With much love and thanks to WordPress for hosting us over the last few months, Local Edition has now moved over to a new website – see you there!

New links

In case you’ve been wondering what we’ve been up to over the last few weeks, we’ve been pretty busy in the Local Edition cave.

– We started a wiki for anyone to join our newspaper revolution
– And a music website, Stoke Sounds
– and another wiki to facilitate freedom of information requests in Stoke

And they’re all fab. On Friday Local Edition will be back in bright full glorious technicolour paper, so look out!

Read our six-month report

Local Edition’s first six month report is published online today.

The report, ‘Can a newspaper make a difference’ demonstrates the impact that this new social enterprise has had on the northern communities of Stoke-on-Trent as well as outlining where the project will go from here.

Summary of points

Local Edition was launched in response to a lack of basic information and communication opportunities in an area of high intervention in Stoke-on-Trent.

Local Edition seeks to counter a culture of limited information, segregation and voicelessness and to build bridges between different communities, organisations and businesses.

Its important difference from all other newspapers in the area, and the vast majority in the country, is its not-fot-profit status. It is one of only five Community Interest Companies registered in Stoke-on-Trent.

While the paper seeks to put forward a positive view of our area, it is no PR machine: it channels local anger in constructive ways, encouraging individual empowerment and helping to hold organisations to account. Our first priority has been to establish a place for Local Edition in the community, finding our readership everywhere that people have a few minutes to read.

Now that it has strong positive feedback and a regular place in the reading habits of the community, it needs to build its sustainability and increase participation amongst more target groups.

“In a nutshell, Local Edition is keeping people’s spirits up!”

A few of our outcomes to date:
• improve information about this area that is acccessible to everybody
• provide a communication opportunity for individuals, organisations and businesses
• raise the self-esteem of the area through a positive, constructive medium that feels positive about its environment
• raise the profile of community activities, encouraging people to get involved and improving people’s views of what is happening in the local area
• develop and encourage citizen journalism skills including photography, public questioning and use of free online tools including blogs and wikis.
• provide valuable work experience for youth and those looking at new career options
• provide a forum for self-expression and the sharing of expertise within our communities
• provide the area and its people – plus visitors and outsides – with a colourful, scrapbook-type ‘mirror’ that shows it to be a vibrant, positive place
• development of a wide audience, including those with low literacy or English-language skills who may not otherwise access information from local agencies
• showcase different towns to people who may have stopped visiting them
• develop direct relationships with readers and potential contributors
• build insights into the communities and gather news and material that could not be done from a newsroom

Short term areas of development and improvement
• appoint a management committee to steer strategy and provide accountability for the social objectives of the newspaper
• start the newspaper’s workshop programme and other projects to widen participation and increase citizen journalism skills, self-expression and transferable skills across our communities
• expand sponsorship by local organisations and businesses with a target of financial sustainability within three months
• develop contributor network to ensure we are covering more news from across the area and all its community groups, businesses and agencies
• develop special regular sections including more business news, regeneration updates and sections of interest to advertisers and consumers. Continue responding to community feedback to build on the paper’s initial loyal following.
• increase people-power with a greater freelance budget and structured volunteer programmes in order to increase the quality of editorial, particularly in the areas of news and and investigation.
• explore options for widening access to the newspaper for those with disabilities and language barriers

How you can help:
• Sponsorship • Advertising • Information & Updates • Ideas • Grants & Donations

To find out more, please download the PDF…

If you have any problems accessing the file or wish to request a copy for somebody offline, please use the comments box to get in touch

Match report: Stoke City Vs Watford

by Richard Randle

Stoke City proved their credentials for a play-off place by drawing with table-toppers Watford at the Britannia Stadium on 9^th December.

In an entertaining game, it was the Potters who looked most likely to break the deadlock, with Ricardo Fuller a constant threat in the box.

But it was Watford who started the game strongest, with Marlon King searing through the Stoke defence, only to be met by Leon Cort.

Thereafter it was all Stoke, with Fuller and the impressive Liam Lawrence linking up well.

Fuller drilled his way past several defenders to find no one available in the box, with the ball collected by Watford keeper Richard Lee.

Stoke kept pressing, and were denied a seemingly clear penalty shout towards the end of the half after Lawrence went down, but the referee waved play on.

After the break City continued to threaten the Watford defence, who seemed to struggle with Stoke’s imposing front-line.

However Lee was in good form, and was on hand to deny the Potters several times with some fine saves, one being on the line from Fuller.

And it was Fuller who should have won the game for Stoke at the death. Through on goal, he only needed to lift the ball over the stricken ‘keeper, but instead fired straight at his legs.

Worryingly for the Potters, Steven Wright was stretchered off deep into injury time after sustaining a boot in the face.

With the Stoke squad down to bare bones, it was a setback Tony Pulis could have done without.

But Pulis will be pleased to see that his team is able to match the top sides in the Championship, and with Stoke only six points off top spot, a couple of astute signings in the January transfer window could see automatic promotion become a real possibility.

