THOUSANDS of jobs could be created if plans for an £8.5 million business park are given the go ahead. Staffordshire County Council wants to build a new business park at Redhill, on land between the M6 and the A34 which is the road to Stoke. The authority hopes the proposals, which could see the creation of more than 2,500 jobs, will provide the research and technology sector with a site to open units for manufacturing and production businesses. If approved, work on the development could begin in September 2012 and could be completed as early as spring 2013. 
Two young animators who set up their firm in Stoke-on-Trent are now doing great business much further afield. Ten months on, Carse & Waterman Productions are working with very big names in advertising and television – and their showreel already includes work for banking giant Santander and global telecommunications company AT&T. Both animators were trained at Staffordshire University in Stoke-on-Trent, and chose to stay in the city after graduation.
The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery in Stoke-on-Trent hopes that a 92-year-old Spitfire pilot will be able to launch a fundraising campaign, which aims to restore an example of the famous plane. The Friends of The Potteries Museum and Art Gallery are looking to raise funds to fully restore their own partly-restored example of the fighter, and to set up a full exhibition telling its story. The new campaign will launch in the city on Tuesday, 21st February 2012. The designer of the Battle of Britain fighter plane, Reginald Mitchell, was born in Stoke-on-Trent. Plans to regenerate parts of Stafford town centre have been given the green light. Stafford Borough Council has given LXB Retail Properties the go ahead to create new retail-led developments over two sites, Kingsmead and Riverside. These will include a 71,500 sq ft foodstore and 65,000 sq ft two-storey Marks & Spencer. A recent national retailing report showed Stafford has seen increasing numbers of people visiting - when others have seen a decrease - and that the number of vacant shops is about half the national average.
MAJOR plans have been unveiled to restore a North Staffordshire station on a heritage steam railway to its former glory and improve facilities for thousands of visitors. The proposals for Cheddleton include creating a working museum, where railway memorabilia and period furniture will go on display. The plans have been made feasible after more than £330,000 of shares were snapped up by steam train enthusiasts during a £450,000 share issue. Work is expected to start on the new building within months. 
The average prices of residential properties advertised in Stoke-on-Trent rose by 1.4 per cent in 2011, defying the national slump. The average asking price in the city was £121,000 last year - compared to £119,400 in 2010 - which is an increase of 1.4 per cent. The most expensive area in 2011 was Trentham with an average advertised price of £185,900 and the cheapest was Bentilee with an average of £66,400. 
THE countdown has begun to the biggest change in North Staffordshire emergency hospital care for nearly 50 years. In exactly a month, the region waves goodbye to its cramped old A&E unit. The replacement is the jewel in the crown of the £400 million superhospital for North Staffordshire. Staffordshire Moorlands District Council has pledged to provide 424 affordable homes within the next three years after winning an £8 million grant from the Homes and Community Agency (HCA). There are currently more than 1,600 people on housing waiting lists in this rural area. A total of 50 sites already owned by the council and Moorlands Housing will be reviewed and developed. The Coalfields Regeneration Trust's (CRT) National Apprenticeship Programme, has announced a new investment of £40,000 in Stoke on Trent - to create 40 youth apprenticeships, which will be delivered by Stoke-on-Trent F.E. College. 
fDi Magazine, part of the Financial Times, has this week announced its Top 10 European Micro-Cities of the Future. Stoke-on-Trent is in 6th place. The fDi Magazine Cities and Regions of the Future shortlists are run independently and consider data from 223 European cities and 142 European regions. The ranking is made from data in six categories: economic potential, human resources, cost effectiveness, quality of life, infrastructure and business friendliness.
Picture: Stoke-on-Trent Sixth Form College, seen in 2011. Picture by David Haden. A big surge in home rental demand is being seen due to the new £400m University Hospital of North Staffordshire, and the expansion at Keele University. HOUSE prices in Stoke-on-Trent have almost doubled over the past 10 years - but the city remains one of the most affordable places to buy a home or buy-to-let in England and Wales. House price in the city rose by 1.4 per cent in 2011. 
