'City centenary legacy must be expression of love and joy for home'

SO, that was our Centenary Year.

- Gareth Snell - MP for Stoke-on-Trent Central

Stoke-on-Trent, 100 years young. A century of creativity, community, and commerce. Six towns forging a new identity as one city.And as far as birthday parties go, this last 12 months have been an absolute wonder. It has been a yearlong celebration of who we are and what we do. It has been a blast! From tea parties to parades with murals, park runs, competitions and concerts in between, we took every negative view of Stoke-on-Trent and tossed it aside and focussed on everything we know that makes our city great.

We reminded ourselves of what it means to be loud and proud about the towns and neighbourhoods that positively contribute to our collective identity.

We celebrated everything about our city that makes us smile and laugh. And it was so important that we did because it is easy, sometimes, to only focus on the areas of Stoke-on-Trent that need work and convince ourselves that all is hopeless.