City Council Approves Name Changes

Stoke City Council has approved a bunch of name changes for many roads and places in the city.

Sir Jimmy Savile Road, in Boothen, will be renamed Angry Pulis Avenue, and Jimmy Savile Street in Tunstall will now be known as Ted Hankey Street. The Sir Jimmy Savile Memorial Garden in Etruria will keep its name until a suitable local celebrity dies.

Stuart Hall Street in Burslem is to be known as Wayne Biggins Street, and Max Clifford View in Trentham is to be renamed as Peter Crouch End. Dr Fox Road in Bentilee has temporarily been renamed Foxy Bingo Road pending the outcome of police enquiries. Rolf Harris Road in Shelton is now Brian Blessed Road.

The city council has confirmed that it has no plans though to change the names of Cliff Richard Road, Sir Cliff Street, Sir Cliff Richard Avenue, Bachelor Boy Botanical Gardens, Devil Woman Street, Living Doll Road or Sir Cliff Cliff. "Innocent until proven guilty," council spokesman Jinky Watkins explains. "And we all know Sir Cliff didn't do it. We can rest easy on this one."

Stoke's Towns Fail To Reach Arms Deal

Stoke City Council has said it is "as shocked as a fucktard" by the failure of negotiations to secure a Stoke-wide arms treaty but hopes it remains a possibility.

Elders from all of Stoke's towns have spent the past month in Fegg Hayes negotiating a treaty, which needed to be adopted by consensus, so any one town could in effect veto a deal. Instead, officials on Friday decided to take no decision on a draft treaty.



A normal child in North Longton

One person every minute dies from armed violence in Stoke, and arms control activists say a convention is needed to prevent illicitly traded guns from pouring into conflict zones and fuelling gang wars and atrocities. They cite conflicts in North Longton and elsewhere as examples of why a treaty is necessary.

While most towns favoured a strong treaty, activists said there was a small minority, including North Longton, Bentilee and Boothen, who opposed arms control throughout the negotiations.