Gorton South UK Online Centre ready to open. We're happy to announce that the Gorton South UK Online Centre will be operational within the next week, although there is still some work to be done on the outside of the building. This is situated at 28a Sutton Road Gorton. Feel free to pop in or telephone Robin King on 223 9262 for details of forthcoming activities.

Gorton Festival Committee. This has sprung from United Gorton in the City, the first meeting of which took place on Tuesday 28th January 2003. This meeting was well attended by representatives of all sections of the community. The purpose of this new Forum/Monastery initiative is to bring together people from Gorton in order to try to re-create some of the community spirit of old by bringing back some of the local traditions which have lapsed over the last few years. From this meeting a second meeting was arranged to form a steering group. Further details can be obtained from Audrey Bradshaw on 0161 220 7141.

The new edition of Gorton News is now at the printers. It will be available week commencing 17th February. We are on the ball today though as we have a special preview copy which you can view here in Adobe Acrobat (pdf) format.

Gorton North UK Online. This centre is now well established on the first floor of the Community Centre on the corner of Highmead Street and Abbey Hey Lane. We are in the process of installing a wheelchair lift to make the centre more accessible. The work will be finished in a week or so and there will be a new programme of courses and activities published in the next few days. For details please telephone Sadek Hamid on 0161 231 7870.

On an unrelated note, every so often, we get an e-mail from somebody who has tried to post on the bulletin board but can't. We're not sure why this happens exactly, but if it happens to you, please e-mail and tell us, so we can sort out the message board software and hopefully stop it happening.
Actually the message board is becoming more and more popular as people post and reply, so if you haven't already done so, go and have a look, there are some interesting threads starting. We do, of course, reserve the right to remove any posts which are offensive, and monitor it regularly.

On a related note, we have recently become involved in a new project to build an information portal, a website which will collect together as many links as possible to local interests, events, web content and, hopefully, streamed media, as well as links to e-government and so forth. The content of this portal (probably to be found at www.gorton.info although it is not active yet) will be mainly up to members of the community in Gorton, so we'd like to hear what you think. We are also looking for people who want to become involved in creating this form a content perspective, so if you are a dab hand at HTML or want to learn how to create a web page, then give us a call, call into the UK Online Centre on Highmead Street or e-mail the portal team (the e-mail address is active).

And Talking of UK Online Centres, We have just ordered a wheelchair lift for Gorton North, to make it even more accessible. This should be operational by the end of March. And of course, Gorton South is almost ready.. we expect to be welcoming our first visitors sometime next week, although the work will not be totally complete until the end of February when we will be having a grand opening. This centre will be fully accessible and will have creche facilities for those who need them. The Gorton South Centre is situated on Sutton Road and will have all the usual facilities, including free internet access, help and advice, and an array of courses available for those who want to learn more. Again, if you would like further information, give us a call on 0161 231 7870 or e-mail the Gorton South Team

Well, that was a bit longer than we thought... :)but that's all for now, keep watching....

Wednesday 4th December 2002

Okay! this site has been sadly neglected of late, and to those of you who have e-mailed us or complained by more conventional means, here is a quick update and an assurance that we will be doing better in future... alright Mike? :)
A quick update ....
The Games came and went, we can still see the legacy in banners and the like dotted around the East Manchester area, the snazzy signs for the Tameside border and of course the Stadium. It is safe, however, to say that there is more than that, that the area has received a valuable boost and that those responsible are to be congratulated (well at least until the bill comes in anyway ;-).

There are still a few niggles within the community in Gorton, which still sees many people harbouring feelings of being overlooked in the proceedings, and the closure of the Tub still rankles among many as does what is seen as the complete lack of action vis a vis the district centre. That the new pool on Oxford Road has been enjoyed by many of the people we have spoken to is good news, but it is still too far away and difficult to access for too many people in Gorton.

The funny thing is though, that there is now a lot happening in Gorton and by the looks of it, a lot more to come.
So what is happening? Well, Surestart is happening, the Gorton and Abbey Hey Project is still extant, the On the Streets project has had a successful 6 months, the Heritage Trail is attracting funding and putting it to good use within the environment, the Gorton Finance Initiative is now getting underway, bringing the savings gateway pilot to Gorton and further initiatives based around financial literacy. The Forum is involved in it's usual wide spectrum of activities (Including most of the above), the Newsletter is still going from strength to strength (the latest version will appear on this site very soon now - watch this space), we are forging closer relationships with organisations in East Manchester and elsewhere. The Monastery restoration is still on course having gained the Lottery Grant they needed, it will be a grand sight when it's finished.

