Hattersley and Mottram Community Media

The Hattersley & Mottram Community News was first published in January 2001. It’s a community newspaper publication produced for its readers by its readers. The initiative was established in response to lobbying of local residents, who worked within the then local regeneration organisation, Hattersley Development Trust, and Ellie Shenton, who was a resident member of the Trust board of directors.

It was always intended that the Community News would be a community led initiative, which was confirmed when Muriel Stretton, a resident employee of HDT, was chosen to establish and develop the paper. In that first year, the Community News, a tabloid style newspaper, came out every other month.

The publication was such a huge success, that after employing another local person, Gill Monks, the newspaper went out monthly in the second year. Gill was a committed volunteer throughout the first 12 months of the newspaper, which put her in the best place when the vacancy was advertised.

Over the last seven years, more than 70 issues of the Community News have been published and more than 200 local people of all ages have been involved in producing it.