economies,” he said./

He added that he is “very supportive” of Stafford Borough Council expanding an existing PSPO order to address this issue. “The council has been careful to clarify that this order is aimed at individuals wearing face coverings to avoid identification by officers or CCTV – those not behaving in an anti-social way need not worry.

“But anyone who is deliberately hiding their face to cause anti-social behaviour and intimidate others can be asked to remove their face-covering by Police or council officers. If they don’t, they can be fined.”

Adams confirmed that he has also written to every Council leader in Staffordshire to strongly recommend that they introduce these additional powers into their local orders. “I believe it will help us to reduce anti-social behaviour and crime, and enhance public confidence and feelings of safety.”

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🥨 A word from Helen, editor/writer at The Knot

Hi, how‘s it going? Welcome to another week of The Knot’s positive news round-up from across Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire – bringing you a little dose of good news to brighten up your Monday.

We’re sure you’re thrilled, like us, to hear of the recent investment in Duchess China from Open to Ideas, which has injected a “high” six-figure sum into the business.

The pottery firm has said the investment will help secure the future of the brand, helping it grow and strengthen specialist industry skills. “This isn’t about changing what makes Duchess China special, it’s about recognising how special it already is and giving the support and investment to realise its potential,” they added.

Local MP Allison Gardner has said that it will protect skilled jobs, develop talent, and give a cherished Stoke-on-Trent business the opportunity to grow internationally.

Read our interview below with Open to Ideas co-founder, Rob Ward, on its hopes for Duchess and the ambitious idea to turn Stoke into a global brand led by our potteries.

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Good News 🎉

🏺 THE KNOT’S PEOPLE OF THE WEEK – pottery apprentices Chloe Walker, Matthew Jones and Rebecca Day🏺

The Craft Technician apprenticeship was launched earlier this year by the team at Emma Bridgewater, which partnered with fellow manufacturers across Stoke-on-Trent, with support from Ceramics UK and Skills England, to set up the scheme delivered by Creative Alliance. The first cohort to undertake the apprenticeship, including Rebecca Day, Matthew Jones, and Chloe Walker (pictured below), have learned practical skills and techniques including hand-building, sculpting, throwing, and casting, and a plaster and mould-making placement with Mark Marchant of MM Mouldmaking. Over the past four months, the apprentices have learned about raw materials through workshops hosted by Saint Gobains Formula, Global Ceramics Materials, Valentine Clays and Vibrantz Performance Coatings in Stoke-on-Trent and the Peak District. They will also study computer-aided design, cutting tiles, sponging, and stamping as part of the scheme.

• 🌹Labour wins by-election in Newcastle. After Reform councillor Christine Duffy resigned in August, Labour & Co-operative Party Andrew Fox-Hewitt won a Town ward seat on the borough council with 431 votes. In second place was Reform’s Adam Griffiths, with 249 votes; the rest were as follows: Mark Allan Jones, Green Party (115); Conna Douglas Eynon, Conservative Party (110); and Morgan Inwood, Liberal Democrats (27). Reform now has 26 seats, Conservatives 15 and Labour 3. Full details of the results are available here.

• 🏗️ City Centre Masterplan goes to Cabinet. Plans to transform Hanley are set to take a step forward, with a City Centre Masterplan going to the city council’s Cabinet next week. If approved, it will set out a short and long-term vision to transform Hanley into a vibrant place where people want to live, work, study, visit and invest. The short-term vision includes plans to build 750 new homes on brownfield city centre sites, with an additional 1,800 people living in the city centre leading to increased footfall by 2030.

• ☕️ First tile laid at Covid memorial inside Spode. Bereaved families have taken the first steps in creating a permanent Covid-19 memorial by attending the project’s inaugural memorial tile-making workshop at SpodeWorks. Led by local artist Philip Hardaker, the workshop brought together eight families to create ceramic tiles in memory of loved ones lost during the pandemic. The individually designed tiles will form part of a permanent ceramic memorial bench to be installed in Bethesda Gardens. The memorial project was secured following a campaign led by Lynn Jones MBE, who lost her husband, Gareth, to Covid in 2021. You can join a tile-making sessions to honour a loved one here.

• 😃 Our Top Five Don’t-Miss Events this Week. Featuring international food stalls plus global artisan products, gifts, clothing, and jewellery, don’t miss the Hanley Continental Street Market (05/11-08/11,10am-6pm; 4pm Sun).

  Celebrate Diwali at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery (31/10, 11am-5.30pm), with traditional music, dance and craft activities; admission free. The Cavern Club Story (20/11, 7.30pm) brings the story of one of the world’s most iconic music venues to life; tickets from £38.48.

  Couple of festive events: Stoke Minster will welcome G4 Christmas 2026 on 03/12 for a night of festive merriment; tickets from £17.50. The Winter Light Trail returns to Trentham Gardens next month (20/11-03/01), with new installations, an après bar, fire-pit marshmallow toasting, and fairground rides; tickets from £17 for adults and £12.50 for children and seniors.

Investor Open to Ideas sees the potential in Duchess China. We ask co-founder Rob Ward about his vision for the brand

Words: Helen Dalley

Investing in Duchess China for London-based private holding and investment company Open to Ideas was something of a no-brainer after founders Rob Ward and Kieran Donovan met Jason Simms and Andy Tooth, who’ve led the day-to-day operations of the company since 2019, when they acquired the business from Mantec Group.

“Jason’s brilliant with clients and he’s fantastically creative. Andy runs the pottery, he’s been in it his whole life, 38 years, working for Duchess or one form of it all the way through the shop floor.” He adds that they’ve done a “fantastic” job of keeping the business going during some turbulent periods, including covid and a cost-of-living crisis.

The boutique investment firm, which backs creative British businesses across consumer goods, retail, and sports, has invested a “high six-figure” sum into the business under a ‘buy and hold’ model, which means investing primarily via equity rather than loading companies with debt. “It’s a commercial venture, but the primary objective is to get the businesses up and running and not to return the fund. If you do the former, then the latter should follow.”

How exactly will this investment help in the day-to-day running of the business? “We want to take a bit of a weight off them with strategy and operational support so they can be brilliant at what they do,” he explains, adding that they see plenty of potential. “There is demand for good British goods abroad. Fine bone China made in Stoke means something, and made in England, too, means a lot to people around the world.”

The investment means Duchess has also been able to restructure the balance sheet and put equity into the business to secure its long-term future, with cash generated from sales invested in people and machinery, says Ward. While he hopes that, over time, there can be pay rises, he admits that energy costs remain an issue.

This May, the government announced a £120 million support package for the pottery industry. Ward says, however, that this can work against companies like Duchess China. “If, say, they give you £100,000, you may have to put in £50,000, or £75,000. Big companies that have got liquidity can actually benefit from that, but for smaller businesses, you still have to find some money, so it’s not like free money. So, we may or may not be able to do the price match,” he admits.

Ward is hopeful that the investment can create new jobs and apprenticeships in the long term. “What we’ve got to do is get the business running profitably. Once things have stabilised, then in a couple of years, we may be in a position to offer apprentice positions. Duchess staff want to know where the next generation is coming from.”

Duchess China has previously worked with some big names: David Hockney, Keith Brymer Jones and Belmond. What collaborations can we expect next? “While there are few classic Duchess designs like Dot Rose, Gladstone and Peony, it’s a bit of a blank canvas, and that’s the beauty of it. It’s not like Burleigh and its beautiful patterns, for example – what we make are white plates, and it’s about making that contemporary.” He is keen to stress that the remit is wider than just working with artists and creative brands, referencing the recent order of a tableware set of more than 1,300 pieces from JCB as important, too.

Now that investment is in place, Ward hopes that Duchess China can expand its international reach and says that while no analysis on markets has been conducted yet, Japan is a place of interest. “We get quite a lot of Japanese visitors and inquiries, and bone china is a big thing over there. And then I know the US market relatively well, and Americans are interested in heritage and crafts, so they’re probably the big places. There are lots of opportunities in Europe as well, I think places like Portugal.”

With no targeted return from Open to Ideas for the Duchess China brand, Ward says it’s about working ‘hand in hand’ with Jason and Andy. “There’s no tension as we’re not having to hit a certain number. We will have a business plan, but we’ll build it with them. It will be a sensible, sustainable investment plan, which, in five to 10 years’ time, if we do it right, will get some positive returns.”

Ward has previously said that Britain sometimes talks about manufacturing as something it used to do. What does he think Stoke needs to do to ensure ceramics remains a viable industry here for the next generation? “My initial thought would be two things. Energy costs are key for potteries because, we fire things at very high temperatures, which costs a huge amount and consumes a lot of energy. So, the government needs to help and do something about energy prices. And secondly, I think internationally, there’s an opportunity for Stoke.

“The city stands for one thing, globally, and that’s potteries. I think there’s an opportunity to create a brand globally. You don’t want to Disneyfy it, but I think there’s a trend for people wanting authentic experiences, not just looking through the glass at something that used to be made a hundred years ago. And I think that there’s nothing more real than a pottery manufactory. There are real people doing real jobs in unpolished places with beautiful brick buildings that are hundreds of years old.”

A global brand formed around the potteries and their history would mean Stoke stands for something, he says. “[International visitors coming to the UK] then don’t just whizz up to York or Edinburgh; some will stop and come across to Stoke and spend a day visiting the potteries.”

To ensure this can happen, Ward says we need government-coordinated action and support from the council, something he’s happy to lead on. But in the meantime, Ward says they are focused on stabilising Duchess China as a business, “building on all the great work that has been done and growth for the future.”

🥨 Most popular stories from the last week on The Knot

🚙 Ban on cars around school drop-off times criticised: In Newstead, some residents are unable to get off their drive at drop off and pick up times…
💯 Stoke’s centenary hailed a huge success: A new report reflects on its lasting legacy
🍻 New cafe and tap room set to open: It’s at the Signal Box and will debut next month

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Sat 🌧️ 14° (9°) Sun 🌧️ 14° (10°).

