GUEST BLOGGER LIZ CLANCY: Addy and Obby move to the city

It is always nice to be able to introduce you all to a new guest blogger. Possibly the nicest thing about the CFZ bloggo is that it is a living, breathing community, and new people arrive on a regular basis. I can't tell you anything about Liz, apart from the fact that she bought some books from us at UnCon, briefly spoke to Richard, and had a charmingly old-fashioned habit of referring to me as `Mr Downes`, when everyone else calls me `Jon` or `Hey You` (or sometimes something more scatological), until I told her not to. She is obviously one to watch....

As I set out at eight o’clock from Ashton News to do my paper round (yes at twenty-four the credit crunch has brought me very low!) a very serious fact finally dawned on me: slowly but surely, the town where I live is losing its identity. It began in on 1st April 1974 when Heywood Town Council was dissolved after almost one hundred years of independence, and nearby Rochdale took over – incidentally the date chosen was rather apt since many Heywood residents still feel that Rochdale has rather treated us as a joke ever since.

The most recent thing was the much disputed move of the Heywood Advertiser, our beloved local paper, to offices in the Rochdale Observer building. The move was designed by MEN media (Guardian Group), the owners of both newspapers, to save money. Redundancies were also announced. However it does get worse. In the last couple of weeks it was announced that, actually, further cuts are apparently required and the Rochdale offices (which now home three supposedly local newspapers) will be closed and moved to Manchester, with a further 150 job losses. The same is happening all over the Northwest.

Has the world gone mad?! Manchester is not exactly the moon but our news will no longer be local. Such small newspapers as these are treasure troves for cryptozoologists with the wealth of clippings that can be taken but will swanky city journalists give a toss if an eider duck is found a good 40 miles from the coastline in a little town like ours or if a resident claims to have seen a panther in the park late at night? I think not. The local quirks of such towns and villages are being eroded by metropolitanisation, the reason is money and such stories will be cast by the wayside in favour of yet more photos of simpering local politicians decorating articles about what wonders they are doing for the town. Even today many young people in Heywood and Rochdale haven’t a clue about their town’s history or heritage. How much worse will this get if everything local is moved away?