BBC Radio Stoke - The Red Haired Stokie

[@Angelcynn_2001]

Truth. I am a Stokie, and i love my heritage.. I drive through Longton, Trentham, Stone, Caverswall, so natural and ancient..we are bankrupt though, that's the reason we mourn

[@louistracy6964]

There are examples of places being brought back to life through local campaigns around the country, so it's wrong to say 'we have no control'. It's hard, and usually involves private sector.

[@B0dybagBen]

We are stagnant.. Selling off your land to people who "want to be here", is a real misclarification. She's right, we do have the best transport location in the country. Unfortunately, we are selling our useable land for dirt cheap to multinational corporations, they want to be here, and we're, quite literally, giving it to any takers for next to nothing to do with as they please, for bottom dollar, and they dodge all tax alongside it. They want to be here for distribution and massively low prices.. Nothing else. They wont hold offices here.
The potteries industry doesn't "Make people happy", it might make the older generations happy, but there is no future in that. Life has changed. The world has changed. You cannot cling to largely obsolete ideals like Bottle Kilns, Pottery, the idea of a high street.. The absolute clownery of claiming that we need to bring back our retail sector in Hanley, which simultaneously selling off endless acres of space to Amazon, the company largely built upon the destruction and domination, and obsoletion of the retail high street idea. How do people not see that?
The past needs to be let go. Unfortunately, the council's money doesn't go on moving forward, it goes on past and stagnation. It goes on "culture", but, that culture is in the form of mosques, prayer barns, and hotels. Building culture is fine, but the money and focus isn't going on building up --OUR-- culture, it's going on building up everything possible but that.
you can't tell me that tax isn't being evaded, also. A quick look through Just-Eat will show roughly 350 "Dessert" bars open virtually 24/7, with many of them sharing menus, addresses and phone numbers but miraculously never take orders... Nothing gets done about it. Again, money and property given away to whoever cries the loudest.
Unfortunately, what we, as Stokies, are most famous for currently is drugs. You wont like to hear it, but it's true. The majority of drugs come through here as our transport links are excellent (As Jenna stated). You can't build a culture around being scum, and until we actually fix what we allow into the city, it'll only get worse. This city is the absolute pinnacle of why England is a dying country... We're no longer England, we're everything but.

[@judeawright9887]

You are right Ben, but it is still important to the hard working people do want to hold on to their past because it is so important to them. TBH we do have such fabulous history to be proud about and we should not let all our beautiful buildings just rot and forgotten about.
I think that 90% the people running the government and local councils have just been very greedy and wasted all of the hard working tax payers money. It would be better if every town had a council to run on a equal budget and try and improve their own town. The local people would definitely help to make it a better place. Plus if new schemes and ideas work other town councils could learn from this.
Just saying .......from a pensioner who has worked hard and paid all of my taxes.
Kind Regards Jude.