Sunrise 12/10: 07.29 ☀️ Sunset 12/10: 18.21 🌅

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In principle, School Streets, an international scheme adopted by Stoke-on-Trent City Council in February 2025 to tackle traffic congestion and improve air quality at the school gates, sounds like a good idea. A timed restriction on cars around a school at drop-off and pick-up times from 8.15-9.15am and 3-5pm means most vehicles are not permitted to enter these zones, although there are exemptions, notably for residents, and emergency vehicles. CCTV can enforce the restriction and motorists entering without an exemption can receive a penalty charge.

However, in Stoke, rolling out this scheme hasn’t always gone to plan, with difficulties identified in Newstead, Meir North and Weston Coyney regarding the lack of communication from the council to residents, businesses and charities not being factored into decision-making, unclear signage, and traffic displacement.

Residents of Yaxley Place near Newstead Primary Academy didn’t receive the pre-implementation letters that other streets on the estate did. The MP for Stoke-on-Trent South, Dr Allison Gardner, says she had also raised concerns about the location of the camera, specifically because of its effect on Yaxley Place residents.

After Gardner met key members of the School Streets team this summer, she was assured that communication between the council and residents affected would improve. But Yaxley Place residents got in touch with Gardner at the end of last month saying they had not been told that the scheme was being made permanent, even though other estate residents had been informed. That has led several Yaxley Place residents to submit Freedom of Information requests because they are unhappy about how the issue has been handled.

In Meir, the Sandon Primary School Streets scheme has raised concerns about traffic displacement, with residents reporting drivers braking or turning around to avoid cameras, and inconsiderate parking displaced to nearby streets, with School Street restrictions now extended following resident complaints.

Over in Meir North, meanwhile, cllr Lauren Davidson and her constituents requested a School Street at Crescent Academy. She was told by the Council it was “actively being considered”. When she chased it a few months later, she was informed that no assessment had actually taken place.

In her letter to the council, Gardner called this “troubling,” adding that “it is understandable that not all suggested schemes will be viable, but that should be communicated properly.”

Councillor Finlay Gordon-McCusker, cabinet member for regeneration, said at a full council meeting in July that a review of the School Streets schemes across the city would examine this issue. There are currently 14 School Street schemes covering 15 schools/settings, with 35 roads or road sections affected. There’s more info here.

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No consultation process

Allison Gardner told The Knot that Weston Coyney has also been affected by the School Streets scheme. “Businesses and community groups said they had not been consulted despite customers needing access to restricted areas. After a lengthy process, the Council amended the scheme to exempt the businesses concerned, but these issues should have been identified beforehand,” she explained.

Dr Gardner says she can only assume some of this is down to human error or gaps in the process. “But whatever the reason, it is not acceptable when people are being affected by restrictions on their own streets, particularly when these concerns have already been raised.”

She has also questioned why consultation takes place primarily after schemes are introduced. “Local residents and businesses should have the opportunity to flag practical problems before a scheme is implemented – they know their neighbourhoods best, and should be listened to.”

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🥨 A word from Helen, editor/writer at The Knot

Last year’s centenary celebrations were a real high point for the city, with the People’s Parade, a Guinness World Record for The Big Centenary Tea Party, which brought together more than 15,000 people.

A new report, Stoke on Trent Centenary, A Review, states that the programme generated more than £1 million in equivalent advertising value and helped position Stoke-on-Trent as a city of culture, creativity, heritage, and innovation.

For former mayor and fourth-generation Fentonian Lynn Sharpe, seeing her town receive its own ceremonial mace was one of her proudest moments. There were plenty of other big moments, too. Art on Your Doorstep, developed with the National Gallery, put masterpieces including Monet’s The Water-Lily Pond and Van Gogh’s A Wheatfield, with Cypresses in Bethesda Gardens for residents to enjoy.

Other cultural highlights included the 100 Years 100 Faces mural by Rob Fenton and Alistair Barnett, which featured 100 Stokies who’ve made a great impact on the city in the last century, from Sir Stanley Matthews to Robbie Williams, and the unveiling of the Lemmy statue in Burslem by local sculptor Andy Edwards.

Press coverage of the centenary, meanwhile, challenged long-standing assumptions about Stoke-on-Trent and presented a more balanced and positive picture of the city. A travel writer from Metro said she ‘fell in love’ with it, while Time Out listed Stoke as one of THE places in the world to visit in 2025.

Perhaps most importantly, the centenary helped tell a more complete story about Stoke-on-Trent, rather than just a city struggling with deprivation and battling industrial decline. As the report states, “It presented the city as a place of innovation, creativity, heritage, community and ambition. A city proud of its past, confident in its present, and optimistic about its future.”

On that cheery note, have a fab week! If you haven’t yet done so, please tell your friends and family about The Knot as we’d love to attract more subscribers for our unique brand of journalism that seeks to champion and challenge.

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Good News 🎉

• 🏥📍 Putting Stoke on the map. A report has found that last year’s centenary not only brought the city together but has also left a lasting legacy. Stoke-on-Trent Centenary: a review’ concludes that the celebrations strengthened civic pride, showcased the city’s culture and heritage, and engaged young people. More than 70 major events and hundreds of community activities took place during 2025, including festivals, exhibitions, sporting events, and neighbourhood celebrations.

☺️ THE KNOT’S PERSON OF THE WEEK – Craig Lockett ☺️

• Craig Lockett was left disabled after three strokes, but now he’s working for Stoke City Football Club and helping fellow stroke survivors. The 51-year-old, from Meir, is a football development and sports coach with Stoke City Foundation, where he set up a stroke peer support and stroke wellbeing groups after talking to The Stroke Association about the need for more support groups in the city. Craig shares his lived experience and leads conversations, games and physical activities for up to 20 stroke survivors at each session. He’s been nominated in the Carer of the Year category of the Your Heroes Awards, while the the groups he runs were nominated in the Community Group of the Year category. Fab stuff.

• 👷‍♀️ Former Barclays in Longton set for revamp. Longton continues to evolve, with the former Barclays Bank on The Strand set to get a new lease of life thanks to £53,633 of Pride in Place funding. Vacant since 2021, new tenants Wild Edge Arts will transform the space into a permanent home for its cultural and creative programmes, and the venue will support delivery of community projects like the Longton Carnival and Pig Walk Parade, youth programme Longton Town Forum, and December Winter Odyssey in Queen’s Park.

• 📚 Waterstone’s set to open at Trentham. It’s always great to hear of a book shop opening rather than closing, so we’re chuffed that the high street book retailer will be opening inside the shopping village in time for Christmas. Other recent additions to the shopping village include Coffee #1 and independent Staffordshire leather brand Kalating, which offers bespoke bags and accessories.
  

• ☺️ Lemmy’s Lounge in the Pink. To mark Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October, IFK Legacy is offering pink Lemmy’s Lounge t-shirts for £35, with £10 from each purchase going to Breast Cancer Awareness. Get your t-shirt here or go pick one up in person in Burslem and have a drink at this ace space.

• 🎭 Our Top Five Don’t-Miss Events this Week. Can you believe that it’s nearly panto time? Us neither. This year, Jonathan Wilkes is back as Muddles with Kai Owen as The Man in the Mirror, with Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs; tickets £17 or free for students and ages 16 & under.

  Yep, we have Christmas events too, specifically Middleport Pottery’s Christmas Festival (14/11, 12pm-8pm) for live music, festive food, kids’ crafts, a market, and more; tickets from £6, under 10s free. Bringing back some of his most iconic characters like Kevin the Teenager and Loadsamoney to the stage, Harry Enfield and No Chums is at the Victoria Hall (13/11, 7.30pm) and the show includes a Q+A; tickets from £44.76.

  Let’s end with a couple of spooky happenings, like the Trentham Halloween Festival (31/10 & 01/11; 5pm-9pm) for roaming Halloween characters, spooky face painting and the chance to make your own slime; tickets adult member £12, child member (3-15 years) £5, adult non-member £14.50, child non-member (3-15 years) £6.50. Over in Stafford, get some family-friendly chills at the Haunted High House (31/10) with decorated rooms and spooky characters across three historic floors. It’s bookable every half hour from 4.30pm till 8pm; tickets £6 adults, £4.

🥨 Most popular stories from the last week on The Knot

💷 Stoke’s finances are in trouble: The council required £10.5m in Exceptional Financial Support this year amid opposition calls of “payday loan” authority
🍻 New eatery and bar for Goods Yard: Still popular with you all… cheers!
🧛 Nosferatu comes to Keele: Catch this haunting organ performance on 28/10

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Mon ⛅️ 20° (12°) Tue 🌧️ 17° (9°) Wed 🌧️ 14° (5°) Thu ☀️ 14° (8°) Fri 🌦️ 17° (9°)
Sat 🌧️ 15° (9°) Sun ⛅️ 14° (6°).

Sunrise 05/10: 07.16 ☀️ Sunset 05/10: 18.37 🌅

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t’s the third consecutive year Stoke-on-Trent City Council has needed Exceptional Financial Support to balance its books, with £10.5 million approved for 2026/27. While still a significant sum, it asked for £16.8 million last year and £42.2 million in 2024.

The council also secured an additional £13.3 million over three years following adjustments to the national funding formula, with council Leader Jane Ashworth stating the adjustment reflected the levels of deprivation in the city and the challenges in areas like children’s social care, with one of the highest proportions of looked-after children in the country, and a shortage of local authority foster carers.

High demand for statutory services like social care has been compounded by inflation and historical funding shortfalls. Nevertheless, the opposition has criticised the repeated reliance on debt, with the leader of the Conservatives, Lorraine Beardmore, labelling Stoke “a payday loan council” that is building up unsustainable liabilities. Reform UK group leader Dan Jellyman, meanwhile, has argued that social care services should focus on investment in early intervention and community family support rather than crisis-driven acute interventions.

Adding to the scrutiny, separate figures revealed that the council still has more than £31 million in unspent Levelling Up funds from a separate £56 million regeneration grant originally awarded in 2021. While the council clarified that this money is legally ring fenced for specified capital projects such as town centre improvements and cannot be used to fix the everyday budget deficit, Beardmore and Jellyman have hit back at the slow pace of delivering those major regeneration plans.

