Community News

Robbie Coltrane, who died at the age of 72, became an international star as the giant Hagrid in the Harry Potter films. But his reputation in the UK had already been sealed, notably as the chain-smoking forensic psychologist Fitz in Cracker - one of a number of compelling and larger-than-life characters he made his own.

He cut his teeth in stand-up comedy before branching out into films and television, comfortably fitting into both funny and dramatic roles.

On a fact-finding tour of the UK the President of Jamaica’s People’s National Party (PNP), Mark Golding, took time out to visit BME social housing provider Nehemiah Housing Association’s Plummer House Retirement scheme in Aston, Birmingham.

Since their arrival in the UK in early October, the delegation of five have so far visited London and Birmingham and met with Jamaicans from all walks of life in celebration of Jamaica’s Diamond Jubilee.

There were celebrations as Bilston’s new Memory Café opened its doors for the first time this week. The support group, for people living with dementia and their families, friends or carers, will meet on the second Tuesday of every month at Bilston Sports and Social Club, Wellington Road, Bilston, between noon and 2pm, with the next session due to take place on 8 November.

Councillor Majid Mahmood, Cabinet Member for Environment at Birmingham City Council, writes about the free-of-charge service that gives people a chance to dispose of bulky and unwanted items…

As part of the effort to tackle the scourge of fly-tipping which harms communities and neighbourhoods across the city, we launched our award-winning Mobile Household Recycling Centre (MHRC) service in the summer of 2021.

Rooting the work in her home region and hosting city, Bennett pays homage to the pioneering Blk Art Group and its legacy and influence on the art scene and her practice more personally.

Bennett's multifaceted work will comprise of local gatherings, photographic public billboards and a short film displayed on digital live sites across Wolverhampton, Coventry and Birmingham. 

Barratt and David Wilson Homes has made a £1,000 donation to Recycling Ollerton and Boughton, a charity that supports adults with learning disabilities. Based in Boughton, Newark, the charity received the donation as part of the developer’s Community Fund scheme which sees a different charity each month receive a £1,000 donation.

A team of fraud prevention specialists have helped identify a potential financial gap worth an estimated £160 million after carrying out a three-year project to improve NHS procurement processes across England and Wales. 

The dedicated team from NHS Counter Fraud Authority’s (NHSCFA) fraud prevention unit carried out the extensive three-year exercise in more than 200 NHS trusts across the country to help identify fraud risks in procurement processes and evaluate spending behaviour. 

Cadbury World is offering key stage 2 pupils the unique opportunity to bring the topic of creative language to life with the launch of a brand-new workshop. Linked to the current KS2 curriculum, the Bournville-based attraction’s new Creative Language workshop offers pupils the chance to develop their knowledge by exploring different forms of persuasive writing.

To celebrate National Poetry Day, UK Construction Week has released a specially commissioned poem entitled ‘Bricks and More Than’ by Birmingham poet and storyteller, Casey Bailey.

From building his first telescope from a kit in 1949, when he was 10 and living in rural Ohio, in the USA, George Robert Carruthers made history after designing the ultraviolet camera/spectrograph, which was used on the Apollo 16 mission to produce images of the geocorona, Earth’s outermost atmosphere, as well as stars, nebulae and galaxies.

“In March 1610, Galileo Galilei reported the first use of a telescope to view mountains and maria on the moon,” Dr. Carruthers and Thornton Page, his collaborator on the project, wrote in a NASA report in late 1972.

When thinking of the violin and classical music, it may come as a surprise to learn that at one point the greatest classical soloist of that instrument was a Black man who lived for most of his adult life in Peckham, South London.  

George Bridgetower was a virtuoso violinist born in Biala Polaska, Poland, on 11th October 1778, to a musical family. His mother and father were from Germany and Barbados, respectively, and met while working in Poland for the Hungarian Prince Esterházy.

This year’s Yo! Summer activity programme was bigger and better than ever before, with thousands of children and young people taking part in a wide range of fun days, sporting activities and holiday clubs across Wolverhampton. Held throughout the summer holidays, over 32,000 children, young people and their families enjoyed a wide range of activities, up from 12,000 the year before.

A statue of a pioneering Black footballer has been unveiled.

The 12ft (3.7m) statue of Jack Leslie has been placed outside the ground of Plymouth Argyle, the club he scored 137 times for in the 1920s and 1930s. In 1925 he was the first Black player to be picked for the England squad, but his family said that he was later denied his place due to the colour of his skin.

National recognition has been earned for the city council’s Mobile Household Recycling Centre (MHRC) service – in the form of a prestigious Local Authority Recycling Advisory Committee (LARAC) Award.

At the organisation’s 2022 awards ceremony, staged on Wednesday (October 5), the MHRC initiative, which launched in the summer of 2021, earned top honours in the Best New Idea category.

The Woodland Trust has delivered a major boost for communities across the region by providing nearly £300,000 to ramp up tree planting and help the West Midland Combined Authority (WMCA) tackle climate change.

The funding will be used by the WMCA to establish the West Midlands Forest Partnership which will help partners reach their tree planting targets by identifying ways to coordinate different projects and programmes and complete the largest I-Tree Eco study in the UK.

Iain Holloway and his family made the surprise discovery when they were unpacking their food shopping after a delivery at their home in Tamworth, Staffordshire. The tiny 1.5-inch (3.8cm) amphibian, who is now in the care of the RSPCA, was in good condition, despite being inside the bag of bananas which would have been wrapped up for some time.