The Gorton North UK Online centre has now been open for five months and is going from strength to strength. It was officially opened by the Rt. Hon. Gerald Kaufman MP at the end of September. So far users of the centre have enjoyed free, fast internet access, the use of the state of the art equipment, the provision of courses in various subjects, including Photoshop, Desktop Publishing, Office Applications (CLAIT), The Internet and e-mail. And better still, the Gorton South Centre will open for business in January (work nears completion at the time of writing), providing the same facilities south of Hyde Road.

What makes the above really worthwhile is that much of it comes from the tireless work of local people who want to make the place better. It does go to show what can be achieved when we work together. We are always happy to include details of projects both in the printed newsletter and on this site, so if you know of anything good happening in Gorton, let us know
We are, of course, not afraid to discuss more contentious issues, so if you want to make a point, feel free to do so, the usual rules apply.

Rumour Mill.
We have to put a few things right here, first of all there is no truth whatever in the rumour that a number of contestants who went missing from the games haven't actually absconded, they are just still stuck in traffic on Hyde Road. And likewise, the rumour that the Butterfly Garden has seen the evolution of a new species of butterfly is equally unfounded. It seems that the Gorton Blue butterfly is just a Cabbage White with a bad case of Bronchitis brought on by the traffic fumes... :)
Well, more later.....

Friday 19th July 2002

Isn't East Manchester looking pretty? All those nice coloured banners :)The games will be upon us very soon now and we'd like to wish all the best to the organisers competitors and spectators. If anybody visiting the area has a need to access theire-mail or can find any other use for our services, I'd just like to remind everybody that the Gorton North UK Online centre will be open* for the duration of the games and will be happy to extend our services to visitors. For further details contact the centre on 0161 223 1516 or e-mail Sadek,We're hoping to have the webcam and netmeeting set up for anybody who fancies doing a videoface to face with far off relatives too.

(Please note that these facilities are in place and available for all members of the community who wish to use them at little or no cost, subject to posted rules and regulations and availability. Time can be booked in advance and there are a number of training courses coming up in the next few weeks. The Gorton North UK Online Centre is situated in Gorton Community Centre on the corner of Highmead Street and Abbey Hey Lane. Gorton)

I have been told that Gorton Monastery has a new website. It can be found HereThe chap who did the site is also involved in the Gorton Local History Group and has asked me to include a link to that as well ,which we are more than happy to do. Those who know Gorton already know that the area has a lot of history and thelocal history group are in a way the custodians of this, so go take a look!

Finally, for now, Brian tells me that the Newsletter has had a fantastic response from readers. Thanks to all who have written. phoned or e-mailed,we thrive on your input. (and don't forget you can post on the message board on this site too).

Talking of the message board, we have had a couple of e-mails from would be posters who have had their posts bounced by the software. We apologise for this, and are looking into it. If you have any problems with the message board, please e-mail us including a full copy of the post you were trying to make.

*assuming we can get to the centre through the traffic of course ;-)

Wednesday 3rd July 2002

At last an update!We have a new Newsletter coming out next week. As usual you can see it here first, just follow the offline news link. This is probably the best one in ages, and remember it's all done by volunteers. I am assured that there is better to come too... look forward to that.

And now the sad news...

Those of you who live in the area will be aware that Dorothy Mitton passed away the weekend before last (an obituary appears on the front page of the newsletter).
For those who didn't know her, Dorothy was a remarkable woman, formidable even though increasingly incapacitated by illness. Chair of the Forum from its inception until she could no longer carry on, she fought hard and vociferously for the issues which mattered to the community.
Even after stepping down, she stayed involved and was always to be relied on to provide her particular brand of insight into proceedings.
She was far sighted, progressive and never to be underestimated, which she often was by those who couldn't see past the cigarette smoke..:)
She was almost always outspoken, and could be incredibly stubborn when she was sure she was in the right, but she could be equally gracious when proven wrong. She was a good ally in any campaign and she will be sorely missed ..
She is survived by her husband Jim, to whom we extend our sincere condolences.

On a better note, the Gorton North UK Online Centre is now open for business, 9.30am - 4.30pm Mon - Fri.
Situated in Gorton Community Centre, on Highmead Street/Abbey Hey Lane, we have a state of the art facility waiting for you....
Drop in access is available now, and we are also signing people up for a variety of activities including courses at varying levels. Internet access is coming soon, and will be available to centre users at no cost.
If you are interested, call the centre on 0161 223 1516 or just call in when we're open.. our staff will be more than happy to help. We will post the programme of courses once it is finalised, so watch this space....

Please note that at this time we regret that we cannot extend the facility to people under the age of sixteen years unless by special arrangement.

For those parents who would like to attend but have small children, there are plans for limited provision for childcare, please contact the centre for more information

At last, the survey is now live, so click the UK Online button above and let us know what you think..... And a quick update on what's happening generally..
The Gorton North UK Online centre is well on the way to completion. We've had a fantastic response to the job advert and will be shortlisting this week. The way things are going, we may well be open for business much sooner than we thought. We're really pleased with the way things are coming together and look forward to getting down to business.