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High demand, but a limited tax base

Phil Catney, senior politics lecturer at Keele University, says Stoke’s financial problems are not simply the result of poor council management but reflect a deeper, structural problem with the way local government is funded, particularly in deprived areas with high social-care and children’s-service costs. He also points out that Stoke-on-Trent City Council is not alone in needing extra financial help from central government, with Bradford, Nottingham and Southampton councils to name a few.

“Many local authorities similar to Stoke-on-Trent have significant challenges in meeting their budgetary expectations, and this has been a problem now for going on 15 years, where the council’s budgets consistently do not balance.

“The government's got a problem, because it requires local authorities to balance their budgets and they've got big challenges in meeting those with social care and other costs that are soaring. Some areas have an ageing population. Some areas have an area with child protection problems. We have both,” he added.

With Stoke being a relatively low-cost place to live, the amount of cash the council is bringing in from council tax is modest compared to other more prosperous areas. “We’re a relatively economically deprived area that doesn’t have a tax base that can cover the challenges that we have. Apart from Trentham, you don't have very large middle-class areas that are generating a lot of taxation. If you run a council in a relatively leafy area, you're going to attract people with more money and you're not going to have as many people potentially come to your area for migration.”

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🥨 A word from Helen, editor/writer at The Knot

With no-fault evictions abolished in May under the Renters’ Rights Act, Stoke-on-Trent City Council, like many other councils up and down the country, has turned its attention to limiting the number of Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs) and ensure those that exist are of a high quality.

The package of measures includes a city-wide Article 4 Direction, which would remove development rights that currently allow family homes to be converted into HMOs without planning application.

An application would be assessed against a policy in the council’s emergent Local Plan that limits concentrations of HMOs and ensuring those which are allowed are of a good enough quality.

It’s hoped that the new rules will prevent clusters of HMOs appearing across the city. New HMOs would not be allowed where they would mean HMOs make up more than 5% of all residential properties within a 50-metre radius.

There will also be a cap on the total number of HMOs within each ward. This will be set at 4% of residential properties for wards where there are already a very high number of HMOs, 2.5% for wards where there are a high number, and 1.5% for all other wards.

The announcement ties in with an invitation to local landlords to attend a forum next month to improve rented accommodation across the city and tackle homelessness (see our lead good news story today below).

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Good News 🎉

• 🏥 Landlord Forum for November. Landlords, property managers, housing providers and letting agents have been invited to attend a Landlords’ Forum next month. The event at the Jubilee Hall, Stoke Town Hall, will focus on renters’ rights and recent legislative changes, and how these developments affect those operating within the private rented sector. It’s scheduled for 15 October, 2-4pm. Due to capacity, places will be limited and allocated on a first-come, first-served basis, with a maximum of two attendees per booking. To book, go here.

👵 THE KNOT’S PERSON OF THE WEEK – Pam Spall 👵

• Still volunteering at the age of 83, Pam Spall has been nominated for the Charity Champion/Volunteer at Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire’s Your Heroes awards. Pam is still behind the reception desk at YMCA North Staffordshire but began her volunteering decades ago when she started projects that have gone on to become Action Line and also Furniture Mine. She has been nominated by Sharon Richards, Deputy CEO at YMCA North Staffordshire, who said: “Pam has spent a lifetime helping people in North Staffordshire and her commitment is as strong today as it has ever been.” Good luck, Pam, we hope you win!

• 🧒 SEND waiting lists drop. Anyone who’s been affected by the waiting time to get a diagnosis or a SEND place will know just how frustrating it can be. While there is still a backlog, the proportion of Education, Health and Care Plans (EHCPs) issued by the council’s Special Educational Needs Monitoring and Assessment Service within 20 weeks has increased to 62 per cent in 2026 from 33 per cent in 2025, despite an 11 per cent increase in requests for assessments in the past year. The team, which supports more than 3,800 children and young people with EHCPs, was recognised in the West Midlands ADCS Team Excellence Awards 2026 last week for its efforts.

• 👶 Babies get free library cards. Parents across Stoke-on-Trent registering their newborn babies have also been receiving free library cards thanks to the My First Library Card initiative. Launched in September 2025, it has given 776 babies free library access in the last year. The scheme works with registrars and sees families invited to sign their babies up to their local library from birth. Parents also receive information about services for young children.

• 🐆 Planning update on The Leopard. Describing the poor condition of the building as “unacceptable”, the council has been frustrated by the lack of progress on The Leopard, one of the city’s most important historic buildings. But it reported last week that the owner has now submitted the additional information it needs to formally assess the proposals for 15 apartments and two business units at the Grade II listed site. They said, “We’ve been clear that this nationally important building must not be allowed to deteriorate further and we won’t hesitate to take further enforcement action if necessary.“

• 🎹 Our Top Five Don’t-Miss Events this Week. If you haven’t got Halloween sorted yet, how about Nosferatu with Live Organ, a special Halloween screening of the silent horror classic with Andy Quinn on organ and piano at Keele University Chapel (28/10, from 7pm); tickets £17 or free for students and ages 16 & under.

  Go behind the music and inside the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons with Jersey Boys at the Regent (26/10-31/10, 7pm); tickets from £17.68. Diwali is coming, too (31/10, 11am-5.30pm), and you can celebrate the festival of lights at the Potteries Museum Gallery; admission free.

  Jools Holland & his Rhythm & Blues Orchestra are swinging by the Victoria Hall (19/11, 7.30pm) with special guests Roachford; tickets from £45.03. More good music stuff: folk singer Findlay Napier, the first solo artist ever nominated for Live Act of the Year at the Scots Trad Music Awards in 2018, will be at the Artisan Tap (15/11); tickets £15.

  
  

🥨 Most popular stories from the last week on The Knot

🗳️ Newcastle by-election candidates lay out their priorities: We spoke to three of those standing following the resignation of Reform’s Christine Duffy last month
🍻 New eatery and bar for Goods Yard: A tap room/cafe is coming in November!
🛍️ Bolton Gate Market is back: Shop for local artisan goods on 03/10, 10am-3pm

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Weekly Weather (Stoke-on-Trent):

Mon ⛅️ 17° (11°) Tue 🌧️ 21° (15°) Wed 🌧️ 19° (11°) Thu 🌧️ 18° (11°) Fri 🌦️ 17° (9°)
Sat 🌧️ 17° (11°) Sun 🌧️ 16° (11°).

Sunrise 28/09: 07.04 ☀️ Sunset 28/09: 18.53 🌅

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After former Reform councillor Christine Duffy mistakenly resigned from Kidsgrove Town Council instead of Newcastle Town ward, withdrew it and subsequently resigned from Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council, a by-election has been triggered, with five candidates vying for her old seat.

Set to take place on 8 October, the candidates are Andrew Fox-Hewitt (Labour & Co-operative Party), Adam Griffiths (Reform UK), Conna Douglas Eynon (Conservatives), Morgan Inwood (Liberal Democrats) and Mark Jones (Green Party).

Whoever wins, it won’t make much difference to the overall political make-up in Newcastle, where the controlling Reform Party, currently led by Jonathan Gullis, has 26 seats, with the Conservatives on 15 and Labour on 2. The other borough councillor representing Town ward is Labour’s Sheelagh Casey-Hulme, who is unaffected by the by-election.

Whoever gets elected could find themselves serving on Newcastle Borough Council for longer than expected, after the Government paused plans for local government reorganisation in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent. The proposed new unitary councils had been due to begin operating in April 2028, but the Government is now reviewing the process.

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Homelessness and town regeneration

One of the candidates standing in Town ward is the Green Party’s Mark Jones, who says he’s concentrating on the issues that have been flagged up to him by residents in his bid to get elected. “That’s helping get the homeless off our streets and into safe accommodation and increasing the number of dog waste bins in our local parks and general waste bins around the area.”

He is also keen to improve the town centre. “I believe we can replicate what is happening in Longton here in Newcastle and turn our town back into the vibrant centre it used to be.”

If Jones were elected, Gullis would also find himself meeting with some stiff opposition to decisions such as rescinding the Climate Emergency Declaration and stepping back from Net Zero 2030 targets, with Jones stating that he would “fight to bring a sensible approach to climate breakdown back to the council so we can prepare for what is inevitably coming.”

Jones also criticised the council's decision to withdraw from the Local Government Association (LGA), which he said had removed councillors' access to training and other support.

“With regards to Councillor Duffy, despite the money that is now being wasted on this election, I feel sorry for her, as she was clearly not supported by her party. They removed the council's access to training for councillors by leaving the Local Government Association without any thought about the repercussions of that decision.”

The council announced its intention to withdraw from the LGA. The association says Newcastle currently remains a member, while 316 of England's 317 councils are members.

In a recent Knot story, Kidsgrove Independents shared the letter from Cllr Duffy, which indicated she wanted to resign as she’d received no training.

Parking, HMOs and safety

Another election hopeful for the town ward seat is Andrew Fox-Hewitt, who is standing as the Labour and Co-operative candidate. He has previously been a Newcastle Borough Councillor for nine years and describes himself as “a vocal advocate” for safer streets, protecting green spaces, and better, more joined-up public transport across North Staffordshire.

He told The Knot that when Duffy stepped down after just four months, he decided to “stand to make a difference and be a strong voice” for Town.

One immediate issue that he thinks the Council should be focusing on in Town is making the gateways safe for those visiting. “We can see an increase in rough sleepers and those with complex addictions; people don't feel safe walking into town.

“The Council should be employing town rangers and working with the police to have a town centre presence to issue dispersal orders to clean up our town and make it safe to visit. I want to create a Town Centre Safety board with key stakeholders including our local market traders and town businesses,” he added.

Fox-Hewitt also highlights the “sharp increase” in change of use and HMO applications in Town. “We must tackle this unchecked growth of HMOs that fundamentally alter the character of our neighbourhoods. Residents deserve a town centre where people can build stable homes, raise families and feel part of a community.”

The growing pressures of parking are another concern. “Development mustn’t simply count the number of bedrooms and properties; it must consider the real impact on the communities who already live there, and this includes access to safe parking.”

