Written while conducting work experience at The Observer newspaper, London.

1. EndofanerAAS
developersclaim
thelastPffieries
oatcake shop
Council proposals to demolish a traditional
business ignite debate about regeneration
byJamle Doward
and Domlnlc Slmpson
It has been serving up an authentic taste
of Britain's industrial past for almost a
century but the world's last traditional
oatcake shop in Hanley, Stoke-on-Tren!
a family-run business that operated out
ofthe front room ofa terraced house, is
to close.
Oatcakes - pancake-like wraps
made from oatmeal - have been served
through the frontwindow ofthe end-of-
terrace house since the l92os, butowner
Glenn Fowler, who has run the Hole In
The Wall business for 3O years, has sold
the shop to Stoke-on-Trent council.
The council plans to demolish the
site under a regeneration scheme that
will erase much of the area's Victorian
character. "It's very sad. It's the last oat-
cake shop that serves out on to the pave-
ment. The people who come here are not
just customers, they're friends," Fowler,
61, said.
More than 5,000 people signed a peti-
tion to save the shop after news of its
potential demolition fi rst materialised
four years ago
"The council should hangtheir sorry
heads in shame," one person posted on
the shop's online guestbook.'Your oat-
cakes are head and shoulders above any
others in Staffordshire."
Another said: "Progress is a good
thing, it's such a pity that it is at the sake
of our heritage and tradition."
Fowler said: "They've just knocked
places down and there's no sign of any-
thing being put up. A customer passed
the comment: 'If Hitler had bombed
this area, he couldn't have made a big-
ger mess."'
The shop's closure at the end of this
month has triggerred questions about
how to best redevelop Britain's indus-
trial inner-city areas.
Tristram Hunt, the local Labour Mp
and historian, said he was concerned
that the regeneration ofthe area failed
to recognise its historic importance.
"There's no doubtwe've knocked down
too much of the cityt fabric," Hunt said.
"The threat is that we just end up with car
parks and Tesco. This is still one of the
great cities ofthe indusrial revolution.,'
Doug Wardle, of the City Centre
Partnership, a body that focuses on the
regeneration of Stoke-on-Trent, said he
Owner Glenn Fowler bakes oatcakes at
the Hole In The Wallshop ln a terraced
house. Photograph by Christopher
Thomond
was concerned that too many of its old
terraces were being knocked down.
'nVe feel that buildinp of that nature
- like the Hole In The Wall - should be
retained to give the area some character,"
Wardle said. "People travel miles to shop
at it - it's a thriving business. We want
more businesses like that, not less. The
regeneration of the city is going ahead
and I'm not opposed to it. But why do
away with all the historical links?"
Prince Charles has even raised con-
cerns about the demolition of terraced
houses opposite the MiddleportPottery
- which is nowbeingtransformed byhis
Prince's Regeneration Trust - to make i
way for gardens and parking spaces.
The council has said the properties
have been too neglected to save and
there are concerns that many are built
on old mine shafts and are blighted by
subsidence.
Councils like Stoke are struggling to
find the cash to regenerate inner cities
after the Pathfinder schemes estab-
lished under the previous government
to develop blighted areas were scrapped.
But others are hopeful that the transfor-
mation of some of the most neglected
parts of Stoke-on-Trent will become a
boon for the Staffordshire conurbation,
which comprises six towns, including
Hanley.
The development of the Emma
Bridgewater factory is cited as a major
success story, while several ceramics
fi rms specialising in supplying the hotel
trade are now takingon staff.
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