The Newsletter has also had some brilliant feedback. This is one of the best editions we've done and is almost entirely down to the hard work put in by the new Editor, Brian and his excellent contributors. A big pat on the back to you all..

Friday 4th April 2002

GORTON NEWS IS BACK AND BETTER THAN EVER!

It's sad, but over the last year or so, this site has been somewhat neglected. This is partly due to the fact that the Gortonnews editor and Forum Co-ordinator left to explore other avenues and partly due to the fact that there has been an enormous amount of work going on behind the scenes which has taken up all the time of the fantastic band of volunteers behind the Forum.

Hopefully, this is now sorted, we have a new Editor for Gorton News, both on and off line, and there is a brand new issue of the printed newsletter going to press. To all those who received the last issue, we have to apologise, it was beset with technical problems and rather below par. We would like to thank all our contributors and advertisers who have stuck with us for this new issue, we know you won't be disappointed, were back to the mix of information, articles and comment that you all enjoy. Expect to see it distributed from Wednesday next, but for those who can't wait, we should have it posted in the offline news section by the end of tomorrow. As ever, feedback is much appreciated, keep the e-mails and letters flowing..

So what, then, is the news in Gorton?
Well, those of you who have been following the story will know that despite the heroic efforts of the campaign to save it, the Tub was closed by the City Council. This is a very strange and unpopular decision which might well have reinforced the negative impressions of the City Council that many members of the community in Gorton have traditionally (and in most cases unjustifiedly) held. It seems, though, that some members of the community have not given up the fight, passing the Tub yesterday, it seems that somebody had been expressing their views graphically on the front of the building. If anybody has a photo of the new décor, please send it in and we'll post it here …
The campaign to save the Tub has had a beneficial effect in that it brought a lot of diverse members of the community together and working toward a common goal. This has been a trend in the area which is growing, and it should be said that although the battle to keep the Tub open was lost, the campaigners certainly won the moral battle, so don't despair there are a lot more battles to fight.

The big news this summer is, of course the Games. Although the majority of the interest is focused on East Manchester and the new Stadium, it is noticeable that there are some cosmetic enhancements under way in Gorton, notably along Hyde Road from Reddish Bridge, presumably so that the large number of people who, of course, won't be travelling along Hyde Road and as a result won't be stuck in the resultant traffic jams, won't have to look at the crumbling buildings which aren't there. Which brings one to wonder why Tameside council have gone to so much effort to erect a 'gateway' on the eastbound carriageway and plant lots of nice flowers in the central reservation on their side of the boundary. Bit of a waste of time really, if there is going to be no significant increase in traffic as a result of the Games. Hmmm…
Nevertheless, the Games have already had a massive impact on East Manchester and much of it is for the good, and whatever the result, when all the medals are won and the visitors have gone home, the area will be richer for the experience (whether the City Council will be remains to be seen J). Remember, the eyes of the world will be on the area, so it's up to all of us to make the most of the opportunity, if the games are a success and the visitors and competitors have a good time, if the news coming out of Manchester is good, then people will want to come here, firms may want to invest here and opportunities for the people who live here may well multiply as fast as the cars on the A57, on the other hand
... well we all know about the other hand...

And talking of opportunities, it stands to reason that people will want to be able to take advantage of them, and what better way than to be able to pop into your local UK Online Centre and top up on the old skills?
Ah, but we don't have places like that in Gorton do we? Well we do now, or at least we will have soon. Yes, it's happening this summer, in Gorton and all over the rest of East Manchester, UK Online centres will be opening with facilities for people to access the Internet, have access to PCs and other IT equipment and to a range of courses in a range of subjects from the basic to the more complex accredited courses, free of charge or for a nominal fee for those who qualify. In Gorton there will eventually be two centres, one in Gorton North, one in Gorton South which will be open for courses and drop-in access, initially 9am – 5pm Monday to Friday. In addition, PJ's Youth Projects will have access between 5pm and 9pm. The centres will cater for adult learners, although we are looking into the provision of homework clubs as a future enterprise. Is this good news or what?
And furthermore, we hope to be able to offer at least five jobs within the Gorton Centres, the first two of which are recruiting now.
We welcome applications from all sections of the community, of course, but particularly applicants from Gorton or the surrounding areas.
So go ahead, check out the advert here and apply…. And if you want any further info, e-mail us at jobs@gortonforum.org.uk

If you get really bored and want to know what we've been up to over the past year or so, you can access the Archive pages from hereThe Complete Forum Diaries

If you have any comments, criticisms articles to submit or ideas for the site or the printed Newsletter let us know