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Mike McGrothers open letter to the Daily Mail . Regarding Stockton on Tees High Street "Britains worst christmas tree "

12/3/2013

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With the Dail Mails one sided piece of pseudo journalism doing the rounds at the moment one of Stocktons Voices has decided to use via the way of his website / blog write an open letter to try to refute their article .  Here it is reproduced .
On the other hand , playing devils advocate , they only reported AFTER people from Stockton on Tees using that same old dreary tool of Facebook vilified the tree.
This is a trend about Stocktonians on Facebook continually battering the town during its regeneration with childish comments .  I wonder what they would say if a time machine hit Stockton and sent it back in time 5 years ?  Watch them whinge then !

It was originally posted on MikeMcgrother.com on 2 December 2013 by Mike

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Dear trainee journalist,

I have read your article about the tree in Stockton High Street with interest and bewilderment at what now passes as news in your, lets face it, dying industry. I have never held your newspaper in particularly high regard because, well quite frankly your writers make things up and rarely report anything that makes the world a better, more cohesive place. On this occasion, you have declared yourselves experts in the field of Christmas trees. I’m not entirely sure how you are able to position yourself in this way, but there again – you are generally excellent at playing judge, executioner and champion of negative news reporting – so why should we be surprised. I’m just sorry you failed to see ANYTHING else while you were in town!


More Blog : MP Alex Cunningham calls for
superfast broadband
Personally I am not a big fan of  this Christmas structure either, I LIKE real trees – so I am delighted to walk to the Christmas Market – around 400 meters from where you took your photograph and see the dozens of trees, festive cabins full of local independent traders, illuminated churchyard oh, and just along from there, another massive tree overlooking our illuminated riverside. Could it be that your photographer and reporter are only able to look at things from one angle? SURELY NOT! For your information, the works going on around the end of the high street where you kindly visited and decided to focus on meant that the positioning of a tree or lighting a pointless and cost-ineffective waste. Your regular readership would love such strategic ‘efficiency’ surely. I believe the structure you call a tree is part of a much bigger lighting scheme for next year. Sadly that, I presume is the year you will be concentrating on slating someone else’s efforts within our recession torn country.

So, next time you come to my town Daily Mail… I would personally like to meet you. I would like to tell you of our heritage; of our regeneration and of our vision. I would love you to meet some of the 2000 participants of last week’s community event; or the massive numbers of small, specialist shops who are bucking the trend and successfully setting up shop in the high street; I could take you for a coffee in one of a number of cafes and tea rooms; perhaps you could enjoy a gig, a comedy night, or theatre show in our thriving arts centre. We could pop to the world class watersports centre or visit Durham University Queens Campus And then, once you have visited, I will wait – and enjoy your complete lack of coverage and silent ignorance of a community that is real, dynamic and regenerating.

I look forward to meeting you.

Best Wishes

A Man You Don’t Meet Everyday
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Stockton Sparkles and the Christmas Lights switch on .  Stockton on Tees High Street

11/28/2013

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The launch of Stockton Sparkles this year won’t be your usual Christmas lights switch on. Hosted by BBC Tees’ Ali Brownlee, this festive evening will feature a choir of over 1,500 children, a brass band, and Joe Hamill, lead singer from Cattle & Cane, who will bring the Christmas spirit to life with an enchanting and memorable community performance.

The event will also include a small children’s fairground, late night shopping, the annual Sparkles Christmas market and of course Santa.

Come and enjoy this magical evening and see Stockton Sparkle!

The Stockton Sparkles Launch Event (Christmas lights switch-on) will involve a closure of much of Stockton High Street between
1550 and 1900 on Thursday 28 November 2013. Most bus services will be diverted within Stockton Town Centre (including Bridge Road) and use alternative stops as detailed below (Stagecoach services will not enter the High Street at all):
Stockton Sparkles 12 day Christmas Market opens Thursday 28th November in Stockton Parish Gardens. More than 30 cabins with lots of festive goods! 10am-4pm.

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Incidents on Teesside | Facebook page removes or prevents commenting

11/2/2013

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Originally posted by StocktonTeesside on Facebook 02Nov13

So yesterday a certain media group with 75000+ FB likes posted something about supporting our firemen whilst they was striking at probably one of their busiest times of the year (firework season) . Well, as an ex-member of the armed forces for and having gone through the last firemans strike I DO NOT support the firemen . Try harder at negotiation I say .
Anyways, I just responded with "NO , I wont support them" on this media page (using my personal account) and lo and behold , my right to comment has now been removed . This tends to happen across all their pages. Its a very childish action by people that that cannot take criticism or an opposing view. Its very dictatorial in style and amateurish ( then again , they are amateurs ) .