Like Jones, Fox-Hewitt is also keen to oppose the Reform administration's changes to previous environmental and clean-air commitments, saying, “their ideological pursuit is not in the interests of those who live, work and learn in our borough.”

First-time buyer support and anti-social behaviour

Attempting to retain the Reform seat will be cllr Adam Griffiths, who currently serves as county councillor for Newcastle South, where he is vice-chair of the Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee. He has outlined his priorities via his Facebook page as supporting first-time buyers, tackling parking and cracking down on anti- social behaviour. He also wants to ‘greatly reduce’ the amount of HMOs and “make Town an attractive, affordable, and welcoming place for young families to settle down and build a future.”

He told The Knot, “I want to see Newcastle town centre continue to improve, with regeneration delivering positively for residents and local businesses. Community safety and anti-social behaviour, cleanliness, the condition of local areas and making sure residents living around the town centre have their voices heard would also be important priorities for me.”

Like Fox-Hewitt, he’s also campaigning on parking, stating that parking on residential streets 'has become a ‘massive daily headache’. On the subject of crime, he says, “Anti-social behaviour and open drug use in our town centre and surrounding subways are completely unacceptable. Residents who have lived here for decades should never feel afraid to walk through their own town after dark.”

Asked about cllr Duffy’s decision to step down, he says, “she made the decision to resign and I respect that decision. I don't think it would be appropriate for me to speculate about her personal reasons or the circumstances surrounding it.”

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The Liberal Democrat candidate, Morgan Inwood, was approached for comment but didn’t respond, but from the North Staffs Liberal Democrats page, it seems that women’s safety is uppermost in their mind. Their most recent post, from 21 September, questions why Newcastle’s Women’s Safe Space was locked and closed just as the night was beginning.

The party has discovered that the council, under both Tory and Reform leadership, had failed to give the necessary support or funding for it to continue beyond Fridays and Saturdays from 6pm to 2am, with an urge to “vote Morgan Inwood” at the bottom of the post.

Gullis previously campaigned for Conservative candidate Conna Douglas Eynon, urging residents to vote for him in the May 2025 elections in a Facebook post published in December 2024. Eynon has previously stood for election in Kidsgrove in May 2025 but was beaten into third place by Labour and Reform.

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Christine Duffy's resignation is the latest in a series of departures involving Reform councillors in Staffordshire this year. In June, Charlotte Kelly defected from Reform to the Conservatives, citing what she described as bullying and sexism within the Reform group in Staffordshire Moorlands.

Lynn Dean, who had represented Knutton on Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council and also sits on Staffordshire County Council, was suspended by Reform in March following allegations over racist social media posts. She later became an independent.

Duffy’s resignation may have started with a case of mistaken paperwork, but it has given residents another chance to consider what they see as the most important issues their local councillor should be addressing, whether that’s homelessness, HMOs, town centre regeneration or the environment.

With five candidates on the ballot and the campaign now under way, Town ward voters will decide who takes the vacant seat on 8 October.

The Knot contacted the two other candidates, Conna Douglas Eynon for the Conservatives and Morgan Inwood for the Liberal Democrats, but had not received a response at the time of publication.

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🥨 A word from Helen, editor/writer at The Knot

It’s always great to hear about a new place to eat or drink in the city. The ground floor of The Signal Box, next to the Goods Yard, is set to become a neighbourhood bar, café and eatery before the end of the year, under the management of hospitality brand Sula Group. The floor above, meanwhile, will be home to an Italian restaurant.

Ahead of the launch in the first week of November, Sula’s partner/director Adam Wilde told The Knot that the venture came about after a chance meeting with Capital & Centric. “They were looking to set up something independent [inside the Signal Box] and we already run a pub in Didsbury called The Wild Alderman.”

Wilde will be putting the new food and drink offering together alongside Joe and Mikey Manning of Congleton-based Beartown Brewery. Rather than the usual Stellas and Peronis, the plan is to have a regularly changing selection of beers from breweries across Staffordshire and the Midlands on tap. In keeping with Capital & Centric’s ethos, Wilde also hopes to work with independent food businesses and is currently scouting for suppliers for everything from pastries to burger buns.

And there could be more to come. Sula is considering extending its footprint in the area, with possible plans for another food and drink venue at Capital & Centric’s Astley Place development in Newcastle-under-Lyme.

Have a great week, and don’t forget to tell friends and family about The Knot: clickbait-free, positive journalism delivered straight to your inbox.

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Good News 🎉

• 🥐 🍺 A new hangout for Stoke. In a couple of months, there will be a new place to go for food and drink, with the Signal Box finally set to open its doors early November. Partner/director Adam Wilde says the focus will be on simple things done well. “Expect speciality coffee and pastries from 7am, a simple but awesome burger menu and a taproom powered by Beartown Brewery featuring rotating cask and keg ales from local and national independent breweries.”

🎓 THE KNOT’S PERSON OF THE WEEK – Dr Saeed Forghany 🎓

• A Keele University researcher has been named Researcher of the Year at the British Association of Prosthetists and Orthotists Awards 2026 for his contribution to prosthetics and orthotics research. Dr Saeed Forghany, an NIHR-funded  Research Fellow at Keele, works within the School of Allied Health Professions and Pharmacy, focusing on using artificial intelligence and advanced biostatistics to develop predictive approaches to diabetes-related foot care. His research is investigating risk factors for diabetic foot ulceration and how routinely collected clinical and health data could be used to support more dynamic and personalised approaches to risk prediction and prevention. Well done, Saaed!

• 🍽️ JCB places big order with Duchess China. The largest ever placed in a relationship spanning more than 25 years, JCB has ordered around 1,300 cups, saucers, plates, teapots, and coffee pots for the company’s World Headquarters in Rocester as well as JCB North America and JCB Brazil. It’s the first order to take Duchess China products across multiple JCB sites globally. In addition, JCB branded mugs embossed with 22ct gold are being produced for the first time and will be sold, along with JCB cups and saucers.

• 👧 Stoke gets over £9m to transform social care. Stoke-on-Trent City Council has secured more than £9 million to support plans to accelerate improvements in social care. The money will help fund improvements in family group decision making, reunification services, fostering recruitment and support, and a support hub to reduce the need for external residential placements. In adult social care, the cash will support plans for community lounges and redesigning adult services around a therapy-led model.

• ❤️‍🩹 Supporting those at risk of suicide. People across Staffordshire are being encouraged to learn more about suicide prevention with a new community-based initiative, the Orange Button scheme. It’s being introduced to help create a network of people trained to recognise when someone may be struggling with their mental health. As part of the initiative, Staffordshire County Council is offering free online suicide awareness training to residents. Those who complete it will receive an Orange Button badge, which shows they can listen, chat, and help connect people with the relevant services. There’s more info here.

• 🎤 Our Top Five Don’t-Miss Events this Week. Here are some dates for diary in October and beyond: everything slips will feature 11 singers from a range of folk, pop, classical and dance backgrounds that explore the power of unaccompanied human voices at Fenton Town Hall’s Ballroom (17/10, 7pm); tickets £12 with with £5 concessions available for under 25s or those on a low income.

  The Bolton Gate Autumn Market (03/10, 10am-3pm) will feature good, gifts, beauty products, and dog accessories from local small business and artists; admission free. On the same day, you can embrace autumn with a cosy Autumn Wreath Workshop at Middleport (03/10, 11am-1pm), where you’ll use fresh seasonal foliage, scented decorations and gorgeous ribbon to create something fab to hang on your door; tickets £45. Arrive 15 minutes before and sign in at the visitor reception desk.

  Offering advice, funding, support and signposting for budding entrepreneurs living in rural areas, Rural Business Pop-up is set for Keele Hall (13/10, 10am-12.30pm); admission free, tickets here. If you fancy some spectacular fireworks this year, then book onto Alton Towers Ultimate Fireworks (06/11-08/11; 10am-3pm); tickets £39 and include a day pass to the park.

  
  

🥨 Most popular stories from the last week on The Knot

🚧 Why Packmoor and Chell residents are fighting the Local Plan: More than 800 houses could be built on council-owned farmland in the area
🏺 Stoke’s Ceramic Fair is coming: It’s on 17/10 and there’s more info here
🛒 Social supermarket opens: it will debut in Newcastle on 09/10

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Weekly Weather (Stoke-on-Trent):

Mon ☁️ 20° (13°) Tue ☁️ 21° (13°) Wed ⛅️19° (10°) Thu ☀️ 19° (9°) Fri ☀️ 20° (11°)
Sat ⛅️ 19° (10°) Sun ☀️ 18° (9°).

Sunrise 21/09: 06.40 ☀️ Sunset 21/09: 19.27 🌅

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Andy Burnham recently stated at PMQs that his government will take a “brownfield-first approach” to housing, prioritising previously developed land and looking to release more public land for new homes.

But that is not the case in Packmoor, says Cllr Dave Mountford, who is concerned that the Labour-led Stoke-on-Trent City Council wants to allocate a 200-acre plot of council-owned farmland and green spaces for around 800 homes through its Local Plan, along with a new east-west spine road and travel corridors to connect Packmoor to surrounding communities like Great Chell, Fegg Hayes, and Brindley Ford.

The council has formally designated Packmoor and Great Chell as a central part of its Stoke-on-Trent Local Plan. Despite heavy community pushback and a petition that attracted more than 1,300 signatures, the cabinet voted to move ahead with a dedicated Packmoor Masterplan, arguing that the developments are necessary to tackle the city’s housing shortage and to manage future growth properly.

The council concluded its final formal Regulation 19 Publication Local Plan consultation yesterday. Planning officials are currently reviewing the public feedback before submitting the entire plan to the government Secretary of State for independent examination.

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Cllr Dave Mountford, who defected from Labour to The Potteries Party in 2025, is one of the leading campaigners against the Packmoor development. He’s organised residents into working groups and they meet on a regular basis to discuss new developments and next steps. “It’s a formidable working group, and we’ve got people from all political backgrounds with a collective grievance and the Packmoor Community Liaison Group has researched the topic and put a dossier together. It’s brought the whole community together,” he begins.