Stoke bikers are preparing for their 34th annual charity egg run this Easter to raise money for children. The traditional event will feature the usual decorated motorbikes and eccentric fancy-dress costumes, and will tour the city in a mass cavalcade between the Britannia Stadium and Kings Hall in Stoke town. |
An exclusive charity ball organised by a Stoke-on-Trent charity, and which attracts a host of A-list stars, has been renamed for 2012 to honour the Queen's jubilee celebrations. The re-branded Diamond Butterfly Ball is an annual fundraiser, staged by national charity Caudwell Children. In 2011, the Butterfly Ball raised £2.2million, which has helped change the lives of hundreds of disabled children in desperate need. In the past it has secured performances from Tina Turner, Rod Stewart, Sir Elton John and the late Whitney Houston. 
POTTERY giant Denby is aiming to put another Stoke-on-Trent pottery brand "back where it belongs" after boosting sales at one of the city's most iconic companies. The firm bought Stoke-on-trent based heritage firm Burgess, Dorling & Leigh – maker of the famous blue and white Burleigh ware – in 2010 and has now revealed that sales there rose by 16 per cent last year. It also acquired Hartley Greens in Longton at the end of 2011 and is now aiming to achieve similar growth levels there. Both brands have been showcased at two major trade fairs this month. 
10,000 new English oak trees are to be planted at Trentham Gardens in Stoke-on-Trent. A 45 acre commercial pine tree plantation is to be cleared to make way for the new native trees. The work is part of the first phase of a five-year restoration scheme to allow the vast 18th century parkland - partly designed by one of England's greatest gardening architects, Capability Brown - to return to its former glory. The work will complement another two large new woods of native species, which are being planted elsewhere in Stoke as part of the 2012 Jubilee celebrations. 
Staffordshire University’s student radio station will be gaining national exposure soon when it features on Steve Lamacq’s BBC 6 Music Show. Oliver Needham, technical manager for One Media Radio at Staffordshire University at Stoke-on-Trent, will appear on the show. National retailer The Range has announced it is to open its latest branch in Stoke-on-Trent in April 2012. The home, garden and leisure superstore will open its doors on City Road in Fenton on April 13. Around 100 full and part-time jobs should be created once the store is up and running. Shoppers in Stoke-on-Trent have been granted a first glimpse of a multi-million pound transformation of public spaces in the shopping streets of Hanley. The city centre makover will be designed to complement major regeneration schemes such as the £350 million 'City Sentral' shopping centre. 
Terry Abraham is one of the best known names in UK outdoors video. An award winning filmmaker, published writer and photographer, Terry has recently been working on a project for the Staffordshire Peak District, capturing the very best that the area has to offer on film. Read his new long illustrated blog article, detailing the experience! 
National executive recruitment specialist Assured Recruitment has plans to double the workforce again during this year, having previously doubled it in 2011. Assured has posted three successive years of sustained sales growth, averaging 53% per annum, and has already more than doubled its workforce in the past 12 months. Headquartered in Keele, North Staffordshire, the firms's client base includes phones4U, Experian, Maplin, GAME and BGL group. 
A new and extensive study of over 25,000 people across the UK has placed the city of Stoke-on-Trent at number 15 in the UK happiness charts. 
A NATIONAL upmarket coffee chain has defied the economic gloom and launched a new branch in a former bank, after the unit was given a £200,000 overhaul. Costa Coffee is due to open in the North Staffordshire town of Leek this morning, creating eight new jobs. Husband and wife franchisee team Jo and Jon Ingram battled hundreds of protesters who were against the firm's plans to set up shop in the town centre, but the couple have won out in the end. BUSINESSES set up across the region during the recession are doing well, according to new figures. Banking giant Barclays says that around one in ten companies in Staffordshire and one in 12 in Stoke-on-Trent that have been set up during the last three years are already achieving £100,000 turnover. According to Barclays, 8.5 per cent of new firms in Stoke-on-Trent are already achieving annual sales of £100,000, while that figure rises to 10.5 per cent across Staffordshire.
Stoke-on-Trent City Council planning officials are set to simplify the planning permission process for businesses in 2012/13. The move is to be backed by "up to" £200,000, intended to streamline an existing process that the Senior Planning Officer Edward Sidley has called "complex, cumbersome, inaccessible". |
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