Alton Towers protest is so short-sighted

Call me unsympathetic to trees, but have parish councillors on the patch where Alton Towers operates lost their marbles?
If they haven't, perhaps they took one too many turns on the theme-park's Corkscrew ride before it was dismantled last year.
Because some of these parish representatives are apparently opposing plans for a new rollercoaster to replace the iconic yellow one, which was pulled down before Christmas.
Parish council chariman Tony Moult says the scheme will "encroach" on woodland.
Is he mad?
In an ideal world, the trees would be left alone, and residents living near Alton Towers wouldn't be disturbed by this attraction which provides Staffordshire jobs for thousands of people and brings in millions of pounds to the local economy.
But we're not living in an ideal world. We're living in a pretty dismal one at the moment. Just ask the poor workers from Wedgwood, JCB and countless more big business names who have lost their livelihoods.
There's a credit crunch on. No. Let's be honest. We're in recession, and anything that can safeguard jobs, or create new ones, should be welcomed.
I'm all for close-knit communities and people standing up for what they believe in.
But sometimes - as is the case with these whining councillors - you have to forget parochialism and see the bigger picture.

Feeling sluggish in Stoke-on-Trent

You've got to feel sorry for besieged mum Nicola Bruce, who lives in a council house in Stanfields, near Tunstall in Stoke-on-Trent.
Imagine 50-odd intruders raiding your gaff every night for two years - and the authorities apparently doing little about it.
But these intruders aren't burglars, out on the rob to feed their crack habits. Nor are they tearaway hoodies looking to half-inch a telly to flog as the credit crunch bites. (It' still grim in my neck of the woods - Wedgwood and JCB have announced about 1,000 redundancies this week.)
No, the offenders causing mayhem in Nicola's house are... slugs. Yes. Slugs. And Stoke-on-Trent City Council's partner in these matters, Kier, has done nothing about it, she says.
My local paper, The Sentinel, has reported tonight that Nicola picks up bags of slugs and bleaches her surfaces every morning before letting her kids come downstairs.
It sounds horrific.
Keir reckons the house has received "substantial improvement works" during 2008. Which would be lovely, if it wasn't overrun by slugs who leave their slime everywhere.
Though to be fair to them, they say they'll be back to take a look at the problem again.
Detractors knock Stoke-on-Trent. They reckon the six towns - Fenton, Hanley, Burslem, Longton, Stoke and Tunstall - are dumps and the people are backward-looking.
But I reckon the Potteries could soon boost an admittedly unenviable first... Could this be the city in which the first family in the UK is forced out of their home by slime?

M&S Simply Food branches to bite the dust?

Bad news for posh types in my home town of Newcastle, Staffordshire.
For they'll soon be slumming it in Morrisons with the rest of us when it comes to grocery shopping.
Why? Because Marks and Spencer (or M&S as it's known these days) is pulling the plug on its Simply Food branch in the town.
The shop, on Castle Walk, hasn't been there for very long, and whenever I've walked past (or popped in to treat myself to a very rare snack-sized Melton Mowbray) it's been heaving.
But the economic downturn continues to hit the high street hard.
Newcastle, like other towns including Burslem, Stone, Stafford and Hanley, has just lost its branch of Woolworths. It's still staggering to imagine that 27,000 Woolies workers nationwide have lost their jobs.
Now another name is about to disappear in Newcastle, meaning 19 staff are facing possible redundancy.
I'm getting fed up of all this doom and gloom, to be honest. The sorry demise of Wedgwood at Barlaston, near Stone, is bad enough. Then there's Spode, JCB laying off hundreds of workers, and plenty more companies cutting back or going under.
Who knows where it will end? Towns like Newcastle can't afford to lose these high street giants. There's a handful of independent retailers, but it's the big boys that pull in shoppers with their hard-earned cash.
I hope M&S can be convinced to change its mind and keep the branch open.

Tea-riffic Trentham goes from strength to strength

First came the Trentham Monkey Forest. Then came the Big Wheel at Trentham.
Now the up-and-coming tourist attraction at Trentham Gardens (or the Trentham Estate as it's also known) has another development set to pull in the punters... a £1 million tearoom.
I thought it sounded like a lot of dosh to be splashing on a caff, but perhaps not. Perhaps the tea will be top-of-the-range from Whittard of Chelsea (oh, haven't they gone under?). Perhaps the tea will be served in quality china produced by Wedgwood (oh, haven't they gone into administration?).
Well maybe the cakes will be hand-crafted by Nigella 'God I'm a sexy mother, I know' Lawson? Maybe Gordon Ramsay or some other showbiz type will be doing the dinners.
I'm just being silly, I admit. It's been one of those days. The Lemsip, Strepsils and Marlborough Lights have gone to my head.
But there's a serious point to be made about said-£1 million teashop. Everything that's being done to develop Trentham Gardens as a major visitor attraction is good news. Yes. Good news. In Stoke-on-Trent. (Now there's something you don't hear very much of.)
Because when it comes to North Staffordshire regeneration, Trentham is a major success story. At last, something to celebrate.
So I wish the new tearoom all the very best. And the next time I'm passing, you never know... I might just drop in (after a spot of monkeying around and a turn on the big wheel) to sample one of Nigella's buns.

