A unique city made up of six towns with a proud history and a strong sense of community. For the next half an hour, youre going to get a glimpse into the lives of the people from this city. Forfive days, the bbc has been asking the people who live here to help set the news agenda and tell us the stories that matter to them. And its notjust been on television, its been online, radio and social media too. So, welcome to we are stoke on trent. Of the six towns that make up this city, this one, burslem, has always been my favourite because of its rich history. But sandwiched between manchester in the north and birmingham in the south, there can be a perception that stoke on trent is overlooked, so we asked some of the People Living here about the issues that matter to them. Welcome to the Potteries Museum and art gallery in stoke on trent. This is our third in the we are series, weve had we are middlesbrough, weve had we are bradford. And its really attempts by bbc news to get out of london, to properly cover the regions of england as well as the nations of the united kingdom. But really, its about the audience talking to us about how we should be covering what is important to them and this will be a week of special coverage from stoke on trent, guided by these fabulous guests weve brought together in the Potteries Museum, about what they think is important, how they would like to see their city, the places they live, the places they work, how they want those issues to be covered. I think theres a great degree of fear in the city. We are scared of ourselves and our schizophrenic six towns nature. Something beautifully crazy mad about the fact thats the way we work. I think it should be embraced, and as we sit here under the wonderful icons that decorate us, i do wonder sometimes, dont we realise that theres something about the juice and the actual soil of this area which has allowed us to be one of the most creative places on earth. We are a place where we have taken the ground itself and made it into something which you can see all around you. Not many places on this planet can actually argue that. I must admit, im quite shocked by this notion of the £10 bus return fare in a city that is not huge. The transport network has kind of separated the towns, in effect. So the towns havent worked together because there is no connectivity, and again, particularly working with young people, the public transport is very poor in the city, so i think with work and leisure and creative activities, people really struggle to get around and get to places. One of the real problems, if you go from the southernmost town, longton, to, say, the northernmost town, tunstall, if you try to make that journey by public transport, it would take at least an hour longer than your trip up from london today. Wow how long would it take . Probably about two and a half hours. Ben, tell us a bit about, do you live and work in stoke . And also, maybe from a younger perspective, what you feel you would like to see covered about this city. Theres a lot more things in manchester and birmingham and places like that to do for people my age and younger, than to stay in stoke. It doesnt really have anything, theres not really manyjobs. A lot of people, my friends, who are finishing university and stuff, they are just going elsewhere, they dont want to have anything to do with stoke on trent. Tell us what you think the main challenges are and what the issues we should be covering here. I think the biggest problem in stoke on trent is pride. Years gone by, people worked on the potbanks, and they made beautiful things like that peacock. At the end of the day, they were proud of what they made. Now they are answering phones and filling supermarket shelves, theres no pride in theirjob at all. Rachel, how would you like to see the we are stoke project . What should we be touching on . There are things like, i think in stoke, you know, house prices. You can get on the property market, there is a better standard of living, a Better Family life balance. This is a coal mining place, and what is the greatest thing that coal produces sometimes . Even though its power, is a diamond. Crushed pressure, and there is a diamond in the city that needs to be brought out. 0k. On that positive note, thank you all so much. That was really, really enjoyable and invigorating and will really help us cover your great city, the positives as well as some of the challenges. Charities come in all shapes and sizes, and this one, ruff ruby in hanley, is not your average. They are one of the Smaller Charities that got in touch with us to tell us about the work that they are doing in the city. They dont often make the National Headlines and they are working on increasingly tight budgets, but many offer support thats life saving. Hey, mummy its really nice to be in this family because i get to help mummy a lot with her tablets. For six year old bethany and her twin sisters, looking after mum is part of everyday life. When mummy bangs her head, that normally sets off a seizure. We just have to leave mummy. When shes coming down the stairs and she falls, i always hold her so she doesnt fall. Get changed, get her tablets, help with a lot of things that a normal nine year old wouldnt have to do. Anneka suffers from multiple sclerosis and epilepsy. Help from dad and daughters is life saving. Im so proud every day of my daughters. I am their mum, im meant to be the one that cares for them. Not them caring for me. Caring for mum on top of busy schooldays means the girls need a break, and thats where a local Charity Comes in. It gives my children time to not worry about mummy. They can go, they can play, they can do art. North staffs carers helped 6000 people last year. Four years ago, the charity lost a bid for council funding, but support from volunteers and other grants keeps the door open. Weve had some disappointments, obviously with funding, etc, and we had to adapt and move with the times. But we make a difference as a charity locally and we want to continue