New Era for Skills and Innovation as Stoke-on-Trent & Staffordshire IoT Marks Official Launch

Plus new chemo chairs for Royal Stoke, city's first padel court opens, Stoke Library set to become events venue, and Staffordshire Warm Homes grant opens

The Knot and Helen Dalley

Dec 08, 2025

Good News 🎉

💷 Upskilling Stoke. The city is set to become a hub for tech education following the launch of the Stoke-on-Trent and Staffordshire Institute of Technology (IoT), which was attended by the Minister of State for Skills, Baroness Jacqui Smith. Led by Newcastle and Stafford Colleges Group (NSCG), the £25 million facility is set to deliver higher-level technical skills in priority sectors, including advanced engineering and manufacturing, digital technologies, modern methods of construction, and health sciences. Since welcoming its first cohort of learners in September, the IoT has brought together NSCG, Keele University, Axia Solutions, Burton and South Derbyshire College, South Staffordshire College, and Stoke-on-Trent College. The institute is supported by partners from industry who influence strategy and curriculum, including Dell, Hitachi Energy, Moog, and Siemens.

The Minister of State for Skills, Baroness Jacqui Smith, was in Stoke for the opening of IoT last week

✍️ THE KNOT’S PEOPLE OF THE WEEK – Steven Beattie (Poet Laureate), Cameron Hart (Young Poet Laureate) & Kate Leake (Creativity Laureate) ✍️

Taking over from centenary poet Nick Degg in May 2026, Steven Beattie, a self-confessed metalhead who is currently writing a play about Lemmy, has been crowned the new Stoke-on-Trent Poet Laureate. Cameron Hart has been appointed as the inaugural Stoke-on-Trent Young Poet Laureate and will take up this post in January 2026, while Stoke has also crowned its first Creativity Laureate, award-winning local author and illustrator Kate Leake. As with the poet laureates, Leake will team up with communities, schools, and businesses across the city, working closely with Stoke-on-Trent Libraries to celebrate creative talent and encourage people to engage with the 2026 National Year of Reading.

A trio of creative talent: our poet laureates and creative laureate

🏥 New Chemo Chairs for Royal Stoke. The hospital has been gifted 77 new chemotherapy chairs thanks to a £179,000 donation by the Denise Coates Foundation. More than 200 patients a week will use the new chairs when they visit the Emergency Department and Critical Care and Cancer Centres, with 10,400 patients projected to benefit over the next year. Chemo infusion sessions can last many hours, but now patients can access an adjustable recline function, heating, USB ports, reading lights, and different position settings. The design also allows two patients, or a family member, to sit together during treatment.

The new chairs feature an adjustable recline function, heating, USB ports, and reading lights

🥎 City’s First Padel Court Opens. Ace Padel UK has launched in Cobridge, with Lord Mayor Steve Watkins joining founders Jamie Reynolds and Lewis Woolley, plus five-time world 8-ball champion Gareth Potts for the opening last week. Work has also begun to install four padel courts at Stoke Trentham Lakes, which are expected to open in February. In addition to the Cobridge courts, you can play at Draycott Sports Centre and Stafford Padel Club, which opened last month.

👩‍⚕️ Stoke Library Set for Revamp. The Grade II-listed building is poised to come back into use as an events venue for weddings and corporate and community gatherings. Constructed in 1878 by architect Charles Lynam and featuring a William Shakespeare mosaic, the iconic three-story building on South Wolfe Street will go by the new name of Old Stoke Library.

A planning application has been submitted to bring Stoke Library back into use

♨️ Staffordshire Warm Homes Grant Opens. Designed to support people most affected by fuel poverty, cold homes, and related health conditions, Staffs County Council’s ‘Warm Homes: Local Grant’ scheme will help eligible households across the county heat their homes for less with free home heating and insulation upgrades. The scheme provides support such as loft and wall insulation, solar panels, and smart heating controls. Check if you’re eligible here.

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

It’s been quite a turbulent week for Staffordshire County Council, as it was discovered by Hope Not Hate that its leader, Ian Cooper, has actually been posting some pretty unsavoury things online. A ‘top fan’ of Facebook sites including the European Race, which promotes white supremacy, he commented online to one black lawyer, Adeshola Mos-Shogbamimu, that she should “fxxk off back to Nigeria” and said “no foreign national should be allowed to stand as an MP” in reference to Home Secretary David Lammy. Since the news broke late last week, Cooper’s party membership has been revoked and he has been forced to step down as leader of the council.

While many media outlets approached Cooper for his thoughts on expulsion, nothing was forthcoming until he commented on a Facebook post from Tamworth’s Labour MP Sarah Edwards, saying, “The good thing is I don’t need to be a politician for the money, unlike some. I can walk away today without consequences,” adding to Edwards, “you’ll have nothing when you are binned in the coming years.”

Cooper isn’t the first of Staffordshire’s Reform councillors to attract controversy speaking out on social media. Last month, the county council’s cabinet member for highways, Peter Mason, apologised for his choice of words over posts he wrote about black women and the police, prompting Horninglow and Eton Parish Council to pass a motion stating he was no longer welcome at future parish meetings.

The council’s interim leader is its current deputy leader, Martin Murray, another Reform party member, with proposals to nominate a new Leader of the Council set to be agreed at a meeting of Full Council this Thursday.

What are your thoughts on it all? Let us know in the comments below…

Really Good News 🎉 Your favourite news from the last week

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🎄 20 Things to Do This Christmas: Have you read our festive guide yet?

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