News Release

12th March 2003

PARLIAMENTARY MOTION IN DEFENCE OF STAFFORDSHIRE

Following criticism of Staffordshire as a place to live in Country Life magazine and the Sunday Times, Staffordshire's Conservative and Labour MPs have joined together to table a Parliamentary Motion in defence of the County. Michael Fabricant says: "It's good to see that when push comes to shove, Labour and Conservative MPs can unite when our County is attacked. I hope that there will be similar unity to oppose the Government's proposals to set up a regional assembly in Birmingham and dissolve Staffordshire County Council"

The text of the Motion now follows:-

That this House repudiates the recently published slurs on the county of Staffordshire, home of the UK's ceramics industry, the three-spired 800 year-old Lichfield Cathedral, Britain's number one visitor attraction Alton Towers, Uttoxeter racecourse and fine Burton beers; notes the county boasts huge areas of precious and protected countryside like Staffordshire Moorlands and Cannock Chase, a built heritage that includes a network of canals, Smallthorne's Ford Green Hall, Stafford's Ancient High House, Sir Christopher Wren's only parish church outside London at Ingestre, Shugborough Hall and Weston Park; recognises this birthplace of Izaak Walton, Samual Johnson and David Garrick, a treasure store of the arts including the inventive New Vic theatre in the round, Stoke on Trent's City Museum and Art Gallery, which claims the best collection of fine bone china in the world, the Bass Museum in Britain's brewing capital of Burton-on-Trent, Lichfield's internationally renowned annual arts festival, Stafford's annual Shakespeare at the Castle, the award-winning county youth orchestra and superb outreach arts and sports services befitting a big county which is 80 per cent. rural; notes the superb achievement of the county's youth demonstrated in high numbers of Duke of Edinburgh awards, the largest number of eco-schools in the country and educational results described jointly by the Audit Commission and OFSTED as 'often above both the national average and that found in similar authorities'; and calls on visitors from outside the county to join those who live and work in it discovering these many delights that Staffordshire has to offer.