doing that. In the corner of stoke on trents biggest Shopping Centre is urban Youth Charity ruff ruby. Its all about giving young people purpose, opportunity, hope. Dawnie reynolds set it up to ten years ago from nothing. As a smaller charity, there are constant challenges. How are we going to fund this, how are we going to deliver that piece of work to that young person if we cant fund a salary for a member of staff . Im a big believer that you dont look at what you havent got, you dont look at that negative side, what you do is, you say, what have we got and with what weve got, how can we make a difference . Regardless of where the money comes from, Charities Say they have to keep going for families. We do need a lot more help, and without them, my children wouldnt be who they are. Love you to the moon and back. Stoke on trent is known as the potteries, with products made in the city still shipped around the world. But in recent years, the industry has changed. Some of the big names have gone, and this bottle oven is one of just 46 left standing, when they used to be more than 2000. But that hasnt stopped craftsmen and women from the city still continuing to use their skills, as this group from burslem showed us. Ive been on it, i would say, about six weeks. Ive got no artistic skills whatsoever. I was known as the washer offer. It means its good, but wash it off. I used to meet up with linda for coffee and i said, why dont we do something where we are doing something creative . So we came along, and i had never done any art at all. I thought, im in the wrong place here, but tony said, no, i can teach you. And its marvellous, he has. I love teaching and im very proud of all the girls. Its good to be able to come and do the same job at an easier pace. Its very relaxing. Whats inspired me tojoin it is keeping the skill alive, because that, i think, is so important to this city. Its history. It is done now, but only for prestige pieces, so i think its nice to do it. Colours, theyre called colours, actually. If you dont look after them, they can soon go damp. Once they re damp, you cant really work them, so you have to keep them dry, look after them, keep them warm. Like a little pet. Its notjust pots that made stoke on trent the city it is today, coal mining was big too. Tributes to that industry are spread across the six towns. Not far from here is chatterley whitfield colliery, which was once the largest open cast mine in europe and the first to extract a Million Tonnes of coal. The colliery is now crumbling, but a group of ex miners are hoping to return parts of it to its former glory. Ive been to meet them. These rusted and decaying ruins nestled on a north staffordshire hillside are a reminder of our industrial past. Chatterley whitfield colliery was the powerhouse of the potteries a record breaking pit. For over 100 years, thousands of men and boys spent their working lives underground in cramped and filthy conditions. And now some of those former pit men want to save chatterley whitfield and preserve this relic of stokes mining past. Its money thats needed now to preserve this heritage so future generations can appreciate what these miners went through. Before mechanisation came along, it would have been the pick and shovel, and some of the seams were that narrow that they wouldve been on their side with the pick, probably seven and a half hours a day. They went down at six oclock in the morning, they would have spent all the time underground. The worst part of it actually is going down in the cage, really, because everything is just totally black. The cages travelled at 33 feet a second, and you saw the men there one second and then, where have they gone . Yeah, it was frightening at first, but you got used to it. The air that you were breathing may have been breathed by 200 men by the time it got to you, because the air only went one way, it went down one shaft and up another shaft along the coal face. So if somebody opened an orange at the bottom of the coal face, you would smell it at the top of the coal face and be really jealous. It was dirty work. They would finish their shift black as the coal they dug. When you are working, if it was red hot you would just have a little pair of shorts on. So, obviously, all your body was absolutely black. And it was as dangerous as it was dirty. The sad part about it was when your mate had an accident and were killed or severely injured. But its life down the pit. But despite the sacrifices made by generations of miners, cheap oil in the 1950s made coal less economic. Collieries began to close and in 1977, chatterley whitfield shut its doors. It was a big loss when this closed. A lot stayed in mining but they moved to different areas. They never got the attachment as they had when they were at chatterley whitfield. It wasnt just the people that worked at the colliery, it was the people that supplied the colliery, the wagon drivers, the train drivers, it fanned out all over the place. Though that way of life is long gone, these ruins still stand as a stark reminder of a once great industry, but time is running out to preserve this site and the people that know it best want to save it before its too late starting with the most salvageable parts, like the hesketh power house that brought coal from seam to surface. Theres a lot of people here could do lots of repair work and get the thing back. Youve got the old steam winder still there, and if they could actually get access into that building, we could actually bring it back to life. Id like to see it carry on and id like to see hesketh open to visitors. The powerhouse open so people can have a look inside, the winding engine and what everything was like in days gone by. Their dream of securing a future for this giant of britains industrial past will be the toughest of tasks, taking money, passion and the same hard graft they showed as working miners. Thank you. If pits and pots are stoke on trents heritage, what is the city offering people now . This is Staffordshire University i