Read More Blog on this subject :
Teesside Incidents Facebook page to close due to constant abuse by "Another " Teesside Facebook News page


You May Say I am A Dreamer....by Mike McGrother


Big plans for Stockton Council land and buildings
One of their pages Stockton Central News recently stated that any negative comments about Stockton on Tees High Street would be removed and the commentor banned .  Within a couple of weeks on of the same pages admins publicly slated a new cafe in town based on anything or nothing , who knows .  The post has since been removed yet follow up comments still wouldnt apologize (they are never wrong ) 
Hypocrisy people !!
All I can say is support Teesside Incidents.co.uk and associated pages who come across with a much more professional and adult attitude .
teesside incidents stockton
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You May Say I am A Dreamer....by Mike McGrother

10/1/2013

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Originally posted by Mike in his blog 23 September 2013 [view]
Those who know me well will know that my latest High Street Happening was a difficult one for me. Any art form which relies on personal expression will undoubtedly reveal a raw vulnerability within the person and it was all I could do to hold it together on Friday.

But it is important to reflect on the approach I took this time around. As a council officer pointed out, not many towns undergoing a current demolition of their high street would consider that a World Market could take place within the holes, diggers and fenced off mayhem of the works – But Stockton is definitely not like any other town – and perhaps that is starting to sink home amongst people.

The World Market itself was an indication not only of what we HAVE in the area – the growing multi-cultural food offer filled air with smells and an lunchtime was a bustling, munching success as the odours African stews of mingled with Mexican, Polish, French and British dishes. Perhaps we need to work harder on the other retail areas that our increasing International community can offer – hair braiding, art work, textiles… but small steps are better than none.

My own little contribution was the next step in how we best involve our own community to improve the high street context. Following on the ‘hello’ of #smile and the metaphor of The Piano, I was keen to explore how we could add community driven musical content to a street retail context. I was also really keen to give the extraordinary model of Matty’s Bistro an ‘commissioned’ brief to see how they responded. Bearing in mind that Matty’s Bistro is a training programme for unemployed young people – many from Care and anyone who understands the challenges of similar programmes may flinch at the thought of putting such inexperience in the public domain. But with the quality, experience and ability of Matty Brown at the helm – ably supported by big Robin, Matty’s Bistro were able to prove the point that given the opportunity, ANYONE can prove their ability. Change the teaching – not blame the learner – and things happen. On Friday, supported by Town Team over 350 people were served by this exceptional example of vocational training – and all thoroughly enjoyed English Breakfasts, French Lunch and African takeaway Dinner offer.

So why bother with adding performance to Matty’s efforts? To me, something that tends to be missing from our current market atmosphere is an appeal to all the senses. Perhaps looking back with rose-tinted headphones, or perhaps because I watched Oliver the musical more times than is healthy, I like to think that a street market can be a multi-sensory experience – somewhere one can see what is on offer; smell the foods and cooking; feel the produce and taste it before you buy – with sounds and atmosphere to draw you in and stick around. THESE things can never be replaced by internet shopping. They add value and an emotional, human experience to shopping that we can bring back to our high street at relatively low cost – and in doing so, the participants become interactive market users. One could put in a solo busker of course – but to multiply the soloist by 100 and give people who WANT to perform the opportunity to do so in a new, vibrant context is surely a no-brainer. Performing Arts students learning how to perform on the street – in a town who’s signature event is centred around street performance; a town choir who have found a love of singing and fellowship and who have the collective confidence to contribute to their town; add to it musicians from outside Stockton – who tell their friends and who comment that Stockton is the place to be and we start to create a formula where unemployed people are suddenly employed; those who want to learn are given a context to develop; those who previously sang in the shower sing as a matter of course and the whole thing brings together ownership and an irreplaceable atmosphere that gives people a sense of what could be as opposed to what used to be. Of course we were dabbling – trying things – but if we take the bits that work and help them grow… then why couldn’t Stockton Market ALWAYS be a place of music, smiles and human joy? The market that starts to market itself and a town begins to believe in itself once again.

You may say I’m a dreamer – but I really am NOT the only one.

Coming Soon…

November 28th. #thestar : You Are A Shining Light.

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Stockton Flyer : Stockton High Street sculpture is given the green light

9/13/2013

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Orig published by GazetteLive 13 Oct 2013 . Article copyright : Gazette

The Sculpture will be housed inside a plinth and at set times each day the 'automaton' will emerge from the plinth, dramatically gushing steam and clanking into life
It's full steam ahead for a giant automated sculpture celebrating Stockton’s rich railway heritage.

The Stockton Flyer - inspired by George Stephenson’s Locomotion No 1 - has been given the green light to be built on Stockton high street.

The sculpture will be housed inside a plinth at the northern end of High Street and at set times each day the ‘automaton’ will emerge from the plinth, dramatically gushing steam and clanking into life.

When fully extended, the plinth and sculpture will tower more than seven metres high. The sculpture, which was given approval by Stockton Council’s planning committee this week, has been designed by artists Rob Higgs and Keith Newstead.

