Jack Brereton Radio

I'm at ADS Truck Parking to meet the team and have a look at some of their fantastic facilities for drivers. They are doing a great job for drivers whether it's providing home cooked food, clean toilets or a friendly atmosphere to combat loneliness. They've successfully bid for £222,000 in government funding to further improve their facilities and I'm joined by owners Andy and Bernadette to tell us more.

Vikki, Clare and the team at Acacia training based in Trentham is doing some incredible work helping people with disabilities into training and employment. These opportunities are fantastic, they are in sectors such as health and social care, administration and manufacturing. I went along to hear more about their work, and I met Kelly - one of their Kickstarters.

I’m proud to see a local company coming up with an ingenious invention to clean up our public transport and make it Covid-safe safe for passengers. I joined Simon Whitney from V-Stop on a D&G bus at their depot to see it in action - the sanitiser is pumped into the bus through nozzles and kills up to 99% of viruses and bacteria. Incredible.

Our schools are doing a fantastic job giving lessons digitally and keeping our children learning during this challenging time. I was pleased to join Weston Junior and Infant Academies to thank the teachers and pupils and take some questions. Year 2 certainly put me through my paces - and you can hear how it went in this episode!

Meet Chief Nurse Michelle Rhodes who is heading up the local vaccine programme at the University Hospitals of North Midlands NHS Trust, which runs Royal Stoke. The team is doing an incredible job - so far they’ve delivered 14,000 jabs. However they are still under immense pressure as they help patients suffering from Covid. Michelle and Tracy Bullock (also a nurse and the Trust's Chief Executive) join me in this episode.

Our iconic ceramics industry has been hit hard by coronavirus. We must act now to help our manufacturers, protect jobs, and pass the industry down to the next generation. Stoke makes the best ceramics in the world. I brought together some of our local manufacturers and together we've come up with a recovery plan which I'm now taking to the heart of government. More here. 

Stoke-on-Trent’s businesses are gradually re-opening their doors as we recover from the Covid crisis. Our ceramics industry is one which has been significantly impacted and is working to rebound from the past few months. I caught up with Hannah from Valentine Clays and Keith from Foley Pottery to listen to their challenges and how they’re getting back on their feet after lockdown. 

Covid changed life massively for students with learning disabilities and difficulties at Strathmore College, and the team has been working hard to adapt and provide some level of normality at this time. Principal Kate Ward joins me in this episode.

Did you know Stoke has received £57 million from the government to help businesses during this pandemic, and 82 per cent of eligible businesses have received the grants. It's thanks to Stoke City Council leader Abi Brown and her fantastic team for making this happen so quickly. Now they are working hard to get our city up and running again as we recover from Covid. Abi joins me in this episode. 

Saltbox is a local charity doing incredible work helping people with debt, loneliness and homelessness issues. If you’re struggling, especially during this pandemic, they may be able to help. More details in this podcast with Lloyd Cooke from the charity.

Stoke-on-Trent Citizens Advice Bureau is doing a big job in helping people with their employment and benefits issues during this coronavirus crisis. I caught up with their Chief Executive Simon Harris to talk through some of the recurring questions they are receiving. There is lots of help available during this unprecedented time. 

Thank you Stoke-on-Trent for coming together to help vulnerable people during this horrible outbreak. All the Small Things is a community group making sure food, prescriptions, and other help and vital info reaches lonely, vulnerable and isolated people. Penny tells us more about the fantastic work she’s doing.

Over the coming days I am beginning a series of community information podcasts to throw a spotlight on some of the great work happening locally during this challenging time. People across Stoke-on-Trent are coming together to help those in isolation be it with food deliveries, picking up prescriptions or even dog walking. I start by speaking with Lisa from VAST who is helping coordinate the local volunteering effort. These episodes are being done remotely to keep everyone safe and we are putting information out in as real time as possible.

Budget 2020 is almost upon us - and in this episode I go to our local brewery RAN Ales, and talk to owners Karen and Nev about what more the government can do to help our great pub and beer industry. 

We need to push aspiration and tell our young people in Stoke-on-Trent about the opportunities out there. Join me as I speak to Mark Ball from the Prince's Trust Stoke centre about some of the challenges facing young people and our efforts in helping them succeed. 

Who is the real Jack Brereton? My team wouldn't let me leave the office until they asked me a series of quick fire questions about me which they then insisted on recording and turning into a podcast. So here goes...

Did you know Stoke-on-Trent’s world class businesses are exporting £1.3m of goods every day? Who are they? What do they produce? Why is our region excelling when it comes to selling globally and how can we capitalise on Brexit? Join me as I discuss this and more on Jack Brereton Radio! 

How can we help our local businesses and high streets thrive in places like Longton and Fenton and across Stoke-on-Trent? In this episode I'm joined by special guest Sara Williams, CEO at Staffordshire Chamber of Commerce to discuss this and more!

In this episode, I talk about why buses are so important for our communities in Stoke South, what's going wrong with our services, and what we're doing to drastically improve them. 

Reclassifying monkey dust, injunctions, early intervention... what's been done about anti-social behaviour in areas like Stoke-on-Trent? And what more can we do?