Audlem on BBC Radio Stoke

Audlem was featured yesterday afternoon on BBC Radio Stoke with an interview about Audlem news with AudlemOnline's editor on the James Watt show.

The discussion covered the preparations now being finalised for the Audlem Music & Arts Festival from the 26th to 30th May, the late May Bank Holiday weekend.

There will music to suit all tastes – Rock, Blues, Jazz, Choral, Classical, Jazz, Soul, Country etc – with 85 acts including a full day of choral music. Three outdoor stages and all free, the best free festival in Cheshire and Staffordshire. Plus Art and Poetry, including a fabulous Poetry Slam with performance poets.

Next was the new Audlem Tourism Group which meets for the first time this week. Tourism is what helps Audlem to have almost twenty shops, a large number for a village of 2,000, and a number that has almost doubled in the past decade. The group will be looking at new facilities and how best to promote the village to potential visitors – such as how to get on to local radio programmes!.

Audlem attracts very large numbers of boaters, walkers, cyclists and visitors to our major events. The Canal & River Trust has completed a major survey which will be discussed and acted upon and looking at some new ideas.

The interview included mention of Audlem Lass, the 10-passenger boat that plies between Audlem locks and the Overwater marina now well into its Summer season. Last year she carried over 4,500 passengers. Also the Overwater Wheelyboat can be booked for disabled groups as it has wheelchair access for a trip on the Shropshire Union canal. All funds raised by the two boats after costs go to the RNLI.

The AudlemOnline webteam has just published a new book called People Power to encourage other villages and communities to run really successful community websites. AudlemOnline now work with other villages in Cheshire and much further afield – the latest is in Somerset – and the book is a 50 page guide on how to make a community website work really well.

A reminder was included about deadline for comments about the Moorsfield/Tollgate planning application with a final push today and tomorrow to get comments in about this large, and locally unpopular housing plan which will affect a stretch of the canal. Also, it is not needed as so many new homes have already been approved for planning in Audlem. The deadline for comments is noon this Wednesday.

You can hear the interview by clicking http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03pzvxn.1). The Audlem piece is one hour and eight minutes into the show.

This article is from our news archive. As a result pictures or videos originally associated with it may have been removed and some of the content may no longer be accurate or relevant.