Veg that pops...

Folkore in the basement

A few of the scenes from British legend and folklore / folklife, as Minton tiles from the basement of the former Stoke town public library, Stoke-on-Trent. Creative Commons Attribution, although the designs themselves are of an age to be in the public domain.

Ideas for the Stoke Neighbourhood Plan planning day

My ideas for the Stoke Neighbourhood Plan planning day today. Just a few of my own ideas and notions, so don't freak out if you see I've marked your shop-front for demolition! The big grey circles mean nothing - they were just on the 1:10000 map I found.

* Protect:

- Protect the south half of the Minster churchyard (the bit that's over the main road from the main churchyard).

- Make a new micro-park in the currently fenced-off and weed-filled south-west corner of Sainsbury's car park.

- Protect local allotments (Boothen and Richmond St.) from being built on.

* Re-open:

- Re-open the former public bicycle-path across the old Victoria Ground. Do not allow St. Modwen to re-route the cyclepath (when they build a new housing estate on the old football ground), such that the path ends up jammed right up against the A500 wall.

- Re-open the blocked-off footpath from Hunters Way (Hartshill) via the green back-lane of the Villas and down to the London Road Bakehouse - thus providing a green off-road footpath from Hartshill down to the lower end of the London Road.

- Re-wild the margins of the Fowlea Brook from North Street right the way down to the eastern edge of the Spode site. Do not allow future Spode re-development to wall itself off from the Brook.

* Build:

- Allow the University to expand onto the abandoned space at the back of Stoke Station (just north of the station's new back car-park). Don't keep waiting in vain for a chic modern hotel or conference centre to land there.

- Employment use should be preferred for the abandoned North Street / former Irish Centre sites.

"Ello, John, gotta new app?"

Handy guide to North Staffordshire / Stoke-on-Trent android phone apps, 2015/16.

City council approves £2.5m battle against dumping

Good news today that the Stoke-on-Trent City Council cabinet has given the green light to £2.5m of new proposals to clean up the city. There will be a 'zero tolerance' approach to fly-tipping, with the council prosecuting every case of dumping. Plus four extra new fly-tipping clearance teams, enabling the council to clear fly-tipping from land that's not council-owned and to generally do more.

The Council will also undertake "low-level" hedge-trimming and minor repairs on privately-owned heritage buildings, to prevent neglected corners from becoming attractive to fly-tippers.

There's also now a new online form to report waste dumping and dog fouling to the council, though you may also want to use Fix My Street as it allows photo uploads.

Toward a cleaner city

Details of Stoke-on-Trent City Council's forthcoming £2.5m fly-tipping and litter blitz. Great news.