New campaign - your invitation to get involved

LOCAL Edition is preparing to launch a new campaign to promote initiatives to keep more money within our local area.

Traders across the area are reporting decreasing footfalls, despite the growth in large stores close to Tunstall town centre.

There has been a decline in the Burslem outdoor market over the past year and there were no stalls on the last Friday of March, although a closure has not been officially confirmed by the council.

Over the next fortnight we will be gathering ideas and connecting initiatives to help keep money within the local area.

Our communities have retained vibrant streets where people still talk to each other and where shopkeepers with generations of experience can offer their advice to us. It’s up to all of us to keep this alive, if we want to.

If you have any ideas or suggestions that you would like us to include in the next issue, please contact us by email or telephone or call into the Burslem Arts shop at 7 Queen Street. We can also be found handing out the paper at Tunstall market on Saturday mornings 10am – lunchtime.

• AS a contribution to the campaign, Local Edition is offering a new advertising price of £20. We can only remain sustainable ourselves if lots of businesses take up this offer and if it is supported by advertising and sponsorship from bigger businesses and organisations.

We also have a small hardship fund through sponsorship by Bizfizz, so if you need support for your marketing, contact Carolyn Powell on 07917 013297.
The newspaper is a not-for-profit company with the aim of improving communication in the area.

All our income goes into developing a sustainable newspaper with employment, freelance and high quality volunteer opportunities for the community.

The New Economics Foundations have a project called Plugging the Leaks.
They use a leaky bucket to show how regeneration money and people’s own expenditure can leave an area. If more money is spent on local services and trade, it remains in the area for longer and communities get the equivalent of a full bucket, where
everyone has enough money.

Over the next few issues, we will be exploring this idea and looking at ways in which every business, large and small, can benefit from local spending. More at www.pluggingtheleaks.org & www.
localedition.org.uk

Buckets: Rob Pointon