North Staffordshire News & Current Events is a discussion forum for people living in the City of Stoke-on-Trent, the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme and the Staffordshire Moorlands.

You can use the forum to raise and discuss any social, educational, political, economic or regeneration issue affecting you and your family.

This is your chance to have your say and tell those in authority what you think of their proposals.

Local pressure groups can use the forum to publicise and gain widespread support for their campaigns to preserve North Staffordshire’s natural heritage and regenerate its historic towns.

You can use this forum to create your own topics which could include:

• Stoke-on-Trent city council’s Mandate for Change.
• Moorland & City Railways’ schemes to re-establish rail links between Stoke and Leek and between Blythe Bridge and Cheadle.
• The proposals to reorganise local government by amalgamating the City of Stoke-on-Trent and the Borough of Newcastle-under-Lyme.
• Schemes to regenerate the city centre (Hanley), reorganise education and create a University Quarter.
• Economic development and redundancies in the pottery industry.
• Town councils for Tunstall, Burslem, Hanley, Stoke, Longton and Fenton.
• The future of the Wedgwood Museum Collection, the Spode site, Burslem’s old town hall, Ford Green Hall, Etruria Industrial Museum and the Wedgwood Memorial College.

The choice is yours. Visit the forum at www.northstaffordshire.co.uk/discuss to discuss these topics, the latest news story and other aspects of life in North Staffordshire and The Potteries.

The Kingston Flyer

A New Zealand newspaper, The Otago Daily Times (10th January, 2012) reports that two spot fires were started on January 9th by a South Island heritage steam train, the Kingston Flyer.

These fires were swiftly put out and both fire officials and the train’s owner say there is no cause for concern.

A spark from the train is belived  to have caused a 3 to 4 hectare vegetation fire on December 23rd, which took firefighters and a helicopter more than seven hours to put out.

The train’s owner, David Bryce, is reported to have said that he and his team were doing all they could to avoid further fires.

Since the December fire, mesh has been fitted to the top of the locomotive’s funnel, the ash collector has been regularly maintained and a spray nozzle which spreads water has been fitted underneath the train.

Mr Brice believes these measures have eliminated 95% of the risk. Although aware that the fires were inconvenient for the local volunteer fire brigade, he said everyone in the community was happy to see the train running again.

Southern Fire Communications shift manager Brent Dun said railway fires, were “relatively common” and are not a cause for concern.

Last year several fires were started by steam trains in the UK. If you live near a heritage railway or your property has been damaged by a fire caused by a steam train, visit our Discussion Forum at www.northstaffordshire.co.uk/discuss and let us know if you agree with Mr Dun.

Photograph licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.

My Childhood is the section of our Discussion Forum where you can describe life in North Staffordshire when you were growing up and introduce us to the town or village where you lived.

Use this section to tell us about:

1. Your family and friends.
2. Your interests and hobbies.
3. Your favourite films and television programmes.
4. Your holidays and day trips to the seaside.
5. Your schooldays, your teachers and your favourite subjects
6. Your first job or your first day at college.

To visit the Discussion Forum and tell us about your childhood in North Staffordshire go to www.northstaffordshire.co.uk/discuss