Longport’s champion

by Steven Kennedy

WHILE cage fighting has in the past received a great deal of criticism, Stoke born Ross Pointon has used the mixed martial art event to gain a successful living.
Ross, now 29, runs the Gladiator Gym in Longport, having studied numerous fighting styles including Karate, Brazilian Jujitsu and Chinese hand to hand combat San Shou, while also starring in Sky Television’s cage fighting tournament The Ultimate Fighter.
“I started martial arts when I was five years old and getting bullied,” explained Ross. “The bullying soon stopped, but I just stuck with martial arts and I soon realised I was pretty good, and then I found I could make a job out of it which was when I turned professional.”
Having been named two time British San Shou Champion and UK Mixed Martial Arts World Heavyweight Champion, Ross
became one of the first European competitors on The Ultimate Fighter.
“I felt privileged to go on the Ultimate Fighter,” said Ross. “It was just a shame that I didn’t have as much experience as some of the guys who were on the show, which probably led to my early exit.
“If I could do it now, I would have won the show as I’m a totally different fighter.”
The Gladiator Gym has proved to be one of the many success stories of Ross’s fighting career, with membership growing at an alarming rate.
“Gladiator Gym is my gym. Originally I started teaching guys at my house until it got to the stage where I had too many people.
“I then found a run down building, did it up, and started teaching the guys there, and now I have had to move into bigger premises with about 50 to 60 members. Anyone can join and we always make you feel welcome.”
More information at http://www.gladiatormma.co.uk or call 07921 861699

Report: Amir Khan vs Scott Lawton

Going into his fight on October 6 with Amir Khan, Scott Lawton described the bout with the Commonwealth lightweight champion as ‘like a world title fight’ for him; but it was to last under ten minutes.

The 31-year-old fighter from Stoke lost the fight early in the forth round after referee Victor Loughlin deemed Lawton to be in no condition to continue.

Lawton suffered an onslaught of punches in the opening seconds of the round after Khan landed a perfect left hook on the local boxer, before finishing the job with a series of uppercuts, giving the referee no choice but to end the fight, much to the disappointment of Lawton and his following army in the 7,500 strong Nottingham crowd.

Lawton entered the ring to the tune of Delilah, in a Stoke City football shirt sporting the number one on his back, but he found himself second best to Khan from the first bell, despite the Khan camp forgetting to give their boxer his gum shield at the start of the first round.

Bolton born Khan, 20, took advantage of a hesitant start from Lawton and managed to land several early punches, including an important big right hand shot, aimed to show recent critics he could be a world champion.

Lawton’s best moment perhaps came in the second round when he was caught by a quick left hand shot, which he countered when Khan let his guard down, allowing him to connect with a strong right handed punch.

Khan soon picked up where he left off in the first round, and with 10 seconds remaining managed to get Lawton into a corner, before connecting with a well timed left hook, which proved to be the beginning of the end.

Lawton never recovered from the late hit and entered the third round looking tired, allowing Khan to beat him to the punch on most occasions.

Khan used the round to further sap the strength out of his opponent, landing numerous body shots on Lawton, before finishing up in the next round.

Lawton managed a quick embrace with his victor after the fight, but the night was all Khan’s as he set his sights on becoming the world champion.

by Steven Kennedy

Local Edition interviews Mark Meredith, elected mayor of Stoke-on-Trent (1)

Local Edition interviews Mark Meredith, elected mayor of Stoke-on-Trent (2)

Nothing much changes

For the present day, the word ‘dead’ has been banned from any editorial coverage of Burslem. The word rings around too much like a mantra for me to want any part in reinforcing it, especially as it does no service at all to all the living, breathing people working hard in the town.

Today I was told about a video from the 60s in which people talk about the decline of Burslem, which surprised me. To hear about that period today, you think it was the most bustling, thriving time. It reminded me to dig out a passage in the Old Wives Tale, coming up to its centenary next year, with Sophia’s reflections upon returning to Bursley after a stint in Paris:

In its contents the Square had not surprisingly changed during the immense, the terrifying interval that separated her from her virginity. On the east side, several shops had been thrown into one, and forced into a semblance of eternal unity by means of a coat of stucco. And there was a fountain at the north end which was new to her. No other constructional change! But the moral change, the sad declension from the ancient proud spirit of the Square–this was painfully depressing. Several establishments lacked tenants, had obviously lacked tenants for a long time; ‘To let’ notices hung in their stained and dirty upper windows, and clung insecurely to their closed shutters
…
The Square really had changed for the worse; it might not be smaller, but it had deteriorated. As a centre of commerce it had assuredly approached very near to death. On a Saturday morning thirty years ago it would have been covered with linen-roofed stalls, and chattering country-folk, and the stir of bargains. Now, Saturday morning was like any other morning in the Square, and the glass-roof of St. Luke’s market in Wedgwood Street, which she could see from her window, echoed to the sounds of noisy commerce. In that instance business had simply moved a few yards to the east; but Sophia knew, from hints in Constance’s letters and in her talk, that business in general had moved more than a few yards, it had moved a couple of miles–to arrogant and pushing Hanbridge, with its electric light and its theatres and its big, advertising shops.

The heaven of thick smoke over the Square, the black deposit on painted woodwork, the intermittent hooting of steam syrens, showed that the wholesale trade of Bursley still flourished. But Sophia had no memories of the wholesale trade of Bursley; it meant nothing to the youth of her heart; she was attached by intimate links to the retail traffic of Bursley, and as a mart old Bursley was done for.

Review: Uncle Eric’s Navy Lark

New Vic Theatre until 25 August

There aren’t a lot of people doing much entertaining in August. Even the local paper has packed up for the month, so little is there to do. So hooray for the New Vic, who have put on a really entertaining show that combines live music with a funny play that will get all of us rain-soaked stay-at-homes out for a dance.

The most impressive element of Uncle Eric’s Navy Lark is the musical arrangement of the 60s songs, which at a few points has you wondering wheter they’ve brought in the original records. It was only when I heard songs I knew very well that I could tell the difference. The cast brings together different talents and a fair amount of bravery to pull in the New Vic’s exposed audience (in some cases, actually drag them onto the stage, but don’t let that put you off…) and create a really fun atmosphere for all ages.