Get Involved: Discover Newcastle's Plans to 2040 at the Upcoming Hearing Sessions
Plus own a stake in The Sugarmill, free leadership courses for heritage leaders and a campaign against knife crime with Stoke City Community Trust gets underway…
Good News 🎉
🏺Make Your Voice Heard on Newcastle’s Future. Just after the town elected new mayor Councillor Robert Bettley-Smith, last week, a long-term plan that will help to determine future development in the borough has reached its next stage with a series of public sessions. The borough council submitted its Local plan 2020 to 2040 to the Secretary of State last December, which covers important stuff like green belt, housing allocations and transport. Now an independent planning inspector will consider the plan at some public examination hearing sessions from 20/05. The hearing sessions take place at Castle House next week and the weeks beginning 28/05 and 17/06. Want to take part? Sign up here.
🤘 🎸 THE KNOT’S PERSON OF THE WEEK – SARA WILLHOIT 🎸 🤘
After 33 years, the women’s record for finishing the Mow Cop Killer Mile has been smashed by Sara Willhoit, who shaved a staggering 12 seconds off the time. Willhoit, who runs for Shrewsbury Athletic Club, finished the Elite Race in 7 minutes 42 seconds, beating the record set back in 1992. What makes this run even more remarkable is that it it was the first time Sara had run the race, and she pocketed a deserved £1,000 from the record-breaker prize fund. The race features a challenging ascent of 570 feet, with steep sections reaching a 25 per cent gradient. Phew!
🍺 Titanic Brews Up Centenary Ale. Our fave Burslem brewery has teamed up with the city council to produce a limited-edition beer in honour of the centenary. A traditional 4.7% ABV amber ale, Century Anniversary Ale is now available in bottles, cans and on cask in pubs across Staffordshire. The beer’s design celebrates the city’s heritage, with labels and pump clips featuring our iconic bottle kilns. A portion of the proceeds from every sale will go to the Titanic Brewery Foundation, which supports local charities. Fans of Plum Porter, meanwhile, can now enjoy it in 440ml Nitro cans following its launch last week.
🎸 Own a Stake in The Sugarmill! Like many of you, we've had some great nights down at The Sugarmill (the Badly Drawn Boy gig this March was mega). As part of its 'Own Our Own Venues' project, Music Venue Properties (MVP) is looking for people to invest in this much-loved local venue through community ownership, which would remove it from vulnerable commercial leases. Under 25's can invest as little as £50, while it's £100 minimum for everyone else – there’s more info at their website. MVP raised £2.8 million in 2023 to support grassroots music venues including The Snug in Atherton and Le Pub in Newport. For this second community share offer, they're looking to acquire six other venues alongside The Sugarmill including live jazz joint Peggy’s Skylight in Nottingham.
👩💼 Free Leadership Courses for Heritage Leaders. The University of Staffordshire’s CREATE PLACE Heritage & Digital Leadership Programme has been awarded £207,000 to offer executive-style training to heritage leaders, volunteers, and organisations by the National Lottery Heritage Fund. The programme will cover a range of topics, including intangible heritage at risk, working with heritage trusts, digital skills, 100-year planning, heritage business models, executive coaching and participation in shaping buildings, stories, and intangibles. All the details, including how to apply, are here.
⚽️ No Place for Knives in Stoke, say SCFC. Stoke City FC Community Trust has teamed up with Knife Crime Matters to help deliver free educational resources to all 7-11 year olds and 11-18 year olds, throughout Stoke-on-Trent and the surrounding areas. As part of this campaign, two huge murals are planned, which will be displayed at The Park Rehabilitation Centre for Disadvantaged Children in Meir and a prominent spot in the city centre, location to be confirmed.
Really Good News 🎉 Your favourite news from the last week
🗞️ Let’s not become a news desert: James’s piece about the recent local elections created quite a stir. Would you like to see more stuff on politics from us? Tell us.
☕️ Moorland Pottery Launches Centenary ‘Stokie Ware: Time to make some room for some commemorative centenary plates and mugs in the cupboards…
🎏 It’s Festival Time at Keele: The event theme is defending democracy and truth
The Knot Pod 🎤 ⬇️ Catch James chatting with some of our amazing innovators
🥨 The Red Haired Stokie: Our ace local blogger, photographer & Knot contributor
🗣️ Kirsty Hulse: Get inspired, it’s the founder of leading event Confidence Live
🏃♂️ George Bettany: Jog to this chat with the founder of MARA Run Club
📽️ Daniel Moore: So much creativity going on in Stone at top agency Dissident
🎶: Ash and Ryan: Listen to two of Stoke’s biggest names in music and fashion
🕯️Beth Warren: Founder of sustainable candle brand The Wandering Bee
🥨 Good Vibes Only: A word from Helen, writer at The Knot
James’s post Let’s not Become a News Desert clearly struck a chord. While some felt that reporting of the local elections had been adequate, even good, others believed there hadn’t been enough coverage from local news outlets (and maybe that means us, too). While The Knot’s mission has always been focused on bringing good news about Stoke and Staffs to your mailbox, it seems that some of you want more insight into what's happening in local politics.
While we’d never want to become party political, we believe it’s vital to hold our elected officials to account. Now the Conservatives have lost control of Staffordshire County Council for the first time since 2009, all eyes are on the newly elected Reform UK councillors, who formed their first cabinet here in Staffs last week. Farage and his new councillors have already spoken about their desire to cut “wasteful spending” in local government, which they see as being cash for climate change and diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) policies. The party has, however, made it clear it wants to put more cash into fixing our roads – but will it be able to deliver on its promises as spending on SEN and adult social care spirals across the county?
With the government keen to abolish single-tier councils and replace them with a single layer of unitary authorities by 2028, Reform UK will also likely play a part of the proposed council re-organisation. This new structure would see one council – likely a Staffordshire-wide body – responsible for services currently shared between the county council and its district and borough counterparts.
What do you think about it all? Drop us a line and share your views.
Helen x
Weekly Weather (Stoke-on-Trent):
Mon ☀️ 18° (7°) Tue ☀️ 21° (9°) Wed ☀️ 19° (6°) Thu ☀️ 18° (6°) Fri ☀️ 19° (11°)
Sat ☀️ 19° (9°) Sun ☀️ 17° (7°).
Sunrise 19/05 ☀️05:05 Sunset 19/05 🌅 21:06
Good summary of news. Great that there aren’t pop ups and adverts to navigate around