With the council set to build on old farmland instead of brownfield sites inside the city, there is a risk of Stoke-on-Trent becoming “a doughnut”, says Mountford, meaning that, as all areas outside the city are developed, the inner city becomes a wasteland.

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🥨 A word from Helen, editor/writer at The Knot

Catching the train to Manchester Airport from Stoke is, let’s face it, a bit of a pain. You have to change at Piccadilly, stress about the connection, drag your luggage off the train, find the new platform, and board another train all while hoping your connection won’t be cancelled or delayed.

So, it’s great to hear that a new service will provide a direct rail connection between Birmingham and Manchester Airport so you don’t have that stressful change to worry about when you’re off on your hols. This hourly rail service will run between Birmingham New Street and Manchester Airport and call at stations in the Black Country, Staffordshire and Cheshire.

The route will be rolled out in two phases: phase one will see a new service introduced between Birmingham and Crewe from Sunday 13 December 2026 and phase two will extend this service to Manchester Airport from May 2027. The new route will call at 17 stations, including Stafford, Stone, Stoke-on-Trent, Longport and Kidsgrove in Staffordshire.

The rail link has been re-established after being withdrawn in 2003 following a wider restructuring of local/through services. Petitions were taken to Parliament by local MPs Gareth Snell and Adam Jogee, with the former first raising the case for a direct Stoke-to-Manchester Airport route in Parliament back in 2018. Jogee highlighted the issue last September during a Commons debate on regional transport inequality.

Have a great week, and don’t miss Wednesday’s piece about why the PM has paused local government reorganisation and what that means for us here in Stoke.

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Good News 🎉

• 🚆 Rail Links are improving. West Midlands Trains is improving links between Birmingham and Manchester Airport. It has confirmed that the new service between Manchester will be introduced in phases, with services between Birmingham, Stafford, Stoke-on-Trent and Crewe launching in December 2026 before being extended to Manchester Airport in May 2027. West Midlands Trains has added that the new service will also deliver later evening trains, improved Sunday services, and hundreds of new rail connections to Manchester Airport for passengers travelling from Staffordshire and the West Midlands.

🥋 THE KNOT’S PERSON OF THE WEEK – Libby Wood 🥋

• Stoke-on-Trent grandmother Libby Connor needed a walking stick to get around last year. Seven months after a full knee replacement, the 57-year-old karate instructor won gold in sparring and silver in Kata at the GKR Karate World Cup in Telford this July. Following surgery at Nuffield Health last December, she set hourly reminders to complete her rehabilitation exercises, determined to make it to the World Cup. Early in the new year, Libby tested her progress at a regional tournament and came home with two gold medals. At the World Cup, she came through heats against around 17 or 18 competitors in her 55-to-64 age division before reaching both finals. She took silver in Kata, then completed a clean sweep in Kumite to win gold. Well done Libby, awesome achievement!

• 🍎 Social Supermarket opens. Bus fares may have been capped to £2 but many of us are still feeling the pinch. That’s why we’re chuffed to hear about a new social supermarket opening on 9 October in Newcastle, which aims to fight food poverty, cut food waste and build community. Run by Community Cupboard CIC, it will be based next door to The Junction Café & Printshop, and is supported by Aspire Housing and The National Lottery Community Fund.

• 🚬 Crackdown on dodgy shops. Two premises have been issued with closure notices by the city council’s trading standards team. UK Mini Market in Hanley saw seven test purchases of counterfeit cigarettes between July 2025 and July 2026. This led to 160 packets of illegal cigarettes, 16 pouches of illegal hand rolling tobacco and 52 pots of illegal shisha being seized, all hidden in a roof cavity on the premises. Moorland Vapes had an inspection in May 2026, which seized 71 packs of illegal cigarettes and 1,140 non-compliant vapes. Despite warnings, a test purchase of counterfeit cigarettes was subsequently made.
  Both premises have been ordered to close for three months.

• 🥘 New curry house for Burslem. It opened earlier this month, is called Multan Courtyard, and serves authentic Pakistani meals like charsi karahi from its location in St John’s Square. Other menu items include desi breakfasts with halwa, channa, paratha and chai, plus traditional English breakfasts and a lamb roast. Breakfast is served 8am-1pm, while dinner is 5pm-11pm.

• 👻 Our Top Five Don’t-Miss Events this Week. It’s nearly Halloween and events are turning spooky. Under cover of candlelight, the Mystery Ensemble will be playing songs from The Nightmare Before Christmas and more at Tim Burton’s Universe (31/10, 6pm for 6.30pm) inside Stoke Minster; tickets from £19 and the minimum age is six. There’s also Halloween Theatre Night – A Fright in the Museum at Middleport (31/10; doors 6pm, show starts 7pm), where you’ll spend Halloween in the presence of vampires, ghouls and Egyptian mummies in this one-man theatre show written and performed by Jonathan Goodwin; tickets £18.

  
  Another great Heritage Open Day event over at the Butter Market in Leek: Celebrating Textile Heritage in the Staffordshire Moorlands (18/09; 10am-3pm) will explore Leek, Cheadle and Tean’s textile-making past with vintage fashion displays; admission is free, just drop in. If you love a bit of ska, The Beat featuring Ranking Junior are playing The Underground (21/11, 7pm-11pm), with support from The Perry Tones and DJ Steve Sos; tickets £25.

  
  One more from us: check out the inaugural Stoke Ceramics Fair (17/10, 10am-4pm), which will feature more than 40 makers from across the county showcasing their work at Stoke Minster.

🥨 Most popular stories from the last week on The Knot

💁‍♂️ Citizens Advice opens new hub in Potteries Centre: We got the lowdown from CEO Craig Browne on the new space, which will eventually be spread over two levels
📚 Stoke’s Book Festival is coming: This cool literary happening will take place on 03/10-10/107 and you can get tickets for individual events here
🤘Petition launched to revive Heavy Metal Holocaust: If you want to sign the petition to revive this legendary 1981 event, visit the Lemmy Forever website

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Weekly Weather (Stoke-on-Trent):

Mon ☁️ 22° (14°) Tue 🌦️ 17° (10°) Wed 🌦️ 17° (9°) Thu 🌦️ 17° (11°) Fri 🌧️ 17° (11°)
Sat 🌧️ 17° (9°) Sun 🌧️ 17° (10°).

Sunrise 14/09: 06.40 ☀️ Sunset 14/09: 19.27 🌅

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Seeking support can often feel stigmatising and may even put people off seeking the help they need. To combat this, Citizens Advice North Staffs (CAB) has chosen to locate its new Citizens Hub – a multi-purpose drop-in centre, internet café, and retail shop, with wellbeing services to follow – inside The Potteries Centre.

Set to open at the end of September next to TJ Hughes and the Hanley Post Office, it marks the first initiative of its kind in the UK. “Our thinking is that being seen in a shopping centre is not remotely stigmatising because, let’s face it, we all go shopping. It feels a bit less daunting,” explains Craig Browne, CEO at Citizens Advice North Staffordshire.

Other community organisations are set to offer support from the new hub too, including Dougie Mac and Staffordshire Police. The internet café, meanwhile, aims to encourage digital inclusion. “A lot of our clients either don’t have the digital skills or the equipment to do things online. So when someone comes in and needs help with benefits, for example, we print out pages and pages of PIP forms, fill them in by hand, pass them to the client to sign, then we send them off. We felt it would be much more empowering if they could show clients how to do it themselves.”

There is surging demand for these services across North Staffs. “Over the two-and- a-half years that I’ve been with the charity, the number of people we either speak to has increased from 21,000 to just over 33,000, almost a 50% increase. Our funding has also fallen by 10%, so we are doing half as much more with 10% less.”

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With services offered from the end of September, the Citizens Hub will feature three secure private interview rooms where people can access a face-to-face interview or video call, with a screen in each room so people can be supported remotely.

Next year, the plan is to redevelop the ground floor of the same unit, where CAB will host the Volunteer Centre of Excellence, which will provide training not only for its own volunteers but also other charities and community organisations, Browne confirms.

In addition, there will be a wellbeing space and flexible working area for CAB’s own staff and members of the public, he adds.

Out of the 230 CAB offices in the country, Browne says North Staffs is set to be the only one to offer such a comprehensive range of services under one roof.

“Where I’m hoping to go with this is that it becomes an exemplar for the rest of the network. I think it’s a way that we can take advice and support to people rather than them coming to us. Clearly, the more we do to collaborate with the rest of the community and voluntary sector in North Staffordshire, the better. But also I hope it becomes a financially sustainable model for the future, with the shop helping us to generate a bit of revenue to help support service delivery,” he says.

An “absolute explosion” in personal debt levels

In addition to benefits assessments, the new hub will have a specialist legal team who provide support for housing, asylum, immigration applications, and hate crime reporting. However, the largest area of growth remains what Browne describes as an “absolute explosion” in personal debt. Collective debt handled by the charity rose dramatically over a two-and-a-half-year window, driven by personal loans, the cost of living, council tax arrears, and gambling.

The level of collective debt that it’s been helping people with has risen from £30 million to £212 million, an increase of almost nine times in less than three years. Browne points out that the one growth area of the economy in Stoke is gaming and gambling. “I don’t think that’s a coincidence. I think their clients are also our clients.”

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🥨 A word from Helen, editor/writer at The Knot

Hi, how’s it going? Welcome to The Knot’s weekly round-up of positive news from across Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire — a little something to brighten your Monday.

As Andy Burnham pledges to have every rough sleeper off the streets by Christmas, the council is now looking at alternative models that can provide more appropriate accommodation and enable better ongoing engagement with people sleeping rough, while also considering the impact on local communities and businesses.

The council will work with Swan Bank Church and Adullam, who ran the Burslem night shelter, alongside its own Rough Sleeper Team and partners including VAST, as it develops its future approach. The Rough Sleeper Team will also continue to work directly with people sleeping rough, offering support and helping them access accommodation and other services where appropriate.

