Members of the Mow Cop Residents’ Association have been honoured with the Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service.

The Queen’s Award for Voluntary Service is the highest award given to volunteer groups across the UK.

The award was made to the residents association for “Providing an increasing range of amenities, facilities and services for everyone in the local community for the last ten years.”

Mow Cop Residents Association (MCRA) put in a lot of time and effort into renovating the church hall at St Thomas’ which was in a state of disrepair and the church, who own the building, didn’t have the manpower and funds to keep up with the maintenance. The church hall has now been renamed the ‘Mow Cop Community Hall’ and hosts numerous clubs, including an art group, bowling club, line dancing and Zumba.

MCRA also organise the annual ‘Killer Mile’, a run up to the top of Mow Cop via the steep Station Bank ,which has become a favorite fixture on the calendar for runners for runners from all over the country seeking a serious challenge.

Two of the association’s 15 active members will go to the Queen’s garden party later this year to receive the award.

Clough Hall Technology School is getting a brand new school. This will be built on the current site and the old school buildings are scheduled for demolition. 

This is an exciting development for the residents of Kidsgrove.

Clough Hall Technology School has been at the centre of the local community for many, many years. The old buildings may be ready for retirement but they hold generations of memories.

With your help we would like to preserve those memories so that they can be enjoyed by the whole community. We are hoping to build an on-line ‘Clough Hall School Photo Archive’ that anyone with an internet connection will be able to access. Did you or any of your family and friends attend Clough Hall Technology School as a child? Do you have any photos that you would like to share?

If you have photos in a digital format, you can email them directly to the email address listed below. If your photos are not in a digital format please contact us and we can arrange to have them scanned into a computer for you. If you have any other images of Clough Hall Technology School in different media formats, we may still be able to do something with them. We can convert 8mm cine-film, Super 8 cine-film and Hi8 video to digital!

Send all photos & any questions you might have to: oldschool@cloughhall.staffs.sch.uk

Residents are being asked to nominate their favourite landmarks in the borough as part of an annual review of a local register.

Newcastle-under-Lyme Borough Council is updating a register of important buildings and structures which is used to help protect the character of the sites when planning applications propose to change their external appearance.

It currently features 84 entries including a post box in Audley, a former mill in Madeley, a restored warehouse in Market Lane, Newcastle, and the town’s George and Dragon pub.

New suggestions will be inspected and assessed against criteria such as authenticity, architectural value, historic associations, visual importance and community value.

The initiative is designed to raise awareness of landmarks which fall short of the criteria for statutory listing. [Read more…]

On the 26^th July 2014, the Turner family as well family friends took part in a 11 mile sponsored walk to raise money for the Alzheimers Society and in memory of Maureen Turner, who sadly passed away with this illness in January. 

The walk will took place around the Kidsgrove area,covering places memorable to Maureen and the family, before going to Bradwell Crematrorium where she is now at rest.

Nicola Jones and Daniel Vernall, the main organisers of the walk, and Maureen’s grandchilden would like to thank everyone involved in the event, and everybody who has sponsored them so far.

Anybody who wishes to donate to this great cause and sponsor the Turner family, is invited to do so either through their just giving website www.justgiving.com/turners-walk or by contacting Daniel either through phone, 07881381143, or email – danieljamesvernall@gmail. com.

Every £1 helps and every sponsorship is much appreciated.

Kidsgrove Town Team are delighted to announce that the town has been selected as one of seven finalists in a prestigious new competition to bring people and businesses together to revive their town or city.

Entering the ‘Revive & Thrive Challenge’ involved telling the judges about the Team’s ideas for connecting with the local community and how it would benefit the town. The judges were particularly looking for entries that considered how retail and town/city centres could be used as a conduit to successful engagement and connectivity to the community. [Read more…]

Staffordshire County Council have made the decision to close Kidsgrove Day Centre in Gloucester Road which will affect hundereds of vulnerable adults, despite a public outcry to keep the service.

A consultation revealed that 80 percent of 750 respondents rejected the proposals and don’t want the service, which is used by vulnerable adults with complex learning difficulties, to close. Over 4000 people have signed an online petition to keep the services, a hundred campaigners made a protest march from Kidsgrove to Newcastle in a bid to stop the proposals, MP Joan Walley has raised the issue in the House of Commons and some councillors have raised concerns that alternative provision is not yet available. [Read more…]

The Kidsgrove Town Team are holding a consultation on their proposals for a Kidsgrove Waterfront Project.

The Town Team thinks that the canal is an important asset for the town and wants to see if it can be used as a focus for improving facilities and attracting visitors.

A number of project ideas have been proposed – some can be done quite quickly, some will take longer, some will only happen if we can get grant funding and some will be in the hands of other organisations….  [Read more…]

Local computer specialists Manor PCs Ltd have teamed up with Captive Media to install the world’s first retrofit networked washroom gaming system … with hands-free control… at the Unicorn Sports Bar in Congleton.

The state of the art captive media system, which has been demonstated on the TV show Dragons Den, consists simply of a hi-definition screen, fitted at eye level above the urinal, where it commands the full attention of the user. When not in active use, it plays a mixture of adverts and content from one of our twelve ‘PTV’ channels. [Read more…]

The Kidsgrove Town Team thinks that the canal is an important asset for the town and wants to see if it can be used as a focus for improving facilities and attracting visitors.

A number of project ideas have been proposed – some can be done quite quickly, some will take longer, some will only happen if they can get grant funding and some will be in the hands of other organisations….

…but they would like to know what YOU think about the proposals.

[Read more…]

Up to £6000 funding is still available for community projects and initiatives in the Kidsgrove area. 

Community groups, residents’ groups, voluntary organisations and social enterprises can apply for a maximum of £1000 by filling in a simple form.

The Community chest is not available for private-sector profit-making enterprises to apply to. [Read more…]