came here. It offers a whole range of courses, and weve been sampling the highs and lows of student life. Student life has its ups and downs, especially with degree courses like this one. 0n staffordshires theme Park Management course, students split their time between lectures on campus and alton towers theme park. The Theme Park Industry worldwide is massive, so much so that alton towers is actually a closely guarded secret just how many they get through the gates each year. What we do know is its well in the millions. Do you get people being sceptical, perhaps . Inevitably, youre going to get that from the study of Visitor Attractions and resorts, but they are such a key part of the leisure industry that we need people on resorts, in attractions, who understand how they work and how to operate. From real thrill to the virtual world, esports, basically competitive gaming, is the newest course at the university. It prepares students for work in the Worlds Largest and Fastest Growing entertainment sector. The esports industry, the gaming industry, music and film combined. We are consistently talking to industry, and notjust chit chat, we are looking at the next growth, the next strategy thats being built in terms of esports. The course is hugely popular, with more than 100 undergraduate a year. Were going into casting, into analysing, broadcast. For me, im going into the journalism side of it. Its nothing to do with games, playing them, its more learning how to bring them to an audience in a way that they will enjoy and have fun watching. 0ne course here might actually welcome being called a mickey mouse degree. The first lecture of cartoon and comic art is a get together at the pub, and shows how students can gain much more than practical skills. I was diagnosed with tourettes, and comics has improved my life in every conceivable way. Its helped people identify who they are. I want to make work that people can relate to and stuff. It seems like something so fun, i had never heard of it and i was like, wow, it actually exists . Its a lot broader and more in depth than a lot of people imagine and understand. When you open up the ikea set, there is a list of instructions there. When you build your lego, theres always a list of instructions there. A map is a comic book to a certain extent. Three very different degrees, but all with one thing in common. They are rooted in growing industries. So for these students, the sky should be the limit. Youre watching we are stoke on trent. As part of the bbcs work in the city, we have been asking people about the stories that matter to them. This is our pop up tent where people can come in and tell us what they think we should be reporting. And its not just Bbc Television here. We are on radio, online and social media too. So lets take a look at some of the stoke on trent stories you can see on the bbc website. Violent, the criminal damage, theft. I got into a drug, and around stoke is known being the death of people, that was monkey dust. I come down here in a foul mood, i would work with clay and then i would feel a lot better. I cook for the community. I think it is therapeutic. With tuition fees, accommodation and living costs, students in stoke need to find an average of about £17,500 a year before they can even start lectures. That may be why staffordshire is one of only a handful of campuses with a food bank on site. Some of them come with not even a pound to buy a drink, so to then expect them to pay for bus fare to go into hanley and then perhaps have money for something to drink or for food, its not going to work. Ten years ago, reverend Malcolm Mycock knew what it was like to lose everything. I had to get to rock bottom. I literally hit that bottom where everything had gone, it was all too late and i was just so sad, so depressed. The group adds a lot to our lives. To see it come alive, eyes light up. It does lift my spirits, because youre in a group where youre safe. If anybody comes here and sees everything for what it is, they see how friendly everybody is. Stoke has got this drug problem, stoke isnt doing well here, shops are closing down, blah blah blah. The people in stoke are actually counteracting all of that. Pokemon go in stoke on trent has brought the whole community together. I can walk down the street now and say hello to anybody. We walk around, we socialise, we share problems. And you can see more on those stories on the bbc website. Weve had loads of people coming to us with their stories, but while weve been here, theres been a Huge National story as well, with brexit and the future of the government at the top of the news agenda. Its given People Living in the city a chance to have their say. By tonight, most customers here will have swapped coffee for a pint, but the conversation will still be about brexit. It doesnt matter where you go, people talk about brexit. There are lots of people with lots and lots of views. What is incredible, we dont end up with the kind of anger we saw in the house of commons yesterday in our pubs. People seem to have an ability to get on and accept that people have differing views, and just want to get through the process now. Keith brews his own beers for his 12 bars. 90 of his ingredients are uk sourced, so does he agree with michael gove that business is ready for a no deal . Were as ready as we can be, but without the crystal ball telling us whats going to happen post brexit, how can we say we are ready . We dont know what will happen, so we cant be ready for every eventuality. Its impossible to know what flavour of brexit will eventually flow out of the tank, but stoke has dealt with the loss of its pits and the erosion of its pots. For many local businesses, weathering this seems doable. Julies family have run a roofing business for 26 years. Theyre cautiously optimistic. We dont think it will have too much of an effect on us. The only problem, weve had to think about the timber we import from the eu. Weve spoken to local suppliers and theyve mentioned they are starting to stockpile