Tom Burnett bids farewell

AND that’s it from me. I am sure many of you will be relieved to read this will be my last column in these pages.

I started this column around a year ago and I like to think we’ve covered some interesting topics - although in all honesty a lot of them have been about pubs, transport networks we’re not going to get and what could happen to some of our town’s many derelict sites.

What’s really amazing is that I’ve managed it without having to write a single column dedicated to a certain roundabout that will be a source of debate in this town until at least the middle of the century.

The reason for this is that I’m leaving my current newsroom and taking on a new role in

Buckinghamshire, which as you can imagine will impose some limitations on my ability to cover news in the Staffordshire Moorlands and elsewhere in our county.

Although I’m swapping Wallbridge for Wycombe, Birchall for Bletchley and Haregate for Haddenham, I am a lifelong Leek resident and I remain extremely optimistic about my hometown and our future. We’ve got a great community here and a lot to be positive about - even in a year when positivity hasn’t been something particularly easy to find.

There are a lot of great local businesses in our town. Anyone who has read this column before will know I have a particular fondness for Leek’s great pubs but there are also lots of brilliant local shops, cafes, restaurants and more to be enjoyed in the Queen of the Moorlands.

We’ve also got excellent markets - including Totally Locally’s superb Sunday Supplement.

We also, most years at least, have plenty of events organised at a grassroots level to get excited about. Music festivals, arts festivals and much more.

The Christmas lights switch-on usually brings thousands of people into the town centre and a lot of hard work goes into that.

There are other events too such as Walking Round Day which, while they’re really for kids, are part of growing up in this town for many people (even if my favourite bit as a child was always the food afterwards).

We’ve also got some beautiful old buildings and our town centre is generally an exceptionally pleasant place to walk around.

And speaking of walking, I’ve not even touched on our beautiful countryside. There are few parts of Leek where you can’t be out in the natural beauty of the Staffordshire Moorlands very quickly.

So, that’s goodbye. I can imagine I’ll be darkening the doors of a few of our town’s hostelries over the course of Christmas - restrictions permitting of course.

It may be a cliche, but wherever I go in this world, Leek will always be my hometown. I’ll see you soon.