Discussions will also continue with Swan Bank Church about how the existing night shelter could potentially be used for emergency provision during periods of extreme weather. If you’re concerned about someone sleeping rough, you can report it through StreetLink, or call the council on 0800 970 2304.

Have an ace week, and don’t miss Wednesday’s interview with the CEO of Citizen Advice North Staffs, Craig Browne, to get the low-down on its new Citizens Hub in the Potteries Centre, which will feature an internet cafe, wellbeing spaces and more.

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Good News 🎉

• 🏡 Stoke ramps up rough sleeping strategy. Stoke-on-Trent City Council is reviewing how it supports people sleeping rough as part of the Government’s new national drive to get everyone in for Christmas. The council is considering a range of options for future provision, including alternative locations and different models of accommodation and support. The review will also consider how services can be provided in appropriate locations, ensuring provision is well distributed across the city and suitable for both service users and local communities. This will build on the success of a recent pilot for a night shelter in Burslem, which is coming to an end this month.

🌍 THE KNOT’S PERSON OF THE WEEK – Major Levison Wood 🌍

Explorer Levison Wood, chancellor of the University of Staffordshire bestselling author and Channel 4 presenter known for Walking the Nile, Walking the Americas and Walking Arabia will be celebrating the completion of the uni’s Student Village this Friday at a ribbon-cutting ceremony. The £100 million development is set to provide 1,000 new and refurbished bedrooms in a mix of cluster blocks and townhouses. The opening follows the university being named Modern University of the Year 2027 in the Daily Mail University Guide.

• 🤘Petition launched to revive Heavy Metal Holocaust. In 1981, Vale Park hosted the Heavy Metal Holocaust, with Motörhead, Ozzy Ozbourne and Rush all on the bill. CIC Lemmy Forever is hoping to bring back a similar event over the May bank holiday in 2028. If you want to sign the petition, visit the website. PS: in other heavy metal news, Lemmy Aid, special Lemmy Lemonade is now available at Lemmy’s Lounge. Though we can’t imagine Lem actually drank much of it!

• 🏗️ New Gates for Stoke Town Hall. To help protect one of our most important historic buildings, new gates were installed at Stoke Town Hall this weekend. It’s hoped that the improvements will deter anti-social behaviour, enhance security and create a safer environment for everyone who uses the building. While the Town Hall portico is no longer the building’s main entrance, the doors continue to be used during civic events, weddings and other functions.

• 🏫 Packmoor’s Watermill School welcomes SEND students. A new multi-million-pound school complex will welcome up to 70 new pupils from the start of next week, with the new school places created as part of an £11.5 million project. The new facility has been constructed on Turnhurst Road in Packmoor, to provide better learning opportunities for SEND children. The complex has been built on the site of the former Middlehurst School, which closed in 2014.

• 😃 Our Top Five Don’t-Miss Events this Week. The Gandeys Spooktacular Trentham is back (23/10-01/11, 12pm-8pm) with a haunted big top that’s set to be super spine-chilling; tickets from £9.99 for circle and grandstand and £14.99 ringside.

  
  If you’ve always wondered what makes serial killers tick, get along to Murderous Minds with Emma Kenny (18/09; 7.30pm) at the Regent; tickets from £32.76. The Funhouse Comedy Club is back at the Rigger (23/09; doors open 7.30pm, show starts 8pm), where 12 acts compete in comedy’s answer to Britain’s Got Talent and the X-Factor; tickets £5.

  
  We’ve got more details on Stoke Book Festival (03/10-10/107.30pm-9.30pm, bar opens at 6pm), with authors Helena Attlee (03/10) and Jess Kidd (05/10) among those performing, along with local writer Dave Proudlove, who will launch his new book, Street Football: The Real Grassroots of the Beautiful Game at the event; ticket prices vary, with some events free. Continuing with the literary theme, celebrated punk poet Dr John Cooper Clarke (23/10, 7.30pm), the first poet to headline an arena, Manchester’s Co-op Live, will play the Victoria Hall; tickets from £45.35.

🥨 Most popular stories from the last week on The Knot

🛍️ Can our high streets be saved from vaping and betting? It’s already happening in Longton, thanks to the likes of Dimbleby Ceramics and many other indie businesses
🍺 There’s still time to have your say on Stoke’s Local Plan: The consultation ends at 11.59pm on 14 September and you can have your say here before the deadline passes
😅 Reform councillor resigns from wrong council: Yep, you read that right!

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Weekly Weather (Stoke-on-Trent):

Mon ☁️ 19° (11°) Tue 🌦️ 17° (11°) Wed 🌧️ 17° (9°) Thu 🌧️ 17° (9°) Fri 🌧️ 18° (11°)
Sat ☁️ 19° (10°) Sun ☁️ 19° (10°).

Sunrise 07/09: 06.28 ☀️ Sunset 07/09: 19.44 🌅

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As shopping patterns have evolved dramatically over the past decade or so, with more and more of us shopping online or at retail parks, our high streets have suffered. Independent book stores and the like have made way for vape shops, while many many premises have simply shuttered up, never to open again.

Andy Burnham has made the revival of Britain’s high streets one of his early priorities, giving councils greater ability to refuse new betting shops and adult gaming centres, while vape shops will no longer be permitted to open under the same broad planning category as ordinary shops.

The government is also working with the Planning Advisory Service to establish clearer expectations around high-street design, including shopfronts, signage, neon lighting and oversized logos. Councils and communities are expected to have more of a say over the mix of businesses on their high streets. A new High Streets Strategy, coming later this year, will be backed by £150 million of investment.

Dr Allison Gardner, MP for Stoke-on-Trent South, told Parliament that Longton was “very much on the up”, describing a “real sense of momentum” and growing confidence and pride. She singled out Longton Exchange for supporting traders and attracting new businesses, and highlighted Kiln at Number 12, So Very Dog and Crumbs bakery as examples of businesses bringing fresh energy to the town centre, stating that “The high street is absolutely the heart of Longton.”.

Nevertheless, she sees that there are still problems to be addressed. She has also raised in Parliament the issue of there being too many vape shops on Longton High Street (five at the last count) and has campaigned for a banking hub following the closure of local bank branches.

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Longton continues to attract new businesses to the high street and surrounding area. This spring, a new independent barber shop Frequency Fade, with DJ decks and darts, opened on Market Street, as did pottery workshop Dimbleby Ceramics, next to sister business Kiln at Number 12. A new toy shop, SDPrime, opened last month inside Longton Exchange, while two established independents, Stitch in Time + Nail Attraction, moved into a larger shared unit at Longton Exchange in May 2026.

Inside the market, meanwhile, new diner Sugar Rush Social, arts supply shop Hustlers of Culture and True Grain DIY & Hardware have all opened in the last couple of months. And the former Wilco unit is soon to be replaced by discount department store Boyes.

With the aim of creating a “high-quality civic gateway”, the Times Square regeneration began in June 2026 as part of a £1.9m Longton Town Centre Improvement Scheme that will build a new civic plaza, update transport and road layout, including new red route traffic management controls, and wider footways and clearer pedestrian links to bridge the gap between Longton Railway Station, the local bus station, the high street, and the nearby Tesco retail park.

One of the businesses that is helping revive Longton’s futures is the aforementioned Dimbleby Ceramics, which not only sells ceramics but also offers pottery painting and wheel-throwing, with sister business Kiln at Number 12 serving coffee and cakes.

Co-owner and founder Mathew Dimbleby told The Knot that he sees our high streets as becoming not just for shopping, and that both his businesses are now ‘go-to’ destinations in Stoke-on-Trent but, more specifically, Longton. “Food, drink and other fun activities that can be shared with friends and family are activities that keep people in town centres for hours, as they visit several places and immerse themselves in the community and culture of the area. This is how destinations are created.”

This links into his next point: that we can often look back on the high streets of old through rose-tinted glasses. “We hear so many stories from our customers of the bustling shops and cafes in Longton in the previous century. This was mainly due to the thousands of women and men working in all the local pottery factories, plus hour-long lunch breaks! Sadly, with the closure of many large pottery firms and the demise of the long lunch, we will never be able to re-create this. So, modern high streets need to be completely re-thought out and we need to look to the future with hope rather than look back in a nostalgic fog of sadness.”

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🥨 A word from Helen, editor/writer at The Knot

Hi, how are you? Welcome to The Knot’s weekly round-up of positive news from across Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire – here to brighten your Monday.

Stoke-on-Trent’s Local Plan has been established to guide development across the city through to 2040, with the policies and site allocations agreed now potentially influencing where new homes and other development take place, how land is managed, and what type of infrastructure is needed to support our communities.

It has met with huge anger in some parts of the city. The proposed BL1 site at Lightwood, which has an allocation for up to 3,000 homes on 113 hectares of Green Belt land, has been described by campaigners as effectively creating another sizeable settlement between Lightwood, Cocknage, Rough Close and Meir Heath.

Packmoor has also generated considerable opposition to up to 800 homes on council-owned farmland. Former Labour councillor Dave Mountford actually defected to the Potteries Party partly over the proposed development at Packmoor.

Elsewhere, BL5 at Eaves Lane in Bucknall, which is allocated for around 1,139 homes, has a petition against its inclusion with 1,515 signatures. And originally, two sites around Norton Green were earmarked for 3,097 homes combined, which been reduced to 520 homes. But residents are still unhappy, citing increased pressure on roads and services and the loss of greenfield land.

There is also opposition to BL2 at Trentham, which would provide around 500 homes on land next to Trentham Golf Club. Residents have particularly raised concerns about additional traffic on the A34/Stone Road.

This is the final stage of consultation, known as Regulation 19, before the Local Plan is submitted to an independent government inspector for examination.

The council is aiming to submit the Local Plan to the independent government inspector in December 2026. Once submitted, the inspector will consider whether the proposed Plan meets the required tests and is legally compliant.

Further information about the consultation, including details of how to make a formal representation, is available from Stoke-on-Trent City Council’s Local Plan consultation page

Have a fab week, and don’t miss Wednesday’s feature on saving local high streets, which includes the lovely success story of Dimbleby Ceramics in Longton, which is attracting people from all over the world to its pottery workshops, plus insights from Keele University’s senior politics lecturer Dr Philip Catney.