Stockton Council’s Cabinet member for arts, leisure and culture, Councillor Ken Dixon said: “The Stockton flyer will become a fantastic feature of the regenerated multi-million-pound high street.

“Artistic attractions like the flyer not only improve the look and feel of Stockton but attract visitors to the town.

“Inspired by George Stephenson’s Locomotion Number One, the automaton will both celebrate the borough’s engineering achievements and remind us of Stockton’s rich industrial heritage.”

No costing has been given by the council for the automaton.

But Cllr Dixon said: “We are currently working on the cost and we will be seeking external funding to contribute towards this.”

He added: “In preparing the planning application we have been working up the design of the automaton and plinth so as many people as possible will be able to easily see the fascinating, daily spectacle of the artwork as it rises.”

The winning automaton design is a cartoon version of the Locomotion No 1, the first train on the world’s first modern passenger railway - the Stockton and Darlington.

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Phase 3 of the Stockton HIgh Street regeneration starts

8/13/2013

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source : rediscover stockton
NEXT PHASE OF STOCKTON TOWN CENTRE REGENERATION BEGINS

WORK will start on Tuesday (6 August) on the next phase of Stockton Town Centre’s £38 million regeneration.

Contractors will be moving onto Dovecot Street between Café Nero and the Storytellers pub near ARC.

They will be replacing the paving, upgrading the pedestrian crossings, replacing street lighting columns and resurfacing the Dovecot Street-Prince Regent Street junction to help improve access to the town centre.

The visual appearance of the Dovecot Street area will also be enhanced through landscaping with trees and other greenery.

Stockton Council’s Cabinet Member for Regeneration and Transport, Councillor Mike Smith, said: “It is fantastic to see the regeneration works are now moving at such a quick pace. Our town centre is really transforming.

“Once complete the road improvements will make it easier for people to access the town centre and the new paving, landscaping and street furniture will create a much more pleasant town centre environment. Consequently, people are more likely to take advantage of all it has to offer from shopping at the growing range of independent businesses, traditional and specialist markets to participating in leisure activities at ARC, the Georgian Theatre, Splash or on the Riverside to enjoying a meal at many of the town’s eateries.

“It is a really exciting time for the town centre and over the coming months people visiting the town will see how rapidly it is changing into a first class destination for shopping, leisure and events.”

Whilst the works in the Dovecot Street area progress the following traffic management arrangements will be in place for seven weeks:

  • Prince Regent Street – one lane open in each direction.
  • Dovecot Street – one way only on the ARC side (access to Prince Regent Street only). The section adjacent to the High Street will be closed and a “left turn only” will be in operation out of West Row Car Park.
Meanwhile, as the southern end of the High street nears completion the 700 year old market is on the move.

On Saturday 3 August the majority of the stalls will move to their new permanent location at the southern end of the High Street between NatWest bank and Franks Carpets on the west side and on the east side between Spencer Market Hall and Fulton Foods.

It is expected the remainder of stalls will move to their permanent position adjacent to Barclays Bank and the Town Hall by the beginning of September. In the meantime they will remain within the market at various locations at the southern end of the high street. Stallholders will have specific location details on hand for any customers enquiring about the whereabouts of a specific stall.

New street lighting columns have also been recently installed at the southern end of the High Street.

The 15 metre tall columns, with feature lighting on their masts, are bespoke to Stockton Town Centre and have been specially designed with LEDs inserted inside the column so no lanterns are needed.

It means fewer street lights will be needed throughout are the Town Centre as the light generated by the 22 street lights will provide the same amount of light as 66 of the traditional, lantern style columns.

Next month the demolition of Lindsay House will begin. The removal of the building will mean that people visiting the High Street can access leisure activities and events on the Riverside much more easily. Next year, the vacant Lindsay House space will create an on street short-stay car park which will also be used as a dedicated space for specialist markets at various times throughout the year.

- See more at: http://www.rediscoverstockton.co.uk/2013/08/020813-phase-3-starts/#sthash.ueFrpdrz.dpuf
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Welcome to : About Stockton - My little site about Stockton

6/20/2013

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Hi, hello and welcome to this site I created about the town I live in, Stockton .  I am not from here , originally from just outside Liverpool . I joined the RAF for 15 years , moving around until eventually settling in Lincoln .    I met my now wife and eventually moved to Stockton in Jan 2012 .
I live in Hardwick now with my newly acquired family and enjoying it very much .  I decided to make this site to promote my wifes place of work and our community centre . A website about Hardwick wouldnt amount to many pages so I decided to just expand it to the town as a whole .
  I concentrated on Hardwick first and all else will follow ( when I get the time ).

Any submissions you have are welcome .

Any Blog articles about ANYTHING STOCKTON related are welcome as long as they are in the boundaries of good taste .  Just email me at the CONTACT US page .

Stu

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