Burslem

Federation themed guided tours of four of the city’s historic towns will take place this month as part of the national Heritage Open Days programme. The tours, entitled ‘The Past Shaping the Future’, will take place around Burslem, Longton, Stoke and Hanley (City Centre). Each tour will tell visitors about key buildings and places that define the history of the towns as well as future plans for their regeneration.

Over 300 members of Middleport’s community turned out for fun and frolics as they gathered under beautiful sunny skies to take part in an action packed activity day. Visitors both young and old flocked to Middleport Park and surrounding open space in Stoke-on-Trent, where children were transformed into their favourite characters by face painters whilst others enjoyed the climbing wall, bouncy castle or took advantage of the free health checks available.

6 Towns Radio, a side project that Tony and I are working on has had some good news today. We have managed to get the legendary Northern Soul & Motown presenter Mary Fox to present a show on our new station. We have been speaking with Mary for a few weeks and this morning we met and Mary agreed to join the team to present a 2 hour show each week.

What is happening to Stoke-on-Trent? We have just downloaded and been reading through a copy of the Council 2010/11 Budget Book in the PnP offices. Page 5 gives a brief history lesson about the 6 towns and their federation.

Olympic gold medallist Bradley Wiggins will lead Team Sky at this year’s Tour of Britain stage through Stoke-on-Trent. Team Sky has a six man roster that also contains top British riders Russell Downing, Steve Cummings and National Road Race Champion Geraint Thomas. Fellow Olympian and National Circuit Race Champion Ed Clancy will lead the Motorpoint – Marshalls Pasta team that also contains current Great Britain track cyclist Andy Tennant and double Halfords Tour Series winner and reigning Brit

The Old Post Office Gallery Burslem is proud to introduce Eleanor Heath, the new contemporary Artist that has taken residency within the gallery’s studios. Eleanor’s exciting paintings are a contemporary mix of colour and design. Incorporating both floral and geometric ideas. After graduating in 2002 from Liverpool John Moore’s University with a degree in Fine Art, Eleanor worked at the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Familiar faces from the 1970s and 80s were back behind the bar as Titanic Brewery celebrated the opening of the Sun Inn, Stafford. Former landlords Ashley Howard, 79, and Brian Deakin, 76, jointly pulled a celebratory first pint to mark the rebirth of the Sun. The historic town centre pub was a favourite destination for pub-goers for decades but has been shut in recent times after an attempt to run it as a wine bar.

Titanic has become among the first breweries to install cutting edge equipment to chill its beer and provide heat for customers. The Burslem brewer has teamed up with Geo Bar as part of the development of the Sun Inn, Stafford, which opens to the public next Thursday (22 July). The Geo Bar heat recovery system takes excess heat created by pubs’ chilling equipment – which is usually expelled outside the building and lost - and uses it to heat water, either for direct use or in the heating system.

Government cuts in funding have forced Stoke-on-Trent College to review it's arrangements for delivering community learning. The cuts have forced Stoke-on-Trent College to end it's contract with Community Partnership Learning [CPL] which has delivered adult courses in community centres across the six towns for the past six years. Although some courses will still run in Normacot the effects of the decision will be felt among ethnic communities across Stoke-on-Trent.