PS: We’d love to grow The Knot and reach more people who enjoy positive local news and insightful journalism. If you know someone who’d like it too, we’d be so grateful if you could share this newsletter with a friend, family member or colleague. Thank you so much for your support!

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Good News 🎉

• 🏡 Have your say on the Local Plan. Hundreds of residents have already spoke to council officers at consultation events on Stoke-on-Trent’s proposed Local Plan. There are still opportunities this week if you want to understand what this proposed Local Plan means for you, your family, your community and the city as a whole. This includes Longton Library (01/09, 4pm-7pm) Tunstall Library (02/09, 4pm-7pm) and City Central Library (03/09, 4pm-7pm). There’s no need to book, just turn up and put your questions to the council. The Local Plan consultation ends at 11.59pm on 14 September and you can have your say here if you can’t make those dates.

🏃‍♀️THE KNOT’S PERSON OF THE WEEK – Jazmin Sawyers 🏃‍♀️

After overcoming an Achilles injury, local athlete Jazmin Sawyers, who used to train at Northwood Stadium with the City of Stoke Athletics Club, has had a fantastic summer. She claimed gold in the women's long jump at the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow on 1 August with a leap of 6.93 metres, followed by silver at the 2026 European Athletics Championships in Birmingham on 16 August with 6.99m, a personal best. Here’s Jazmin posing with her medals alongside her portrait on the city’s 100 Years, 100 Faces mural. Well done, Jazmin!

• 🚒 Sandyford firefighter discharged from hospital. A firefighter who worked to tackle the serious fire has been discharged from hospital after 13 days, including a week receiving treatment in critical care. He still has a journey of recovery ahead and will continue to be supported by the service. Meanwhile, recovery work is continuing in Sandyford to make sure the area is safe. Several families have now relocated from emergency accommodation into longer-term housing arrangements. You can donate to the Sandyford Fire Recovery Fund here.

• 👩‍🏫 Council moves to protect Falcon Works. Following concerns about the condition of the site, the former potbank on Sturgess Street, which is home to two Grade II listed bottle ovens, the council has begun work to protect as much of the historic complex as possible, with the costs recovered from the owners. Where structures pose an immediate danger, some elements may need to be dismantled to prevent further damage to the wider historic site.

• 🚧 See Burslem Market Hall. You can get a sneak peek of the multi-million-pound regeneration work taking place at Burslem Market Hall from the middle of next month. A viewing window has been installed at 32 Queen Street, which backs onto the indoor market space where work to restore the Grade II listed building is being carried out. In addition to stripping back and replacing the current roof, work is progressing on the brickwork, guttering and other external features. Inside, a temporary events space is being created that organisations can use in the short to mid-term. You can view the works on Tuesdays from 15 September.

• 😃 Our Top Five Don’t-Miss Events this Week. Comic Con is coming to Stoke, well Fenton Manor actually, on 26/09 from 10am-4pm. Browse anime-related stalls and meet celebrities from TV and the movies! Fans attending are also invited to dress up as your favourite TV, film or other fictional character and be ready to compete in our cosplay competitions! Tickets £5 kids, £9 adults; £11 for early entry and £25 for a family ticket (two adults, two children).

  
  It’s nearly time for the Potters Arf Marathon! (04/10), which features a 5k fun run, half marathon walk, and half marathon relay – Lou Macari will be this year’s honorary starter. Star of Travel Man and cult classic The IT Crowd, Richard Ayoade is at the Regent (19/10) to explore notions such as where’s the box to tick if you are a robot and if, when one door shuts, another door opens, there's something wrong with your doors; tickets from £41.90.

  
  The perfect Hallowe’en warm-up, Friday Twilight – Beware the Werewolf (23/10, 7.30pm-9.30pm, bar opens at 6pm) at the Potteries Museum & Art Gallery, an eerie stage drama written and performed by Jonathan Goodwin, is sure to give you the chills; tickets £15. If you want the Hallowe’en vibes to carry on, check out the Bishton Hall Ghost Hunt (21/11, 8pm-2am) in Wolseley Bridge, which is said to be haunted by the ghost of Charlotte Sparrow, who inherited the house from her father, with special guest investigators Tracey and Andy Lindon of Whispered Encounters; tickets £59 per person.

🥨 Most popular stories from the last week on The Knot

🏙️ A Hanley Heritage Day is proving popular: We highlighted Heritage Day ‘Exploring Hanley’s Monuments and Stories’. Get along there on 19/09 for some historic fun!
🍺 Taprooms, sushi, pizza, a music venue: Read our story on the plans for Newcastle as Capital & Centric gets ready to launch its four regeneration projects next year
😅 Reform councillor resigns from wrong council: Whoops! Christine Duffy handed her resignation in to Kidsgrove Town Council even though she represented Newcastle

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Weekly Weather (Stoke-on-Trent): It’s bank holiday, so it’s raining, of course 😆

Mon 🌦️ 18° (10°) Tue 🌧️ 20° (13°) Wed 🌧️ 20° (13°) Thu 🌧️ 20° (14°) Fri 🌧️ 19° (12°) Sat ☁️ 21° (13°) Sun ☀️ 21° (11°).

Sunrise 31/08: 06.16 ☀️ Sunset 31/08: 20.01 🌅

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I’ve been curious to see the progress being made in Newcastle for the past few months, constantly craning my neck as I drive past the site of the old York Place shopping centre and the adjacent Ryecroft brownfield site. So it’s with a sense of excitement that I pull on some work boots and don a hard hat to explore the sites with Capital & Centric’s development manager, Jonny Nolan. “Work started in December and we were drilling concrete in February – it’s amazing how quickly they’ve gone up,” he tells me as we begin at the Rye Park site, where 175 homes are being built, including 43 affordable homes with Aspire Housing. While the scaffolding is still up, windows are almost ready to go in, and some frontages have already been installed. It will be the first of Capital & Centric’s developments to be finished, with a launch party scheduled for January 2027.

The development will include a cinema, gym and flexible working spaces, with the various Newcastle developments interconnected so residents can move between them using a fob system. The Aspire units will be ready mid-May with planting planned for the site ahead of spring. “Rye Park will be heavy on the landscaping – people will walk out and it will be like a country park,” says Nolan.

Over the road at Astley Place, in addition to 42 apartments, a taproom, a pizza restaurant, a Greek eatery, a coffee shop, and a sushi place are all in the mix, along with a music venue and, potentially, a pickleball court and a library. “People want to live somewhere where they can grab a bite to eat,” states Nolan, who lives at Capital & Centric site Kampus, situated on a former Manchester Metropolitan University site. Asked if he could live here in Newcastle, his answer is emphatic: yes. “Our spaces in Newcastle are around 5-10 per cent larger than the ones in Manchester.”

Then there’s Karparc, the former Midway car park, which will be transformed into 111 one- and two-bedroom apartments. Meanwhile, Zanzibar will bring 62 affordable homes alongside enterprise units for local start-ups. Karparc is expected to be completed in May 2027, with Zanzibar following in autumn 2027.

Asked what kind of reception the projects have met with from locals, Nolan says there has been plenty of enthusiasm. “On a daily basis, the contractors are engaging with the public who are walking past, and I spend a lot of time down here, too. I’m walking around today in my Capital & Centric jumper and people will stop and say, “When’s it happening? This is great.” I think the public are really interested to know what they can they go and enjoy at the sites.”

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He believes much of that interest comes from what the developments will offer to people who don’t live there. “We want to create an environment where members of the public and residents can mingle and enjoy nice public space. There’s going to be a central courtyard space which is really verdant, really green, and all the public can enjoy that as well.”

To bring everything together, Capital & Centric will also be undertaking some highway improvements, which will improve the look of the high street. “You’ll see a lot more greenery and landscaping in the coming months,” he says.

The work requires a Section 278 agreement with the highways authority. Once approved, it will be carried out alongside the various phases of the developments. By 2028, he says, the aim is for the improvements to knit the various developments together and create a greener, more attractive high street.

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🥨 A word from Helen, editor/writer at The Knot

Hi, how are you? Welcome to another week of The Knot’s positive news round-up from across Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire – a little dose of good news to brighten your Monday.

We’re doing things a little differently this week, intertwining our good news offerings with a piece on Reform in Newcastle, where things aren’t looking particularly good for the party following the resignation of Christine Duffy, the former councillor for Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough’s Town ward.

She originally sent her letter of resignation to Kidsgrove Town Council, which was shared with Kidsgrove Independents. She then stated she was not, in fact, resigning on Reform Newcastle’s Facebook page. The Council then announced they’d received her resignation on Friday, with the letter dated 20 August.

We hope you enjoy your week, and look out for our feature on all the latest updates from Capital & Centric in Newcastle this Wednesday when we will be running our interview with development manager Jonny Nolan. He told us to watch out for a launch party at Rye Park this January, with the public invited to join.

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Good News 🎉

👨🏻 THE KNOT’S PERSON OF THE WEEK – Professor Raheel Nawaz 👨🏻

The University of Staffordshire’s Pro Vice-Chancellor will receive one of Pakistan’s highest honours, the Medal of Distinction, in recognition of his sustained policy contribution to national strategies for education and technology. Professor Nawaz is among the top 10 most cited scholars in the world in five fields: Applied AI, Digital Education, Educational Data Science, Tertiary Education, and Future of Education. Professor Nawaz is also a strong advocate for compassionate leadership and believes kindness is one of the most impactful leadership traits. His TEDx talk exploring this philosophy has been cited by ministers and heads of state. He will be presented with the Medal of Distinction at a special ceremony on Pakistan Day on 23 March 2027.

• 🏗️ New plans for Iceland Longton. Demolition work is set to start on the former Iceland store in Hanley today. The work to safely pull down the vacant Charles Street building and to carry out site preparation and levelling work will take around six weeks to complete and will pave the way for the first phase of the multi-million-pound Etruscan Square brownfield regeneration scheme to progress. The council is working with partners PfP Igloo and Genr8 to deliver the Etruscan Square development with a phase 1 scheme of new, affordable homes.