now in case theres a shortage, but again, we dont know the date we are leaving, we dont know if there will be a shortage and we dont know if there will a price increase, so we are in the dark. This is sort of one of our animation studios, probably the biggest. The only roofs that dan builds are virtual. Working on a variety of different exciting projects. You may have seen their animations on any number of tv shows and they are currently working on a feature film. Stoke has worked as home, largely due to talent from the university, but they worry that brexit may change that. I think as a company we are small enough that we can ride the wave. Am i worried for the larger industry of film and visual effects in the uk . Yeah. It really hasnt been handled well and i think there are things that could go badly wrong. All three businesses are doing what they can, if anything, to get ready. For what, they still dont know. It will come down to stoke on trents own resilience rather than any plans coming from westminster. So, this is not the end of your involvement. We are going to continue telling your stories across bbc news. We still want to hear from you. Visit our website. You can follow us on social media as well, just use the bbcwearestokeontrent. We are going to leave you now with a story that we all love, a womens choir thats transforming lives. Goodbye. Its the only place that i have ever been able to go and feel as normal as everybody else. For two hours a week i wasnt a cancer patient. Just being able to come and sing and leave how i felt behind helped me to recover. Your true colours shining through. It can take me sometimes 30, 45 minutes to leave the house. Ive got 0cd, which involves a lot of rituals. I will say certain things to photographs, items, objects. Youre beautiful, likea rainbow. I was practically physically sick at the thought of letting anybody over the doorstep. When i walk out of my house and i get to choir, ifeel like im on stars in their eyes and i started trying to do something about my hoarding. I want to find myself a new husband. Can i bring one in . i see your true colours. Thats why i love you. So dont be afraid. To let them go. I retired nine years ago and immediately i was diagnosed with cancer of the oesophagus. I saw a flyer for the choir. I like a challenge and thought why not, i love music. The big thing was, you didnt need to have an audition. My singing is so bad, my husband said, dont sing at ourwedding it gave me a focus. But the most important thing is the fact that no one knew me. I was completely anonymous, no one knew i had Health Problems and so no one asked me how i felt and was the treatment 0k, and how was i feeling . That meant a lot to me, i could be me without being someone who was ill. You just want to come and sing, its just a happy place to be. So dont be afraid. To let them show. I did try and take my life as a result of all the abuse and how it made me feel. Someone said to me, look, dont come to choir any more, if you dont want to. I said, i have got to come to choir. Its like i was hanging on by my fingernails to a little bit of me. While were at choir, we have a jolly good sing. Im concentrating on that. Its like youre free. Music has such a powerful and giving thing to people. Thats fantastic for me to think that its helping. 0oooh. Good morning. Many Western Areas started the day fine and dry with plenty of sunshine. This is blue skies across hampshire. Lots of sunshine in South West England into wales and parts of the midlands and northern ireland. Very different further north. Very heavy rain overnight. Localised flooding this morning. The heaviest of the rain will become confined towards lincolnshire and east anglia. The far south east of england through the afternoon. More heavy rain could lead to further minor flooding and atrocious conditions on the road. The culprit is this weather front, which has been pretty stationary across the eastern side of the uk. Gradually fizzling out now across parts of scotland, though the rain is turning light. We will start to see some holes appearing on that as we head into the afternoon. A fine day for northern ireland. A few heavy showers which will develop towards the south east, bright colours there. Rain in lincolnshire and east anglia which could cause some issues for the next few hours. Quite windy as well up and down the east coast. The winds will pick up through the afternoon across central and southern england, and through wells. Given the sunshine we will make 16 to 17 degrees in the south, low to mid teens further north. The showers and the rain peter out this evening. Mist and fog patches developing. Very brief, this drier lull, because the next frontal system brings a spell of wet and very windy weather. Severe gales developing across the north west of scotland. 60 to 70 mph. Tightly packed isobars. It is going to be very windy to start the day. In the north and the west of the country. Dry on monday at the start in the east. Early brightness. The breezy and wet weather will spread slowly eastwards. Something brighter for scotland, northern ireland. Blustery showers. Very windy here. Windier or further south. Temperatures a few degrees down on the weekend. It remains very unsettled for the rest of the week. 0ften windy as well. Winds from the west. Temperatures around seasonal average. Some of the rain will be heavy but there will be sunshine and showers in between. This is bbc news. The headlines at 11am. Writing in two sunday newspapers, borisjohnson urges the eu to show that its willing to compromise with the uk on a brexit deal the brexit secretary says the onus is now on the eu. We set out very serious proposals, including compromise on our side and we now need to seek flexibility on the eu side in order to reach that deal. This is the live scene hong kong as police have fired tear gas at demonstrators as they continue to defy an emergency law by wearing face masks during a protest against Police Violence pope francis denounces the fires that recently devastated