China crisis in Staffordshire

If further proof were needed that the economic downturn and credit crunch are biting hard, today's news from Stoke-on-Trent about Waterford Wedgwood is surely it.
The world-famous pottery firm, which is based at Barlaston, near Stone, has collapsed into administration.
It's a huge blow to not only the pottery industry and North Staffordshire, but the entire UK economy.
There are some businesses that feel so British (even if most of their wares are produced overseas) that you kind of presume they'll always be there.
But even a firm as famous and at one time as successful as Wedgwood has been hit hard by recent events. Now, according to my local paper, The Sentinel, administrators Deloitte have been called in.
You can only hope that the company can be sold as a going concern. In the world of Staffordshire business news, today's is the grim headline many hoped they'd never see - not least the 1,000-odd people who could be looking for a new job in Stoke.
David Sculley, group chief officer at Waterford Wedgwood, has said: "I'm disappointed, but we remain optimistic that ongoing discussions will result in a buyer being found."
Let's hope his optimism pays off.

Christmas cheer? Not in Stoke-on-Trent

I'm all for surprise gifts at Christmas. They can lift the mood when unwrapping socks, pants and car-cleaning kits gets a trifle tedious.
But I'm not sure I'd want the kind of festive present left by the good old traffic wardens of Stoke-on-Trent on Christmas Eve.
You see, church-goers who had attended mass at Sacred Heart Church in Hanley came outside at the end of the service to discover they'd been ticketed by said wardens, who work for oh-so-popular Stoke-on-Trent City Council.
According to my local paper, The Sentinel, up to 50 worshippers discovered they'd been fined at the end of mass. And I bet they wanted to give the traffic wardens more than a glass of sherry in return for their stunning display of festive cheer.
A mate of mine reckons traffic wardens get a hard time. "It must be a joyless job," he whines on. "Imagine how much grief they must get in the line of duty."
Well if behaviour like this is anything to go by, I'm not surprised. Utter jobsworths, the lot of them.
What happened to Christmas cheer? What happened to good will to all men? What happened to making allowances because it's bloody Christmas?
The parish priest, Father Peter Weatherby, is fuming about the fines and has vowed to fight tooth and nail on behalf of his parishioners.
A city council spokesman had nothing unusual to say... just the usual town hall claptrap which will do nothing to boost the authority's appalling PR rating.
"Penalties are issued when vehicles are parked in violation of the restrictions," said a town hall spin doctor. "On-street parking restrictions apply until 6pm. Motorists who are issued a penalty are welcome to appeal the decision and details of how to appeal are on the back of the ticket."
Great.
I wonder whether the target-setting chief who runs traffic wardens in Hanley, Stoke, Burslem, Longton, Tunstall and Fenton goes by the name of Ebeneezer?

Ricardo Fuller v Andy Griffin: Stoke City's own goal

I hope for his sake that Stoke City striker Ricardo Fuller isn't spotted doing his shopping up Hanley any time soon.
The bargains first revealed in the Boxing Day sales might be tempting, Ric, but I'd keep a low profile if I were you.
For all hell broke loose at Upton Park when Stoke City took on West Ham today. And Fuller was in the thick of it.
Now I know about as much about football as the chiefs in charge at Woolworths apparently know about steering a high street favourite through the choppy waters of a credit crunch.
But I know that Fuller has landed himself in hot water for hitting his team-mate (and captain) Andy Griffin at a time when every point counts for Premier League new boys Stoke City.
And as somebody who knows so little about football, and until recently cared very little about it too, I have to say I'm gutted.
Because some so-called pundits apparently reckon Stoke City shouldn't be in the Premier League. They don't have the skill or the panache of the big boys like Manchester United and Liverpool, these know-it-alls claim.
Well I say balls to that. Stoke getting into football's top-flight is one of the best (and relatively few) positive things ever to happen in the history of the city of Stoke-on-Trent. And the city's people (whether they're football fans or not) need it to continue.
It's good for our name. It should be good for the regeneration of the city. And that has to be good for everyone.
So I'm gutted at Fuller's outburst. You can't deny that passion is to be applauded, but when it spills over into violence, things have gone too far. And besides denying Stoke vital points in their struggle to succeed in the Premier League, I can't help feeling Fuller has committed a PR own goal for the whole city.
He's now facing disciplinary action, a three-match ban, and he'll have his wages docked.
But should he be allowed to pull on a Stoke City shirt again? The fans are raging and many of them say he shouldn't. They're calling on Tony Pulis to get tough and show Fuller the door. They're all kicking off on the website of my local paper, The Sentinel.
With the January transfer window about to open, who knows whether Fuller will be on his way.
And whatever happens, Pulis has got to leave his players in little doubt that this kind of behaviour is bang out of order.
It'll do Stoke City no good in their current campaign, and it'll play straight into the hands of those stuck-up pundits who barely travel past the North Circular and reckon Stoke has no place in football's top league.