I was humbled that around 70 members turned out on a cold and dull late November morning for our 73rd AGM. It’s quite a procedural affair where we approve the annual accounts, our President, Kate Beardmore, reviews the previous year’s performance, we appoint our auditors and approve the election of Members
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Food inflation rose to 12.4 per cent in November – the category’s highest inflation rate on record. The increase from 11.6 per cent in October is putting a further squeeze on consumers, retailers and their suppliers. The rise in food prices forms part of a sobering set of figures released
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A new warning over cyber crime has been issued – just as one of the largest utility companies in the county revealed it has been hacked. South Staffordshire PLC, the parent company of South Staffs Water and Cambridge Water, was targeted and believes the bank details of some of its
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Stoke-on-Trent College has secured over £13 million in funding for two new state-of-the-art buildings and to transform its campuses. Both the Cauldon site in Shelton and the other in Burslem will benefit from new classrooms and teaching spaces, leading to the development of new curriculum areas. They will replace older
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Welcome to Daily Focus, a new business news service for Staffordshire delivered to tens of thousands of inboxes every weekday morning.
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The BBC’s first-ever Technology Editor, Zoe Klineman joined local businesses at Commerce House on Thursday morning as she offered an insight into all things digital. An experienced senior reporter covering business and technology news across BBC outlets, Zoe discussed a range of topics ranging from cybersecurity and hacking to artificial
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Thousands of Staffordshire families are set to benefit from extra support during the Christmas school holidays. Staffordshire County Council’s Holiday Activity and Food (HAF) programme is available to eligible children aged between five and sixteen on benefits related free school meals. The programme includes physical play, fun activities, nutritional advice
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JCB employees are playing Santa this Christmas with a company-wide toy appeal to bring festive cheer to vulnerable youngsters. The digger giant has launched the JCB Christmas Toy Appeal and set up 13 collection points across its sites in Staffordshire, Derbyshire and Wrexham for employees to donate new and unwrapped
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Van theft has rapidly risen in the county causing a blight to many businesses, the Staffordshire’s Police, Fire and Crime Commissioner has revealed. Ben Adams, who is responsible for a county-wide budget of £250 million, said that incidences of van and commercial vehicle crime had more than doubled in the
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Many tens of thousands of apprentices are dropping out of their programmes every year, according to a hard-hitting report by an education think tank. The EDSK carried out an investigation into the quality of apprenticeships in England called No Train No Gain. It found that many businesses were providing little
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