• 🔥 Help for Sandyford residents. With the cause of the fire in Sandyford now determined to be a disposable BBQ, Stoke-on-Trent City Council is continuing to support residents and oversee recovery work in the area. Four households were provided with emergency accommodation, while other families affected by the fire were able to stay with friends and relatives nearby. Staffordshire Police has arrested two people in connection with the incident and investigations are continuing. Building assurance officers are continuing to assess the condition of the properties and advise on the safety measures required.

• ☕️ Coffee#1 opens at Trentham. There’s a new place for a latte following the opening of this popular chain at Trentham Shopping Village. The seasonal menu is looking sweet, with passionfruit and mango tart and raspberry and coconut cake among the temptations. Pair it with a Dubai-style iced mocha or a Tropical Milkshake. No need to leave the dog outside, as they’re welcome.

• 😃 Our Top Five Don’t-Miss Events this Week. If you love a cocktail, World Class GB 2025 winner Lele Mensah is taking over the bar at Desire (28/08, 6pm), serving a specially created menu of cocktails inspired by culture, flavour and storytelling.

  The Kiln at Number 12 in Longton has plenty coming up, including wax melt burner pottery painting (16/11, 1pm-2.30pm), tree light pottery painting (23/11, 1pm-2.30pm), Christmas bauble pottery painting (30/11, 1pm-2.30pm) and dog clay modelling (07/12, 1pm-3pm). There’s been a lot of interest in the Heritage Open Days from Knotters, so here’s another: a Walking Tour Exploring Hanley’s Monuments & Stories (19/09, 2pm-3pm), which explores the park and cemetery among other historic spots; the walk begins at the bandstand.

  
  Ready for some laughs? The The Funhouse Comedy Club is back (23/09, 7.30pm) at The Rigger with its “Should I Stay or Should I Go?” competition, where 12 new comedians battle it out to survive 5 minutes; tickets from £5. Penkhull Village Brass – Oktoberfest will bring the oompahs in a traditional beerhouse setting at the Dipping House on 16/10 and 17/10, with ales provided by local brewhouse Lymestone Brewery.

As Gullis rages at Kidsgrove Independents, another Reform councillor is gone in Newcastle, prompting a by-election

Words: Helen Dalley

Is Reform unravelling in Newcastle? Jonathan Gullis has been accused of shouting, swearing and making threats towards Kidsgrove town councillor Gordon Davies, a member of the Kidsgrove Independents, at a council meeting on 8 July. Davies alleged that Gullis’ remarks included ‘get the f**k out of here’, and ‘I’m having you’ and added that he later made a verbal apology to him for the expletive-ridden outburst. Davies also alleges that a fellow councillor had to physically restrain Gullis during the confrontation.

Cllr Davies said the incident began after he approached the council leader during a recess to explain why he had earlier asked the chief executive why the meeting had started early. The allegations have not been independently verified and are the subject of a council Code of Conduct complaint. He told The Knot that he’s hoping the monitoring officer at the council will conduct a ‘proper investigation’ into his complaint. “At the moment she wants to deal with it informally. In my appreciation that means letting cllr Gullis get away with aggressive and threatening behaviour which incited some other Reform cllrs to behave just as badly to me in mob pile-in fashion.”

In a post on his personal Facebook page on 10 August, Gullis does not refer to last month’s council meeting. He does, however, accuse the Kidsgrove Independents of going beyond legitimate political scrutiny, alleging that a “sustained online campaign” against him had resulted in “repeated personal insults” and online threats that had left him concerned about the safety and wellbeing of his loved ones.

Also last month, Reform's Olivia Westcott lost her Kidsgrove Town Council seat after failing to sign her mandatory Declaration of Acceptance of Office within the required time limit. Labour’s Angela Cooper won the Kidsgrove Central & Ravenscliffe Town Council by-election on 6 August with 403 votes compared to Westcott’s 377 votes. Westcott remains a Reform councillor on Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council.

There was yet more drama for Reform Newcastle this month as former councillor Christine Duffy sent her resignation letter to the wrong council, insisted she wasn’t leaving, and then resigned anyway. On 4 August, Duffy originally sent a resignation letter to Kidsgrove Town Council, even though she represented Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council's Town ward. Duffy then stated on Reform’s Facebook page for Newcastle Borough that she wasn’t resigning.

But on 21 August, the council issued a press release stating that they had received her resignation, prompting a by-election. The original resignation letter was obtained by Kidsgrove Independents, who shared it on their Facebook page. In the letter, Duffy stated her reason for resigning as, “I had very little or no training for this role.”

Duffy says she withdrew her resignation before it reached the council's Proper Officer, while the Kidsgrove clerk reportedly forwarded the resignation to Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council on the same day. A text message from Duffy, shared by Kidsgrove Independents on 8 August, also appeared to indicate that she believed she was no longer a councillor. Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council chief executive Gordon Mole, however, has said that by the time he received the resignation, it had already been withdrawn.

Cllr Ray Williams, leader of the Kidsgrove Independents, told The Knot when a council appears to be sitting on a councillor's resignation letter rather than acting on it, it is not a good look. “Cllr Christine Duffy resigned her position on 4 August, and her messages up to and including 8 August were clear that she believed she was no longer a councillor. Yet Gordon Mole told the BBC that cllr Duffy rescinded her resignation immediately.

“Cllr Duffy has confirmed she spoke to no one from Newcastle Borough Council, and that the only message she received on the matter was from Cllr Gullis, which she was ignoring. So, the question is: who told Gordon Mole that this resignation had been withdrawn? Has Mr Mole been given inaccurate information, or has something else gone on here? This is a matter we intend to pursue, though we understand that may prove difficult given the monitoring officer's previous conduct in relation to the Reform administration.”

On 19 August, Duffy issued a statement, which said, “My position could not be clearer. I remain a Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Councillor for the Town ward and will continue carrying out the role I was elected to do.” Two days later, however, the Borough Council confirmed that they received her resignation last Friday, prompting a by-election for the Town ward.

Kidsgrove Independents has since submitted an FOI request seeking the exact date and time the resignation email was received, the exact date and time it was accessed or read by Mole, records of communications between the council and cllr Duffy, the dates and times of those communications, and any records relating to the withdrawal of the resignation.

Duffy issued another statement via Reform’s Facebook page on 22 August, stating, “This is not a decision I have taken lightly, but recent events have taken a significant toll on my health and wellbeing. I have therefore reached the difficult conclusion that I must now put my health first.” She added that she had received calls from national newspaper journalists despite her personal telephone number not being publicly available. “I do not know how they obtained it, but I have found this deeply unsettling.”

Kidsgrove Independents have since said that the by-election, “is not just embarrassing for the party – it’s the voters delivering their verdict on Gullis’ shambolic leadership.” They added, “We know Reform will come for us for holding them to account. If that's the cost of giving residents confidence in local democracy, so be it.”

On our socials…

We chatted with Jonny Nolan, development manager at Capital & Centric, about the progress being made at Newcastle, with a launch party scheduled for Rye Park in January…

🥨 Most popular stories from the last week on The Knot

🚶‍♀️ Walking Stoke’s surviving bottle ovens: We joined a walk to raise cash for a mural commemorating 60 years of dance music in the city, which will be situated in Hanley
💃 A new place to go: In case you’ve missed it, The Warehouse @ Potbank will open this Autumn: events are selling out first so go check out the website for tickets!
😀 Heritage Open Days are back: they’re running from 11-20/09, book here

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Sunrise 24/08: 06.04 ☀️ Sunset 24/08: 20.16 🌅

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From the days of the Golden Torch and Top Rank to The Void and Shelley’s, Stoke has a rich and storied history of dance culture. In the early 70s, the Torch was blasting out the latest Northern Soul hits and its all-nighters later became the stuff of legend, while 20 years later, big names like Paul Oakenfold and Sasha were behind the decks for the Golden, the legendary house and trance club night at the Void, when ravers from all over the north and the Midlands, including Manchester, Birmingham, Crewe, and Wolverhampton, would descend on the club to dance ‘til the early hours.

Music lover Phil Johnson wanted to do something to pay tribute to Stoke’s contribution to dance music. He’s already made a start with six unofficial blue plaques around the city – four in Hanley, one in Stoke and one in Newcastle – one of which commemorates The Place, widely regarded as one of the UK’s first purpose-built discotheques, designed to play recorded music via a DJ instead of a live band.

But he had bigger ambitions in mind, and came up with a plan to commemorate the city’s dance culture with a mural featuring the nightspots and DJ’s of Stoke’s golden days. A location has now been secured, and a crowd funder secured over £11,000, with donations coming from Denise Coates and JCB among others. Artist Tom Edwards, who has been involved in projects at Stoke Minster, the World War I mural in Longton, and nature scenes along local rivers, has already been commissioned.

The one obstacle Phil is now trying to navigate is that the location, outside the Victoria Inn in Hanley, falls within the city centre conservation area. “This means the council‘s planning department have to look at things such as ‘does it involve advertising or include anything inappropriate or change the general environment and spoil the local Edwardian and Victorian architecture’? Obviously, we are hoping they say go ahead but there is a chance that we will have to put in a planning application, which could cost £600, hence the sponsored walk,” he explains.

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The 14-mile trek began in Longport and criss-crossed the city, taking in Burslem, Hanley, Etruria, Stoke and Fenton before culminating at Gladstone, where the six towns’ greatest concentration of bottle ovens can be found. By exploring Stoke’s industrial heritage with a band of dance music fans and history-loving ramblers, Johnson now hopes to pay tribute to six decades of Stoke’s nightlife.

On a scorching August morning, there are around 20 of us gathered outside Cherished Chimneys, mostly sporting sunglasses, backpacks and hiking boots, before we descend onto the Trent and Mersey Canal at Longport to admire the first bottle oven en route, a glorious specimen encased in buddleia that once made Price & Kensington teapots. It casts long, shimmering reflections into the murky water and before long, Middleport is in sight, the second bottle oven on our journey. We’re just two bottle ovens in, and everyone is already happily snapping away.

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